Jason's Untimely Thoughts

Man it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything here.  The other joint where I blog is not feeling much more love, perhaps today will be the day of writing.

Hmm, what’s gone one since my last prose?  Oh, I quit my job, so there’s that.  On our Christmas Card letter, I wrote that I was still gainfully employed at Miller’s Professional Imaging.  Over the past several months though, I simply wasn’t enjoying it as much.  So on Jan 13, I gave notice (accompanied by a cryptic tweet), and then drank heavily.  After consideration over the weekend, I was more certain that I’d made the right choice, even though I was not at all certain what I’d do next.

February 1 was my first day of unemployment.  And after 8 years at Miller’s, they closed both facilities that day.  The kids were out of school 7 of the next 15 week days, due to weather or calendar quirks, so we’ve spent a lot of time together.  I’ve had more than a few conversations about jobs, have found lots of people that seem genuinely interested in helping me find something, but thus far haven’t settled on anything (so send those openings/offers my way).

Several people have asked me if I regretted leaving.  No.  Not even a little.  I liked what I did and where I worked for the majority of the time I was there, but I didn’t anymore.  There are both general and specific reasons for it, some of which continue to be proven to me occasionally, and few of which could I reasonably expect to improve, so the time to move on was clear.

As for what I’ll do next, I’m exploring.  My job at Miller’s was difficult to explain.  Sometimes it was simply HR manager, sometimes it was much more, sometimes it was much less.  I commonly told people that my job was to drink Mt. Dew and tell jokes.  Since leaving, the best compliment I’ve received, undoubtedly, was a co-worker telling me they hadn’t laughed out loud since.  I want to work with people that are great, in a company that is growing, and be involved in a wide variety of conversations.  I’d like their mission statement to be something like “Be Nice.  Have Fun.  Laugh Daily.  Do Good.”  And I’d like them to fire people immediately that violate any of those four things.

The kids think I should become a football coach.  So they could get autographs of all the players.  Funny, as someone in the athletic department made a similar comment to me.  More funny, as I’ve long said that if I ever won the lottery I’d just hang out at football practice in the spring and fall.  (I originally wrote “…. I’ve long joked that….” but I’m really not joking.) Coach Pinkel, I’m available, just saying.  I can directly relate to every short fat slow guy you have on your team, which will conveniently give me lots of time to watch the games.

In addition to looking around, I’m also trying to explore some ideas of things I can do on my own.  We’ll see.  Part of my exploring will include a trip to Mexico, starting tomorrow, to drink fruity drinks and soak up the sun.  Ha ha, suckers.  See you in March, the month of Jason Becking finding a job/plan/someone who’ll let us live with them.