It seems appropriate to post a picture of the Eiffel Tower in this, my first post since May 2014 - a few months before my fateful journey with Jonathan to live in the city of lights and pursue what ended up being an aborted attempt at an MBA.
Our travails are described in the Paris...really? blog, so no need to go into them here. Needless to say, we returned in January 2015. I was jobless for a few months and then got a gig at Labyrinth Books in Princeton. Hated it. Ended up later in the year as a Firm Administrator at a small accounting firm based in Bedminster that I really enjoyed. We worked out of a lovely, light-filled office, windows across the whole side of the space, a group of "Designing Women" huddled above us on the top floor. My boss was a pretty, astute, incredibly talented half-Mexican accountant who had pulled herself out of poverty and teenage pregnancy in the Los Angeles area, to a self-paid undergraduate and graduate degree in accounting, becoming a CPA and then starting her own business on the East Coast - in a loving relationship with a talented engineer and contractor from Peru, both raising a beautiful little girl together in this awesome home in Piscataway. I made $14 and hour and enjoyed every minute of the job and learned a lot. In addition, I almost, due to my several years of not really making any money after leaving IBM, moved into a brand new low-income, three story townhome apartment in GREATEST school district, Montgomery New Jersey, before getting an email from a couple of old IBM colleagues about a Project Manager contract job with Intuit Inc. I applied, interviewed and got the gig. I went from $14 an hour to $57 an hour within a couple of weeks. Strangely enough, when I told my accountant boss that I would be leaving for this contract gig, she informed me that she too was interviewing for CFO jobs and actually ended up getting an assistant CFO job at a design firm in Princeton about a month after I left. She closed up shop and left the light-filled office behind for a more stable 9-5 gig and the opportunity to add another child to the family (which they did in September 2017 - a beautiful little boy).
So, here I was - back in IT, making good money, working with a lot of my old IBM chums. Even pulled my oldest IBM buddy into the company via a contract gig (he had been among the many laid off in 2013 after I resigned in January of that year - thus missing out on what has been reported to be a very nice exit package...). His contract ended like mine, but he's going back in a couple of weeks for another 18 months, and I hope and pray, an eventual permanent gig.
As for me and Intuit? Well, as usual, I didn't really enjoy the work. Loved the people I was working with, but came to the end of the contract knowing that I was THROUGH with IT project management. I mean, listen, I'm almost once again going to have a probation year with my PMP certification because I don't have enough professional development units. I need 45 by March! That speaks enough to my disenchantment with the profession and lack of passion for it.
And yet, I'm at another impasse. What do I do with the rest of my life?
I can say that the Intuit job and working from home again was a particular blessing - and not just the great money. How? Well, the Lord opened the door for me in July 2017 to join a fitness club called Kinetics, in Highland Park, NJ. It was life changing. I did a 21-Day Little Black Dress challenge. I had already signed up earlier in the year to run the Paris Marathon in April 2017 - one month before my 50th birthday. This was done to put some traction of my dream to run a marathon before I turned 50. Kinetics put me on track to fulfill that goal. I lost 10 lbs during the challenge and started running again in September, and hard core training in October.
The Eiffel Tower picture above was taken about a week after the marathon in April 2017. Yes, I ran it, on Sunday, April 9, 2017 - on a sunny, unexpectedly warm day in Paris, France. It was the return trip I had hungered for after the debacle of our first journey there. The journey didn't lack drama, however.
I had rented a lovely apartment in the 4th eme only to not be able to use the key to open the lock. We tried for about 30 minutes with no luck. So, I had to run around to find another place to stay on short notice. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful hotel in the 1st eme, near the Louvre, with a wonderful and loving staff. All in all it worked out for the best.
I also fell ill the week before the race and was unable to do any running after that Monday before we left. I had hives, severe chest congestion and then got my period, 5 days early! So, I ran under the weather, with a full-on menstrual cycle flowing, coughing the whole way! God is good. I finished and RAN THE FULL 26.2 miles! I finished in 6 hours 17 minutes. It was magical.
I had only done two half-marathons in the month before the race. I'd never gotten to run at least 18 to 20 miles so my body took a beating. I could barely move after the race. And the following day I got sick again and lost my voice. So the week after was a bit slow going, but Paris was still lovely. Jonathan and I had such a beautiful time.
We went to all our old haunts, celebrated good Friday at the Sacre Couer, met up with Darryl Morris (my first boyfriend) in London on Easter, spent two AWESOME days at Paris Disney, connected with a sweet Belgium friend, Sadie, in the 19th and simply spent several wonderful days in our old home town of the 19th, visiting Jonathan's school and seeing all of the beautiful teachers and staff who worked there.
Oh, let me not forget - the Lord blessed me with former ISM schoolmate, Missy Strong, who watched Jonathan during the race and who was there when I fainted on the subway AFTER the race. Yes, fainted. Like I said, I didn't do the hard hard training I should have before the race nor did I eat enough sugar/get glucose during the race, so my body responded accordingly. Praise God He got me back up and the worst that I experienced after were the body aches and that respiratory infection that took my voice for a few days.
All in all, I ended up losing close to 50 lbs, but put back on about 8, which I needed to - I'd gotten too skinny. However, I'm back to my fighting weight and I am a legitimate runner now. I LOVE IT!! My next marathon is the NJ Marathon at the beginning of May 2018. I plan to do one every year until the Lord brings me home to Him.
So, it's been an eventful 4 years almost (and there are lots of other things I haven't brought up, but will discuss in later posts) -- but as I stated above, I'm still at a sort of impasse. Been searching for a new gig since leaving Intuit. Nothing firm has come up. My desire to work in the non-profit realm has resurfaced, so I've focused my search there. I also have a strong desire to be in the Princeton area so that Jonathan and I can move there and he can attend this amazing all boys, Christian school called Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart. It seems built just for him. I know he would thrive there.
Of course, there's still my mom and dad to think of. More about them later...
Anyway, I'm returning to this blog because today marks what I'm hoping to be the true 2nd half of my life. In all that has been great in the past year, vestiges of the pain of my life over the past 10 years or so, especially since 2013 have continued to plague me. There has been great personal loss as well - including my brother Brandon, who passed in July 2017 and our sweet family friend, Norman Bailey, who passed in June and April's mom, who passed in September (more about these individuals in later posts). More and more loss along with the many things still not restored that were lost, broken or stolen in previous years.
My solution thus far: I've medicated more than necessary on alcohol, using that as my elixir more than the true elixir Jesus. That ends today.
Our church starts a church wide fast today - from now until 1/27/2018. Strangely enough, if you add up 1+7+2+-+1+8 it equals 9, which is the biblical number for fruit of the spirit...divine completeness from the Father. Adding 1+2+7+2+0+1+8 equals 1, which means unity and new beginnings.
So, I'm believing that God has ordained today as the completion of several years of a mix of not so good stuff (too much) with a bit of the good (to which He deserves praise - for both) and for the unleashing of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in my life, as well as the lives of all those participating in the fast, and that by the end, we will be firmly rooted in the new beginning that God has for us going forward, in unity of mind, heart and spirit in HIM.
I'm declaring that this is the year for great, suddenly blessings, restoration of things lost, stolen and broken, and fulfillment of long-held dreams and promises spoken to me by the Lord!
I've been away too long. It's time for me to return to his blog and record what I believe to be life-changing events in my life and Jonathan's life in this year and beyond - above what I could ever hoped or imagined -GOOD THINGS - just as our Father promised in Jeremiah 29:11:
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope."
I -AM - EXPECTANT!!
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