Two Women, Five Jobs and a Wedding

Life seems to be all about the juggling right now.  Teri and I are perfect poster children for the realities of our economy in that we both piece together our work in rather creative and increasingly-exhausting ways.  Teri works as a youth counselor for a nonprofit organization (mostly swing shifts) and has returned to her seasonal job at a plant nursery.  I work as co-director of a precarious local nonprofit, and have been working in marketing for another local business while trying to maintain my freelance writing work.  Whew!  Yes, WHEW!

Teri seems to be having an easier time of staying focused since she goes to one job per day and gets to stay put and stay engrossed in the challenges of whichever job she is in.  I, on the other hand, don't have the same sort of structure to my work so I am often going from one to the other in the course of a day, having to answer emails and phone calls from one while at another and then trying to squeeze in writing at 5 am or 10 at night.  Life--it is what it is!

In the midst of all the work juggles and jiggles, we are still determined to enjoy our lives and enjoy each other. We also manage to squeeze in snippets of wedding planning here and there (between snuggles and pizza and episodes of Glee and The Tudors.)  Sometimes, it is all about making the best of things and reminding ourselves that everything in life is temporary.  If there is one thing we have learned in reaching this ripe age, it is that everything is temporary--it could all change again completely tomorrow!

So the laundry is going undone and we tend to compare our days while walking the dog together at whatever time we get home. We feel grateful to some degree to have work (although I am not on board with the expectation that the working poor should muster appreciation for economic injustices while the wealthy keep getting richer) and are holding on to hope that things will change again and we can settle into a more manageable groove. We remind ourselves that the wedding isn't going to pay for itself and having positive cash flow means we have some options.