Today I listened for the umpteenth time about how I live in my own little world and don't have a life. Being that my new resolution is to say exactly what's on my mind .. I said I do have a life and it's none of your business. I hated to be that mean. But this person knows I have a life, he is a crucial part of it, but seems to exclude me more than not. Business..oh my word.. that reminds me. In the mundane..where I can't conjer beautiful images or articulate my feelings at all very well, I was a business manager. I mean I was Managing director of two organizations. One of the organizations dealt with the juvenile court system and of course it was devised to keep kids from repeating the cycle that brought them through the juvenile court system. I loved that job, unfortunately as it is with most non-for profit organizations that depend on grants, there was not enough money out there to bring to this program what it needed. It needed a miracle.. It was a county run program which the main office was in another town which happened to be closer to the court house. My town didn't even have an office. I walked into that job having to scout around for a place to keep these kids together for a couple hours after school. The first place I found was the business college I'd graduated from. The classrooms were right in town, in fact the one I was offered to use was an old store front building..or part of it. The kids could walk there after school and do their homework, and any project I'd had for them to do. Mostly we did some community service stuff, but I tried to be creative with it.. and not allow it to seem so stiff. I always kept in my mind the fact the only difference between these kids and half the kids in town..and me..for that matter when I was a kid...is That they got caught and we didn't. We often would do things that would do good. Like we did some activities with elderly at a local home. We made bubble wands and home made bubbles and had ourselves a good time.. *LOL* The kids loved it..and the kids at heart loved it. We made gifts for them too, and read to those who couldn't anymore. Each kid had a reading partner as we called it. When we didn't or couldn't work in the home (flu season), we shoveled snow or helped sort out clothes for the needy. That's the time I found out I had a terrible allergy to mold spores. I never understood why clothes for the needy had to come complete with must and mold. My small clutch of kids quickly grew to about 20 at a time and I had no volunteers to come in, at a constant...only the college kids when they needed to do some community stuff for a grade. Parents were scarce and that was half the problem. Some how I managed to raise my own kids, keep a decent house, food on the table, and do this job.. with success, but it had some very difficult draw backs. The money wasn't the issue..but it was a very small paycheck which by now went right back into the program and to the kids. Having that many kids around ..how could I not have after school snacks, and the occasional holiday party, not to mention..Friday night bowling or movies with pizza. We ran a hotdog stand in the summer to raise money for amusement park fun and other activities. By now word got around that doing your homework and keeping out of trouble had it's rewards. I soon had kids coming with friends to do their homework..in order to improve their grades. The school got in a habit of calling me to come for meetings that parents should have attended, and I showed up and stood up for the kids. Many kids and I had some talks that their parents should have handled about behavioral situations. I got a little overwhelmed in that area, but I still loved it and would have retired at it. Thing is.. you get 90 dollars a month to work with from the county and you have to do your own books and show them how each and every penny was spent. That was easy enough..and I did that quite well. We had to have reports for the country auditors and such. We had a checking account where all deposits were made and all sorts of records of all sorts available to the county.. no problem. Then I had a house fire and lost the book and the check book..and every thing I ever owned. The county commissioners were only concerned that I didn't have that stuff in a burn proof safe. I was just sick..a bunch of beurocratic stuffed shirts couldn't think past their pencil noses to see anything but they didn't have my financial report. I was so upset..all they had to do was call the bank. They didn't even ask if anyone in my family had been hurt or worse in my fire. We decided that we were going to move out West and went out looking for a house ..so that job was quickly given to another. I never looked back, but I still dream of the dreams I had to have the perfect office or little place for the kids to come and do their home work.. have an after school snack. You know I took those kids to the mall, and fishing and everything and never had a problem. I took them alone most times. One time I even had the kids out fishing..(bass fishing) for 11 hours and not a single parent had a fit. I hadn't realized so much time had gone by.. we had so much fun.. I got sunburned and we caught a lot of good sized bass..I so wished I'd had a camera then. I had to buy some poles because most of the kids didn't have any. Those poles went through a lot. We had some fun times. To me, in my heart, that was my favorite job and I loved it.. in fact, it was the only job I ever loved. I'll let you know about my most horrible job soon. It was the pits. Thanks Tom you started something here *LOL*