Who am I, why am I here … and why have I had so many jobs? — I’m a deep thinker from way back. As a small child, I recall wondering, for example, why my first grade teacher was so unhappy. Her name was Mrs. Sullivan and she didn’t seem to like first-graders. Since then, I’ve discovered that teaching is a profession that can make it difficult…

Do you lack a normal FOMO response? — Busy people are getting sh*t done, buzzing with excessive energy, even if that means overpaying for a venti double-mochaccino every morning. I marvel at their mad motivations and cower in their shadows. As a semi-avoidant hermit hobbled by generations of quiet, retiring chromosomes I can only speculate. Maybe such humans…

Can you lead and follow at the same time? — Why would anyone work here, I asked myself as I sipped my second cup of coffee and some of it spilled out onto my keyboard in brown dribbles. My jaw had fallen agape. I guess for the benefits and highly competitive pay? I got fired up, ready to grab my…

The cheap bastards are winning — Not all jobs are equal. Some jobs, like some pigs, are more equal than others. To paraphrase W.C. Fields: “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor, and believe me — rich is better.” It’s the same situation with being an employee. I’ve had gig jobs and real jobs and believe…

The journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single click — I lost about 300 followers a few months ago, presumably because they are robots or I insulted someone’s religion. As the fake gods are my witnesses, I shall never take a single follower for granted again! It’s not lost on me that I have limited appeal. When I taught high…

I found something I hate worse than the thing I was putting off — I didn’t realize how onerous my work project was till I got Covid, then went on vacation a week after recovering. The combined events, bridged with our final week of dress rehearsals for a play, threw me off the straight and narrow track. The project languished. I haven’t been able…

Remote controls are a plot to fatten then kill us — I’ve been cobbling together a 1971-themed office. It started when I bought a set of brown folding canvas chairs secondhand. They sit low to the ground and resemble camp chairs, but they were designed for a swingin’ rec room to be closer to that lucious shag carpet. After I purchased…

Needed: seasoned old lady to join me in a life of crime — I’ve reached the age of invisibility, the threshold of translucence, the stairway to nowheresville. My hair is greige, my voice is reedy, and my smile is a facade. I scowl at children and threaten the whippersnappers with my cane. I’ve reached the age of not giving a hooey. Strong language…

I ordered too much cheap sh*t on Amazon — Stocks are invisible, virtual dollar bills we horde so we can call ourselves stockholders. Duh, right? What a lot of folks don’t know, however, is most stockholders are not geniuses. They are regular schlubs who are hoping for a 7% annual return. Investors are victims of their emotions, which range…