Good News / Bad? News / Bad News

The good news is, I'm almost a month into my new job and I love it!  Of course there is a learning curve, which is stressful and exhausting (I went to bed at 8:30 one night last week). But I feel happy at work (which makes me feel very, very lucky).

The bad? news...
The copy boy and I broke up again.  This time, I'm pretty sure it's for good.  I have no hard feelings towards him - we just want different things, and compromise is not an option.

He's an "all-or-nothing" kind of guy and I chose "nothing".

I'm not sure if this qualifies as bad news, though.

It might actually be considered good news... I'm looking forward to getting back to living the life I imagined - restoring my old house, reading good books, learning to cook and garden, and cook the stuff from my garden, knit, sew...

Basically, embrace my inner "little old lady".

The really bad news is...
My 84-year-old father is rapidly heading towards assisted living (best case) or a nursing home (worst case).

He fell again about a month ago, was admitted to the hospital then released into a rehab facility.  He was doing really well, and we were looking into assisted living options.  (He just can't be home alone anymore.)

Then, he started to regress.

He fell trying to get out of bed again and ended up back in the hospital, then back in the rehab facility.

While he was in the hospital last week he looked at me and said "getting old sucks".

He knows who he is, who we are, and who the president is.  He can rattle off his date of birth.  But, if you ask him what year it is, he always says 1951.

This would make him 21 years old.

(I would love to think I was 21 years old!)

I read this yesterday, posted by Dale Partridge, who publishes The Daily Positive. Here's an excerpt...
Culture tells us to spend an entire year saving for a week to escape our life. We call it vacation. Vacations are meant to be new, they are meant to be fun, but they are not meant to be better than your normal life. Life isn't about the 50 vacations you'll take while you're on this planet. It's about the 25,000 days between them. Stop creating a life that you need a vacation from.

If we're lucky enough to live to 84 (or beyond!), the day will come when we won't know what year it is.

Until then, go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Life the life you have imagined!

Live, Work, Play

Back in January, I accepted a position as the General Manager of an event center - planning weddings, corporate meetings, fundraisers, etc.

I did like certain aspects of the job...
Most brides were not even remotely bridezilla-y and with a mobile phone and an internet connection, I could work from anywhere, anytime.

But...
Because I didn't have a set schedule, I worked pretty much every day. This was my entirely my fault though - if the phone rang, I'd answer it.

The worst part, though, was I had very little help.  It's not easy in a town of 2,000 to find people interested in only working a few hours a week, especially when that work is physically demanding (moving tables and chairs) and requires a lot of very late nights.

So, I had to do a lot of it myself. As an example, one weekend I went in at 11am and left at 4:30 the following morning, came back in at 9am (yes, 4.5 hours later) and worked until 11pm. 32 hours in 2 days. This was not atypical.

So, when I received a call from the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce asking if I'd be interested in coming up to talk about a possible job opportunity I said "YES!".

I loved my previous job at the Chamber of Commerce in Bellevue, and I love Dubuque so this is perfect!

My primary responsibilities will be Marketing and Membership - helping promote our local businesses and make "Dubuque the best place to live, work, play and do business".