<font color="blue">(((((((((((((((((Mary Alice))))))))))))))))))))</font>

Nothing like the "most wonderful time of the year" to get people down. I empathize with those dark feelings of the yawning pit beneath. There are not enough metaphors in our language to describe that horror.

Mary Alice, please give yourself some credit, some pats on the back, some hugs for the inner child, for accomplishing all that you have. I've been looking for employment since January -- and I haven't had a single job offer. Freelance and adjunct teaching work is starting to come to me, but not one single f/t job. <font color="red">And you've landed three jobs!!!!!</font>

Do you see how amazing &amp; incredible that is? And, in order to land those 3 jobs, you had to go thru all the bs of looking for work, which is enough to make the most heartfelt optimist become miserably depressed.

As one of my retired friends said recently, "Yup. Work sucks."

I doubt that it's your fault that you quickly burn out on these jobs. The US work environment has gotten worse and worse during the 30-odd years I've been employed. Employers have less and less respect and kindness for workers. It's all about efficiency and making the small business owner or the corporate investors and board of directors richer and richer. What is there to like about this?

Of course, they sell us on all the opportunities there will be -- and it's always great to feel as if we have a fresh start on a brand new life. Then the reality of the work environment sets in.

You are doing fine for where you are, Mary Alice. You are in there slugging, one step forward, and one more and one more, no matter how hard the going is.

I hope you will give yourself some credit for all of this.

Luv to you, babe -- Wants2