Making Money…

Or how I am trying to find a job that won’t suck the soul right outta my body, and still pay me enough to live on. Oh, the eternal quest for that kind of work. For the last year, I have been in an ideal situation. My mother, goddess bless her, left enough money for me to pretty much live on for about a year without working. Well, I did start working, part time, almost immediately after I left my job at the law firm, because, well, I’ve been working full time for 35 years, and I quite honestly wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I wasn’t doing SOME kind of work SOME of the time. I have realized in my Cronehood that 1) I really don’t like yard work, other than the harvesting of fresh vegetables; 2) I’m not very “crafty”–used to do counted cross stitch, but it just doesn’t “hook” me anymore—HA, I crack myself up! 3) If all I did was sit home, read, and watch movies, which are probably my 2 favorite things in the world, I’d be the size of my house in about 6 months. Even if I didn’t eat anything, which is another blog for another day.

So, here I am, I’m doing some part time medical transcription for a great company up in Highlands Ranch, CO, as an independent contractor (read, I have to pay all my own taxes, which is another bummer). I really like these guys–they are easy to work with, give lots of positive feedback and answer questions right away, and are just generally all around cool folks. They run their company out of their home, too. But, I don’t think they can give me enough work to keep me busy full time, and get ALL my bills paid. Right now, I’m making enough working for them maybe 3 – 4 hours a day to pay all my household expenses, so that’s nothing to sneeze at.

But…I like to travel and that costs money. And I like to have a nest egg, and that costs money, too, and my year of living easily is coming to a close. So, I’m lookin’ fer me a job! So far, here’s what I’ve applied for:

1. Data entry position for the State of Colorado–faxed that one in last week, and guess what–just got a call about testing for it tomorrow, so WHEEE. Pay is not huge, but it’s more than what I’m making now and would be enough to pay the bills, plus put some savings away. Not to be sneezed at.

2. Legal Compliance Analyst position with the Pueblo County Attorney’s office. I know, I know I SWORE that I would never work in the legal field again, but that was in a law office. This actually sounds like it would use some of my skills, and I did the compliance thing back in my HMO days. We’ll see what happens.

3. Police Communications Dispatcher for the Colorado State Patrol. This one is actually the one I’d be most interested in, believe it or not. Keep yer fingers crossed on that one.

4. And just today, I e-mailed a resume to a large orthopedic clinic for a practice assistant position. See, I have this odd background that combines insurance, medical, legal, and administrative experiences–not to mention a year working for the circus, but that’s another story for another time.

So, that’s what I’ve been doing the past few days. I’ve got about 9 different versions of my resume pretty much all saying the same thing, and on top of that, I joined an LGBT writing group in Colorado Springs, and hope to submit a story to them for publication. Man, I can get a lot done when I’m not running around after grandkids, and wrecking cars!

Anyway, send a few good thoughts my way for the right employment if you happen to catch this post. Right now, I’m off to get some lunch before I get grumpy again! 😉

GG