jobs

WDP — Past Tense

Fandango4 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Do you enjoy your job?
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Yes, I enjoyed my jobs. I actually had multiple jobs in my career. They were all in related fields — software and services, healtcare, and benefits administration solutions and systems — but with a number of different companies.

My work was varied, interesting, gave me a lot of satisfaction, and I was good at it. The only aspect of my job that I didnt enjoy was the constant travel, as I spent a lot of time on the road meeting with prospective clients, existing clients, going to seminars to present papers and make presentations, and to “network.”

And by “on the road,” I mean “in the air,” as most of my travel required flying hither and yon — mostly domestic but some international. And flying got old fast.

I had accumulated more than 2 million frequent flyer miles on American and close to half a million each on Delta and United. I can’t even estimate how many miles I amassed on airlines like Southwest and airlines that no longer exist, like PeopleExpress, PanAm, Continental, and TWA.

But that’s all in the past. I retired at the end of 2015 and I do enjoy being retired. No one is telling me what to do or when to do it. Well, except for my wife. And I haven’t set foot on an airplane in eight years and have no intention to do so. I told anyone who would listen after I stopped working, “If I never have to board a plane again in my life, it will be too soon.” I intend to live by that.

Fibbing Friday — Job Openings

Fandango9 Comments

Di (aka Pensitivity101) hosts Fibbing Friday, a silly little exercise where we are to write a post with our answers to the ten questions below. But as the title suggests, truth is not an option. The idea is to fib a little, a lot, tell whoppers, and be inventive, silly, or even outrageous, in our responses. For this week’s Fibbing Friday, Di has given us some interesting job titles and asked us to fib about what jobs they describe.

1. BD Ninja — That annoying guy who skis down the black diamond slopes wearing a Ninja costume and yelling “I’m the BD Ninja!”

2. Head of Schmoozing — The male singer at a Catskill resort for the summer season.

3. Ambassador of Buzz — A police officer who is known to use a stun gun to stop perpetrators.

4. Colon Lover — A guy who volunteers to have a colonoscopy annually.

5. Digital Dynamo — The name of a new Marvel comic book hero who digitally change his shape.

6. Wizard of Light Bulb Moments — What they call the janitor who changes all of the fluorescent bulbs in the office lights.

7. People Partner — The office gigalo.

8. Dr Fix — The computer repair guy.

9. Captain of Multitasking — Someone who claims to know everything.

10. Money Maestro — The person who approves expense reports.

WDP — Did You Know…

Fandango10 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What’s something most people don’t know about you?
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The joke around our house was that my wife and I never took vacations, we relocated.

I was born in Newark, New Jersey, but when I was about five, my family moved to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC.

When my wife and I got married, we moved into a row house in Northeast DC. But then I got a job offer in New York City and we relocated to New Jersey. After eight years in New Jersey, a great opportunity to work in LA came my way and we moved from the east coast to the west coast.

Around two years after moving to Southern California, the company I was working for got acquired by a company based in Texas, and I was invited to join them, which required relocating to Dallas. But a few years later, that Dallas company was purchased by a company based in South Carolina. There was no way I was going to move my family to South Carolina, so I quit and found a job in Philadelphia. We again relocated, this time to a Philly suburb.

The Philadelphia-based company offered me a promotion, but it was in Chicago. So after much discussion, we packed up and headed to the Windy City and I was there until a headhunter recruited me for a job in Massachusetts.

We stayed in the Bay State for about 20 years, but then I retired and decided to relocate yet again, this time to San Francisco. And then, almost four years ago, we made a mini move from the city of San Francisco to a Bay Area suburb about 35 miles to the east.

I’m counting on this last move to, in fact, be our last move. Well, until my kids dump me in a nursing home at some point in the future.

So, what most people don’t know about me is the relatively nomadic lifestyle my family and I have experienced over the decades.