Congratulations on both your marriage and new endeavors! It seems primary to happiness to be fulfilled in work, and content with home and living environment. It’s great that you have the strength of mind to make changes which in themselves create initial stress.

It takes a lot of self-confidence in these trying times and is admirable.

I’ve been pretty busy lately. Myra and I got married back in May. Went to Barcelona for the honeymoon. We moved into a bigger place. It’s my second move in a year. The place at the lake was becoming oppresive. It wasn’t a very well kept place. The people there seemed sad. I was starting to dread driving back and having to look at the littered yards, broken down cars, decaying old mobile homes. Now we live in the middle of Dallas in a nice area. Lots of activity. Nice places to go and see. I may go for a walk around White Rock Lake in a bit.

I started massage therapy school the day after returning form Spain. I was going part time in the mornings and working fulltime at night. It was becoming a major struggle. Part time in that program is 4 hours a day. It was from 8am till Noon. Then I would go to work at 2pm till 12:30am. I was exhausted. If for any reason I had to stay late, the next day was unbearable. Luckily though, they shut the school down after a month. I was bummed at the time but looking back it was for the best. I started looking around for another school and a way to work my finances and schedule around it. I decided to save my money for a few months, leave the sour cream plant, and go to school fulltime.

So now I go to class from 8:30am till 5pm. I get to spend more time with Myra and am working towards something I feel a lot better about than what I was doing before. The plant was becoming oppressive too. When I told them I was leaving, just about everyone came up to me at one point or another and told me how much they hated that place. They said I was lucky to be leaving. I started to ask them why they stayed. “Well it’s a good job…”, is usually what they would say. The way I see it it can’t be that good if you hate it. I was starting to feel like a zombie there. Just going through the motions during the week and spending the weekends trying to block it out of my mind. I was numb. I’m still trying to shake the hypnosis of that place and regain a sense of self.

I’m halfway through the program now. I’ll be finished January 6th. I’m in the internship and everyone I’ve worked on has been very happy. It’s so much more rewarding than running manufacturing machines. The work I do now is focused on taking away peoples aches and pains and helping them relax. There’s really no politics or abusive “bosses” to worry about. The profession itself is very flexible. I can work entirely on my own or work for a spa. Or both. The unstructured nature of it brings it’s own challanges but I’d rather deal with those than the others.

So I’m in a good place now. Much better than I was a couple years ago. I’m looking forward to the Holidays coming up. My favorite time of the year. I love the cool weather and Autumn colors. This year we’ll spend Thanksgiving here with my family and Christmas in Arkansas with Myra’s family. We’re going up there next weekend for a short visit.

Hope everything is going well for you

Whatcha been doin?

I think you wanted to call. Sounded that way, at least.

Could be a “player”, though.

But I think you know the “game” well enough.