Did you have a great weekend? I’ve heard a lot of talk about spring cleaning. A silly thing happened to me.
My internet hasn’t been working for the last 4 days. Last Friday morning, I tried to work with support before having to hang up and go to work. They have you go through all this stuff before they’ll even let you talk to a person. Then when you finally get hooked up to a tech, they make you do it all over again. After unplugging, and replugging and rebooting numerous times, it was time to get down and find out what the problem was. Except I was out of time.
It didn’t help that I had to keep asking the guy to repeat himself because I couldn’t understand him. He said he needed me to start checking my filters. I politely said, sorry, out of time – and ran out the door. But I kept thinking about what he had said. I knew I wouldn’t have time to deal with this again for days. I pondered…filters? What filters?
It finally hit me what it was. The other night when I was doing a little more spring purging, I decided to finally throw out the cordless phone downstairs that hasn’t worked right in a long time. We’re rarely ever down there anyway. You probably already know the problem, don’t you? I left an open connection. I had to run out and buy a cheap phone to plug in there. Its still not working right 🙁
And where is Spring anyway? Geez, it is still cold here. Saturday wasn’t awful, but it was still a little too cool to enjoy walking around. My daughter wanted me to go down to Columbia University (in Chicago) with her to the open house so she could look into the program she is interested in, and check out the dorms.
We live an hour away by car, and parking downtown is very expensive. If she takes the train, she’s adding even more time to the commute.
I think dorming would be good for her. And these dorm are a lot different from what it used to be. They’re like apartments. Complete with kitchens. And there’s the whole social thing, and hanging around with like minded people instead of the neighborhood kids who are content to drift through life.
The problem is, Mom can’t help her much, and her Dad won’t. It’s going to be up to her. The whole going into debt thing scares her to death. And I guess it should in this day and age. On the other hand, higher pay would make the investment pay for itself many times over. Living a life of mediocrity will cost her that much many times over.
The funny thing is, the people up here who tend to be more professional tell her to go for it. The people down by her dad who are content just to have a job, tell here that it’s crazy – a waste of money.
Who would you take advice from?
I know a lot of professional people who have been stagnating over the last couple of years. Relying on your old skills isn’t a smart idea either. You have to find a way to reinvent yourself.
I’ve had a heck of a time with it, but at least I’ve been building my skill set. I figure at some point, I have to reach the tipping point. The right time and the right opportunity will appear, and I will be ready for it.
The job market does seem to be opening up a bit. The wages will never be what they once were, but I think we’ve all learned to live within our means a little better – don’t you?
Are you going to be ready for new opportunities? What do you want to be when you grow up? Why not go for it?
It’s time to dust ourselves off as well as our houses. Get the cobwebs out of our heads and start looking forward.