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career change

Change: Unwelcome and Unwanted

November 16, 2016 by Elizabeth Drake

Change is never easy, especially big changes you didn’t choose for yourself that have no real bright side. Changes like you or your spouse being told that your job is being eliminated.

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It’s not something you ever want to hear, but it’s even harder when it’s unexpected. When you thought the position was solid and stable. When you had almost 20 years there, so you actually had a few weeks of vacation and some sick-leave when the kids are ill. When you relied on it for the family’s healthcare.

See, here’s the thing. There is no safety net unless you make one yourself. Unemployment benefits are meager and last six months. There’s no healthcare included, and our other employer’s health insurance is the very minimum required for them to not pay fines.

We’ve been blessed by good fortune and made good choices, so we’ve been able to set-up our life so we can “make-it” without dipping into savings on just one of our salaries. And that same good fortune and good choices have made it possible for us to have savings.

Yes, there will be some belt-tightening, and I’ll be putting off that purchase of a new computer. But we’ll be okay. Our kids will be okay. The biggest thing we’re facing is if anyone gets hurt or sick. But we’ll figure that out if it happens.

And, of course, it’ll mean starting all over and having little-to-no paid time off.

Still, here’s hoping a new position is found quickly.

In the meantime, writing, editing and blogging might become more sporadic, especially as we work through all changes needed in our day-to-day endeavors. I need time to cope, process and plan.  I couldn’t even look at the screen after learning the news. I did, however, escape into a book or three. Ah, escapism!

Filed Under: Family, Uncategorized Tagged With: career change, change, Job Loss, safety net, scary

Book Review: Three to Get Deadly

July 6, 2016 by Elizabeth Drake

Title: Three to Get Deadly

Author: Janet Evanovich

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After finishing the third book in the series, I can say that it is the funniest of the series so far. Not really funny, but with funny moments.

I didn’t figure out the way the mystery would end in this, although I had suspected Uncle Mo was into child pornography rather than what he was doing *Spoiler Alert* which was making pornographic movies with consenting adults. So, I wasn’t far off.

Granted, this was only a portion of what was going on, and I was unable to figure out the actual killer.

After doing a more thorough analysis of the story and my own detective skills, I am not sure I could have figured it out. There were no clues to tie it together until the very end. Not that it really matters. At least, not to me.

If you liked the first two stories in this series, you will probably like the third. It is very similar in pacing and style. Being outside my normal reading fare, I can’t say how much of it is realistic and how much is just a fun read. Add to it that the story takes place 20 years ago, and I am really outside my comfort zone. The one thing that did strike me is why does Stephanie Plum stay a bounty hunter? She notes in book 3 that she has a college education. So why would her choice for careers involve working at the button factory or working at the tampon factory?

I took a look at  map, and Trenton is right off the freeway and a pretty straight shot to NYC. If there is no work in Trenton, why not make the leap up to NYC for work?

Maybe I am just a coward, but if I had been accosted, threatened, and tortured like Stephanie has been, where my apartment isn’t safe and I’ve had cars destroyed by professional car bombs and rocket launchers, and where my grandmother was stabbed with an ice pick and later shoved in drawer reserved for the dead, I would not stick with the job. Especially as I am not adept at it. Especially as all of this has happened within the first 6 or so months on the job.

I’d be happy to loan Stephanie Plum the book What Color is Your Parachute (and I know it was around back then) to help her figure out what skills she has and how they could apply to a job where people aren’t trying to kill her.

I get that this is part of the charm of the story. If she was good at her job, it wouldn’t be funny. But I am starting to cringe at certain parts of her incompetence and at the way she is so blasé about danger.

The humor does add something to the story, and I love the feisty dialogue and the off-the-wall characters that have just enough of someone I know in them to make them real.

Filed Under: Book Review, Uncategorized Tagged With: blue-collar, book, career change, characters, Mystery, Stephanie Plum

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