Memory Monday....

Last week we wrote about our first job(s).  Today, we are supposed to write about 'other jobs I've had'.  This meme is hosted by Retired Not Tired and it has been lots of fun participating!  Visit her HERE and join in the fun!!

I wrote about my jobs while I was in school, and then my first "real" job at Nationwide Insurance.  I could just post my resume.....but I'll tell the story....

We (my first husband and I) moved from our hometown, and my job in Columbus, to Sandusky, Ohio in 1973. He took a job, after he graduated from college (after his years in the Marine Corp) with the IRS.  Yes, he was (probably retired) an IRS agent.  I went to work for a plumbing and electrical wholesale company, doing accounts payable.   We were there almost four years, but he was transferred to Washington DC in 1977.  I got a job with the Justice Department, also in DC, and worked there for four years.  During that time, I got divorced from husband #1, and then went to work for the American Red Cross.  I was there for six years, and worked there when I met Joe.  We got married, and I got tired of driving into the city every day, so started looking for a job on the Virginia side of the river.  Traffic in DC is horrific.

I went to work for Midwest Research Institute (MRI).  Their headquarters were (are?) in Kansas City, MO.  Their office in Virginia did contract work for EPA.  I was only there for about a year, before Joe and I up and did something some people would say is crazy....we bought a house in Lakeland, while on vacation, then went home and sold our house in Virginia, and moved to Florida.  Neither of us had a job, but we sold our house for a nice sum and sold his accounting practice, too.  We were tired of the traffic and the winter weather.  My folks and grandparents were snowbirds, so we thought we would be closer to them when they were down in the winters.  Joe set up his office in Lakeland, and I helped him get established here.  For awhile, I did transcription work for a private investigator (Justice Department contacts).  That was really fun!!  Then I started working part time for a woman who did wedding cakes.

I took a Wilton cake decorating class years before, and had done cakes for people at work and for friends.  You could work from your home, in Virginia, without getting a license.  Couldn't do that in Florida, so I looked for a job doing cakes and found it with Alicia, at The Wedding Cake.  Cake decorating is a creative outlet!

I learned my way around Lakeland quickly, delivering wedding cakes!  I was with Alicia for about six months when she asked me if I would buy the business from her.  She was tired of it, and knew I would keep it going, honor the cakes on the books, etc.  She let me keep the phone number and the name.  It was an easy transition, and I had a successful business without all the pain of starting up. I only had to finish paying a loan she had incurred. It was a very good deal.  She was a trauma/ER nurse in Tampa, and worked three 12 hour shifts there, and did cakes the other four days. No wonder she was tired of it!!

I did that for three + years and had gotten so busy that I either needed to quit, or find bigger space and hire help.  I averaged six wedding cakes a week, along with birthday cakes, shower cakes, groom's cakes, anniversary cakes.... I was busy and exhausted.  It was just me.  Joe could be found there some nights, washing dishes for me until the wee hours.  It was hard work.

Over the backyard fence one Sunday afternoon, our neighbor (Margaret) heard my story of woe.  She asked me what my experience before cakes was and I said office management and accounting.  She was the biology teacher at our local Catholic high school, and told me that their accountant had just quit.  She asked for my resume and said she would give it to the Principal.  Well, I went for an interview on that Monday (the next day) and started work on Wednesday.  I closed the cake business to any new business, and worked nights at what I had on the books until they were done.  It took two months. Fortunately, it was early Fall.  The summer wedding rush was over, the the holiday rush hadn't started yet. It worked out beautifully.

I loved working at Santa Fe Catholic High School.  The teachers were wonderful, and the Principal was fun to work with.  I had office helpers from the junior and senior classes, and maintain 'adult' friendships with a couple of them now.  I am also still friends with some of the faculty from there. After four years, we got a new Principal who was not fun to work with.  She came with baggage, and I feared for my integrity if I stayed. She was spending the student's club money on office furniture and told me to not attend the Finance Committee meetings anymore.  I immediately started looking for a new job, and found it at Polk Museum of Art!  I will have been at PMoA for 18 years, on March 17th.  That new Principal was fired a year later, by the way. They found her out.

I have always followed my "gut" and really give it to God.  We just need to listen.  I truly believe things happen the way they are supposed to happen, if we just 'listen'.  My career path has not been an ambitious one, but rather a comfortable one. Blessed.

So, here I am, looking forward to retirement.  Winning the lottery sure wouldn't hurt.  Thanks for checking in today!  Blessings!