Back in the Saddle Agin'

Man, when that alarm went off at 4:50 a.m. this morning, it was pretty damned early out! But it was time for me to go back to work. Oh, I had a swell time last week, staying in bed every morning until 6:15 a.m., followed by days which were jam-packed with wonderful activities.

But I was ready to go back. I missed some people in New York. Besides, how would I know how much I enjoyed my time off if I didn't have anything to compare it to?

I've come a long way, and I have a long way to go in my recovery. I'm on the verge of yet more cataclysmic changes.

And that brings me back to today's title, "Back in the Saddle Agin'". I can't tell you how many times, over the last few weeks, it's been brought (abruptly) to my attention that it's "time for me" to lose my "sobriety job" (sobriety job = a "brainless, low-paid form of underemployment designed to maximize the amount of time, due to lack of worry, one can spend going to meetings and working with others") and to get a "real career" either doing something I really like or, at least, something that pays boatloads of cash every year.

Some suggest that I renew my (lapsed) government licenses to practice fiscal mayhem on an unsuspecting public and get a job on Wall Street (again). Others suggest I go back to my first dream, acting, and look into getting myself re-instated in the acting unions, SAG, AFTRA and Equity.

It's interesting to note how other people's opinions about what I "should" be doing is largely informed by their own fears and prejudices.

Still, both camps are right about one thing. I'm long past the need for a sobriety job.

And, it's time I made some real bucks again and bought some property and put aside some real Benjamins for my rapidly approaching old, er, middle-age. Or, at the very least, do something that really "feeds my soul" which, to be honest, being a legal secretary doesn't exactly do.

I know that most of my workmates wonder why, exactly, I'm doing this for a living. I'm pretty sure some of them think I'm on the lam from either the Government or the Mob.

Whatever. This isn't about what other people think. It's about what am I going to do to make myself happy.

Ah, the magical question.

I'm happy now. I just wish it paid twice what I'm getting.

But I sure would like to win a Pulizter Prize someday.

I wonder if Frank Rich is planning to retire soon?