yah yah. I know, Mom.

But I still feel like I'm getting old.

My 40th birthday is tomorrow and it's turning into one of those where I take stock of my life and wonder what's next.

Careers:

BA and MA in French - I can say "would you like fries with that?" in two languages. Four if I stretch and don't mind not really being able to understand the answer. And this was long ago now and I haven't spoken French all that much in ten years. I hear it all the time and I know it would come back.

I don't want to teach. I was a Language Lab Rat both undergrad and grad and I tutored and I never liked it much. Sure, with a good group it is fun and nice and fulfilling, but the good group to groups-that-don't-give-a-rat's-hiney ratio is about 1:10. And the second sort just drain all my joy, a commodity that I get low on anyway.

I worked in a marketing company for a couple years after grad school and before I got married. I started out taking and making calls, sometimes in French, which is why I was hired. After that, I mainly messed with databases and made presentations and did what my manager told me to do and it was much more administrative than marketing. And I took a couple of marketing classes from the community college in Austin and was amazed by the really startlingly common sense stuff that was taught as Amazing! Marketing! Truths! I guess you have to have a knack for schmoozing or something. I'm missing that gene.

I'm a pretty good mom. I yell too much and I don't really know how to motivate my kids and I am a bad example, especially for cleaning. But I think they'll only have a few years of therapy each, not a lifetime. And yeah, it's not a bad job if you can get it, but it doesn't pay much.

I've dabbled in desktop publishing and worked retail for a few years.

I like to read. I live far, far from the big publishing houses, so an editorial assistant job isn't going to just fall in my lap, is it?

And I can write, but not at some brilliant level. And honestly? The vast majority of authors haven't quit their day jobs. It's just not all that lucrative for the vast majority of them. So I need to finish a book and see if I can get it published.

But I need to find a job in the meantime. So... I have no idea.

To be continued...