Stardate: -317947.02

For a while this afternoon, I sat in our living room and looked at what you see in the picture: A chair, and an as-yet-undecorated Christmas tree. This provided a focal point while I contemplated the state of my life, particularly my work situation. Working for the Alvord-Taylor Mohawk House has been the singular source of angst for me in the last two months, and at times also a cause of dissatisfaction.

Don't misunderstand me; I don't hate working there, or yet have any "irreconcilable differences" with any of the staff or residents. Nor do I resent the frequent behavioral issues, because, as annoying as they are, they also build character (as Calvin's dad would say). But the other facts glare at me like the eyes of a black cat at the side of the bike path in the dark night: My shift occupies four of my evenings every week, evenings during which I would otherwise hang out with my family or friends, attend church-related functions, or get paid for doing basketball games; I am not paid much more than minimum wage, especially now that the extra $1/hour of crisis pay has officially ended; my work, despite the interruptions of craziness, does not particularly challenge me or captivate me, or provide much opportunity for progressive skill-building and/or upward mobility.

In the meantime, I have discovered that I enjoy basketball officiating more than I expected, and find it a unique kind of work that provides plenty of opportunity for learning, enjoyment, developing new skills, and possibilities of working at higher levels in the future. It also pays $10-15/hour in calculated total time investment. From a numbers standpoint, if I had no limitations on my evening and weekend availability, I could work 8-10 games a week in the months of January through March and make about as much as I make for A-T.

As you can probably guess by my thought process, all of this is leading to a change, most likely sometime in the month of January. I'll put my resolutions concerning this area of my life in the following post.