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Amazing things are afoot. As life settles down around me, I have more time to think strategically (at the 6000 foot level){OK, this is so catchphrasy I had to throw it in!}

Now, what do I want to do when I grow up? You may be shocked and amazed at the list of previous and current positions that have financed everything from a speedy divorce to tickets to see Smash Mouth. Ready?

Can I take your order?
Taco Bell
Arbys
McDonalds

All 3 of these were in high school. I started at Taco Bell as the person who - I kid you not - sliced the olives. You do NOT want to know that their so called "meat" was made out of. Once, we ran out of the ground whatever-it-was and I ran to Fred Meyer to buy 20 pounds of high quality beef. We had a line out the door in minutes - it actually tasted like food!

Next came Arbys. It was actually a decent gig for a 17 year old - I had a rock star of a manager, Rick, that I adored. OK, major crush. He was a big teddy bear of a guy and the first male person in a position of control over me that made me feel like I was a decent human being. Joke of the job? "Gimme a hot beef injection!" We had to inject the roast beef as it slow cooked with beef juice to keep it from drying out. The comedy would continue when the horsey sauce would come into play. Use your imagination.

As a Senior, with only 1 real class and 5 fake ones (art glass, 2 choirs, drama and a teachers aid) I decided to forgo my last term of senior year and strike out into the world to see what it held. Um. Yeah. No. I had to work full time to support my family because dad hadn't worked since 4th grade and ends were not meeting. So, I took my last class in night school (and literally made my senior History teacher cry - he'd been waiting for 4 years to have me in his class!) and took a job as an assistant manager at a brand new McDonald's that was just opening, right on the bus line. It wasn't bad - I learned how to deal with difficult people, how to use french fry grease that was an inch thick on my shoes to skate through the bun warming area, how to make killer buttermilk biscuits. McDonald's buttermilk biscuits rock!

Aah, those were the easy days. Then I took a desk job. Yawn.

How can I direct your call?
Switchboard Operator at a gigantic lumber company. The spotted owl jokes were terrible. I went on my first non-high school boy date (and he still emails me - isn't that cute?) and got my ass grabbed on a regular basis by the "good old boys". People smoked at their desks, I had to walk frequently through the room, being stared at by 20+ 40 year old men and I was required to wear a skirt and heels. Aah, the 80s.

Printing company receptionist
Advertising agency receptionist
Advertising production manager
Advertising media assistant

The next few years are a bit of a blur - work in a small town as a veterinary technician, an entry level position at a bank to try to get into marketing, and then Sara was born followed 18 months later by Sean.

And I thought I'd bounced around a lot before then.

When Sean was one, I worked as a freelance graphic designer, print production manager, print broker, proofreader (that one was fun! I got to point out everyones mistakes!!) and that financed my kids early years in preschool and the unbelievable amount of money you have to spend on shoes. Really. In the thousands of dollars. Sometimes they'd outgrow the pair I just bought before we even got home! I worked for more than a dozen companies in a span of about 4 years. Freelancing got old when people started thinking that paying my bill was optional.

I did babysitting for a while (there's a reason I'm known as the pied piper in my family - kids flock to me) and a stint as a clerk at a local grocery store. Then, ready to get back to the regular grind, I started 3 jobs at one. Pier 1 (where I lost 25 pouns and gained unbelievable muscles in about 5 weeks time. I kid you not. It's the best workout you could imagine!), as the office manager for Mothers Against Drunk Driving in my county and as a Customer Service Rep for a printing company.

Those were the days - up at 2am, hike to the train, off to unload the truck at Pier 1, then to the print shop where I worked 7-4, followed by as many as 5-6 hours at MADD or at home working on a project for them. With 2 little kids and a household to run. Wow, where the hell was my cape?

I left Pier 1 once I'd lost all the weight I wanted (ok, the schedule just got to be too much and my Secret Santa gift had been lame) but I worked those other 2 jobs for over 2 more years. Another print shop, followed by a bank as a liaison between their advertising agency and their internal staff. I earned the snarky nickname of "playground monitor" and it stuck. I do tend to make people play well together.

The last position that was full time was at a software company as marketing manger. God, I hated that job. Was not sorry to see it go. I was lucky and found a part time gig that helps buy food, am still getting a wee bit of unemployment every week (it should be called underemployment) and I seem to be able to make ends meet for the most part.

But I'm itching to do something else. Something different. To finally look at work as not a way to put food on the table but as a thing to do that challenges me and satisfies my need to be around people, to do good things and to make stuff happen. All using correct grammar, of course.

So, as the kids and I leave later today for an adventure in the form of a road trip, I have a couple goals. I will have time to think about what I rally want to do when I grow up, I'll be able to talk to them about work and what it means to work, and I can be reminded that their favorite times in our lives were when I was busy and overloaded and constantly on the run - but happy.

Today starts the journey to find happy. I wonder what color it will be?