Faster Than Expected — Janet Szabo

I enjoyed my hiatus from a full-time job, especially with all the associated holiday busy-ness, but I felt strongly that I wanted to begin 2019 with a renewed job search. I said to the ladies at sewing last week that I thought 53 was too young to retire. Perhaps it’s a generational thing. Women of my generation grew up expecting to have careers. However, I am beginning to think that this need to work is something that is hard-wired into my DNA. My mother is still running her metal-stamping business at 77, and both of my grandmothers were active well into their later years. Even if the husband is making enough money to support us both, I feel like I should be contributing financially in some way to our personal economy.

[I wrote the last tuition check to Gonzaga a couple of weeks ago. That was a lovely milestone.]

I signed up for a couple of job search websites back in November and decided that, starting in January, I would apply for any jobs for which I was even remotely qualified. I structured my resume and cover letter to play up my varied work background as an asset rather than a liability. I am applying for freelance work-at-home editing and writing jobs. Potential clients are going to want to know that I am capable of being a self-starter who can manage her time and deliver the goods. What better way to illustrate that than with a background as a self-employed knitting designer who wrote and published three books, produced a knitting newsletter for 10 years, has a portfolio of over 100+ knitting patterns, and then worked as a medical transcriptionist for eight years? Working at home, managing my time, and being task-oriented is as natural as breathing to me.

[I was always baffled by people who went into medical transcription and then complained that they didn’t like the isolation of working at home or that they had difficulty not being distracted by other things. Did they not understand what it was going to be like before they chose that as a career?]

A new job listing popped up on one of the sites yesterday. In keeping with my plan for the new year, I sent off a resume and a cover letter and then headed into town to run errands. When I got home, there was an e-mail from the company indicating my application had been “shortlisted” and asking me to take a test to complete the process.

That was fast.

I will take the test today and send it back. This may or may not work out, but it was a big boost to know that my skill set—in spite of the rather convoluted way it came about—might be valuable. I know that I am more accomplished than the majority of people out there, but I seem to be stuck on the idea that a traditional employment background carries more weight than one like mine. I am working on getting over that.

I’ll keep you posted.

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One of my other goals for 2019 is to minimize the “time confetti” in my schedule. These are the chunks of time—10 minutes here, 5 minutes there—during which I could be doing something more productive than checking Facebook or Twitter. This goal dovetails nicely with the admonition from virtually every sewing group I belong to that we should sew every day, even if it’s only for 5 or 10 minutes. I’ve had a stack of grocery bag handles sitting on the table next to the industrial Necchi. Yesterday, while waiting for DD#2 to get ready to head into town with me, I ran them all through the machine. (I got an earful from that industrial Necchi, too, because it’s been a while since I’ve sewn on him and he wanted a good oiling.)

Now I have a stack of handles sitting next to my chair. They need to be turned inside out—I use a hemostat—and then topstitched. Turning them inside out will be a good project for some evening by the fire.

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I am going to make lemon curd today. I love lemon curd and I have a recipe from the book Food in Jars, by Marisa McClellan, for a Meyer lemon curd that I have been wanting to try for years. Cathy mentioned on Facebook the other day that she was using Meyer lemons to make salt-preserved lemons. I asked her where she had gotten the Meyer lemons because I’ve been watching for them here in Kalispell and haven’t seen any yet. Natural Grocers had them a few years ago and Cathy said she has gotten them at Costco in the past. However, this is Montana. Finding Meyer lemons here is a hit-and-miss proposition. She ordered some off the Internet. She offered to share, so I stopped by yesterday afternoon for a visit and came home with these:

I’ll make up a batch of lemon curd and see how it goes. I should have enough lemons to make about 4 half-pint jars.