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House bound

Last night Dave asked me, "Are you a housewife now?" He used the term kind of jokingly -- I hope -- but I had to admit the answer is yes. Homemaker. Not employed outside the home. (Or inside, for that matter.) Between jobs.

When I quit my job over a month ago, I had another one lined up. But I changed my mind about it, and decided to take my time finding another one. So now I am without a paycheck. I have plenty to do; it's great having all of my time be my own. But it is a little weird not having the structure of a 9-to-5 job. I started my first real job two days after graduating from college nine years ago and have been employed full-time since then, with the exception of a few weeks when we moved from Chicago to San Francisco.

Being around the house today gave me the opportunity to meet the garbage collector this morning. His truck's hydraulic system blew a hose and he was stranded for an hour waiting for the hazmat crew to come clean up the mess.

Having time at home also gave me the luxury of being able to investigate the funny smell in the kitchen. I narrowed it down to the garbage disposal in the sink. The rubber flappy things that cover the drain were hiding a layer of odiferous scum. I donned sturdy gloves and tried to clean out underneath them. The whole endeavor had a rather gynecological feel. I'm not sure if the problem has been corrected. But I never would have spent my precious weekend time scraping slime out of the drain back when I was working full-time and also training a lot.

On the other hand, maybe the fact that I ran outside to chat with the garbage collector indicates that I need a little more daily human contact. You think?

November 21, 2006 8:48 PM