At the time I was in nursing school they were downsizing nursing jobs to lesser trained techs. As the nurses knew would happen, that was an incredibly dumb decision that led to laying off young nurses, overworking older nurses who quit/retired, and then a bad work environment that is hard to recruit into. I would have to start nursing school all over again, near the beginning. It is very, very intensive. My father, who is a retired doctor, said today's nursing school is comparable to medical school of 50 years ago. I could barely do it at age 40. At age 50, I just can't work that hard any more.

Music? I could be a street musician and have considered it. I am not good enough to be a pro, nor could I ever be as a one who learned as an adult. Learning music is like learning language. It must be done as a child or one will always struggle and never be fully fluent.

I have put in applications for many IT, office clerical, etc at several hospitals. I have put in to work in the local book chain, as well as the local pub chain, both who hire "alternative" types, like me, and where I would love to work. On Tuesday I am going to put in to work at Trader Joe's to stock and cashier. I am not quite to the point where I would take jobs that I would probably loath, like bus driver, or a chain grocery store. There seems no sense in that.

An alternative to working is to quit. I am retirement eligible and could get a meager pension and health care. It would be enough to live at close to a poverty level. That does not seem like a good alternative.

Another idea is to go over my bosses head and convince them that I should be laid off. I could get severance pay and unemployment pay. It would be pretty risky. If it failed, I would be in a very bad light with my boss and it would be hard to be around her.

In the meantime I will sound like an ungrateful whiner. I have an income. I have a nice house, spouse, and children.

I don't know. This was a stupid topic to bring up. More mid-life crisis stuff. Wanting to at least get a taste of doing something I like for the last few years.

Wherever you go, there you are