First day of the rest of my life- oh gawd

I am the most chatty person you'll ever meet. If it's anything I do well, it's keep in touch over email, often portraying myself in a far more interesting fashion than were we to speak face to face. Yet the notion of a blog somehow terrifies me (which in and of itself is odd if you consider what a person has to do these days to navigate the sea of blogs to find one worth reading).



So why am I blogging? Frankly, I just saw "Julie and Julia" for the second time in a month and I can't think of a direct application between blogging a journey through a classic cookbook for a year (though one of Ina Garten's would be my choice I'm sure!) and quilting-which would be my equivalent source of joy and comfort to that of Julie Powell's.



All I know is right now I sit here on the cusp of ending 10 years as a technical writer for a Fortune 100 company in Silicon Valley and I just know that in one year from this date my life might not look (probably won't look) a thing like it does right now. And I don't want to miss it- so writing about it will give me something to do and if I pick up a reader (or cajole enough friends to come along for the ride)-- so much the better.

Why is my story unique? I'm 45, which maybe the new 35, but it's not the new 25 in the job hunting world, that's for sure. As everyone knows we are in a 'down economy,' my husband has been unemployed by a combination of choice and chance for the prior 4 years, and to complete the picture I've been turning toward career change for quite a while now.

I trained as a clinical social worker and have been inching slowly toward returning to that field and have just found the courage to start mentioning that when people ask how my job search is going.

Wish me luck,

C

"I have met the builder and broken the ridgepole. I shall not build that house again."

THE BUDDHA, UPON HIS AWAKENING