In the beginning....

Everyone starts somewhere. For me it was in utero, the traditional way. I am the daughter of a military man who has more war stories than the Health Reform bill has pages. He lives for a new face to walk in the house, it is like cheese to mouse. Once cornered, there is no break for air. The one benefit is that indeed, his stories are fascinating even the 7th time. He has lived life well. Then there is the southern bell he married. Found her at the 5 and Dime. She loves to shop, collect and create things. So together they explain the complex person that is me, a broke, pack rat who can't stop talking. Welcome to my world.
I have spent the past 34 years in health care and I got to say, it is not the same as when I began. How I long for porcelain bedpans, patients who could give their own baths and nurses who could perform a days work without complaining about working two days in a row. However that may be global these days as I heard the same complaints at the corner convenience store. So to cap off the end of a great career in which I have worked in every department from the kitchen to the behavioral heath unit I was laid off. Seems corporate positions may be less secure than others in health care.
My big question now is what to do? Return to a nursing job,teach or leave health care all together. I am deciding. I will let you know when I get there. There must be a need looking for an answer from me. I almost thought I found it one day. My friend and I were having coffee and talking about this dilemma she was having. While there she complained about her purse. She held it up and demonstrated her complaint, "I wish they made a purse that opens the other way. This one only opens this way (as she moves the zipper right to left)". I watched this situation unfold and thought here may well be the beginning of a great career, to design a Left Handed Purse. One where the zipper opens left to right! How many left handed friends do you have who can only find purses that unzip right to left. Tragedy. Seeing an opportunity as profound as this caused my creative juices to flow. I quickly grabbed her purse, turned it around and Viola! It opened left to right. A solution found, an entirely new product line potential.
Okay, maybe not.
But there must be something or someone that will need me. So until then, I decided I must share some of my deepest thoughts, or at least some casual comments, depending on the day. I hope that someone will find a morsal of entertainment in the process. For today, I am simply beginning.