Well Hello!

You know, I never intend to take these breaks, they just
sort of seem to happen.

It has been a long time.
And really, I have no excuses and no lame reasons for being gone. Life has been rather simple and boring
lately. But I am going to try this again.

Right now.

When the timing is oh so bad.

You see, in two weeks I will be starting school again and my
life will actually be busy. I should
have been blogging when everything was quiet and easy, but apparently that just
isn’t how I do things. I actually like
chaos. I thrive in chaos. So maybe having too much stuff to do will
actually be better for me. Maybe, just
maybe, I will start to get more things done.

I have a Bachelor’s degree in English, and as you probably
suspect, that degree hasn’t really been doing much for me lately. Or ever.
I am thirty years old and I am still working at what was supposed to
just be a college job. For the past TEN
YEARS, I have been making myself feel better about staying at a job I loathe by
saying things like “Oh, but it’s only 15 minutes from home and it’s so
convenient.” Or sometimes I’ll tell
myself that the four weeks of vacation I get make up for being miserable the
other 48 weeks of the year. But my all
time favorite excuse is that I can leave work at work, so in the evenings and
on the weekends I have all the time in the world to pursue things that actually
interest me. But no, I have not been
using my time wisely.

I have been thinking about nursing for quite some time. I actually thought about it before I decided
to get my ever so helpful degree in English.
I don’t know why I never followed through. But in October I had a breakthrough.

I sell bolts and nuts for a living. Yes, it is as glamorous as it sounds.

Every year my two bosses go to the fastener convention in
Vegas. When they came back, the boss I
like had all sorts of stories to tell me.
But the story that pushed me over the edge was this one:

The boss I like came in the office, all geared up and exited
after the convention. He had some
paperwork for me that he picked up in Vegas.
Apparently there is a new organization forming for women in the fastener
industry and he wanted me to join and be a part of it. And then he went on to tell me that when they
were talking to the person about me joining the women in the fastener industry
organization, the boss I do not like said, “why would you want Aly to be part
of it? All she does is answer the phones.”

There are two problems with that story. The first one is glaringly obvious. I DO WAY MORE THINGS THAN JUST ANSWER THE
PHONES! Really? Is that what he thinks about me? After ten years of working my ass off he
actually thinks all I do is answer the phones?
Why the hell would he pay me so much if all I do is answer the
phones? The boss I do like often jokes
that my job title should be Saves the Day.
Because that is what I actually do.
Every day I put out fires and step up and finish jobs that other people
should be doing but don’t because they all suck and no one gets fired in my company.

So yeah, I was more than pissed off to hear that my boss
thinks to little of me. But then upon
reflection, it made me happy to hear because it is just what I needed. I hate my job and the very last thing I want
to do is join an organization for women in the fastener industry. I want to get out of the fastener industry,
not get more involved. So the following
weekend I went to the local community college and signed up for classes.

I have eleven pre-req’s I need to take before I can apply for
the nursing program. It sucks, but I am
going to do it. If I work my ass off I
can have them all finished in a year and a half. This means I will only be working at a job I
hate for another year and a half. After
I get accepted to the nursing program I plan on quitting my job and going to
school full time. I can’t wait. I have never been excited to start school
before.