Day 1

Starting today I am my own boss. I've always been bossy, but starting today and I am boss free. I'm self-employed - really more like unemployed. But, we've already discussed that I consider "unemployed" a dirty word. Which is something my "analyst" and I are currently working on for just a few dollars an hour. Until we get to the bottom of that mystery, I'm looking for lots of cute euphemisms to avoid speaking the actual truth that I am unemployed.

I'm busy trying NOT to rush around like there's a timer set and life is on a rapidly approaching deadline. I'm busy allowing myself the freedom to read a book without feeling guilty. I'm busy trying to be gentle and not "should" all over myself. All these things, I'm learning, do not come easily and I do not do well.

My last day at work, since you didn't ask, really couldn't have gone better had I been given the freedom to write its script. The staff meeting which started the day was painless. We had an advanced training for our volunteers which didn't create stress for me, mainly because whether or not the ladies ingested the information, I won't have to clean up the messes they subsequently make. (Too Honest?) There was an out-of-this world pot luck and all the covered dishes one would dream about comprising a pot luck were happily in attendance. I got presents and sweet "see ya laters" from the staff and volunteers. And just as I was about to walk out to my car for the very last time, I ran into a very special former client. Her baby is the result of the first positive pregnancy test I ever did in the center. I wrote about the little guy here. Talk about bookends. It was a "coincidence" that was much too coincidental not to have been a gift from God. If God was in the habit of writing greeting cards to accompany the gifts He gives us, I imagine this one would have said, "'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master" (Matthew 25:21) And I left with a smile on my face. One can't ask for much more than that.

Now, here I sit. My first official day on my own pay roll. The weather man is warning there may be snow overnight continuing into the morning. My calendar is completely free for the 2nd. I think I may go ahead and call it for tomorrow and just give myself a snow day. See, I can do that now that I'm the boss.