What is it you're looking for?

Funny.....I heard this subject line in a movie I was watching this morning and it really struck a chord with me. What is it I'm looking for?  Maybe, I'll have better luck finding something worthwhile to me, something that clicks, if I'm looking in the right place!  
Well, a good question deserves a thoughtful answer.  So, I sat and I thought.  What is it I really like to do?  
My first thought.......I really enjoy being with people, I am definitely not a loner.  Of all the places I've worked, my favorite jobs were jobs where I either helped people both inside my department and my company (my human resources career) or jobs were I worked as part of a cooperative team, a team that supported each other, helped each other, laughed, worked, celebrated accomplishments and even cried together.  That camaraderie became something I looked forward to each and every day.  
Being at work always has good days, productive days, fun days and hard days, but when those days are shared with a group that is like family, it is truly a pleasure.  One of the worst parts of unemployment, is the isolation.
Maybe that's why I enjoyed sales, too.  In sales, you are around people, meeting them, helping them, learning from them.  I've worked as a Real Estate agent, as a saleswoman in an upscale clothing store, and now at Five Below, a retail outlet where everything costs $5 or below....catchy, eh?  Retail is hard work, it's strenuous work when in a physical store moving stock, unpacking shipment and working varied hours, but it does have its rewards.  It is fun and sometimes it is funny.  People are so different.  One customer is nice and thoughtful, the next will throw their money at you while yelling at their small child and dashing out the door.  Their frustrations become apparent.  Their personalities interesting.  Each day brings new encounters and new people, and that is definitely a perk.
But, what does all this tell me?  Well, I realize there's one thing I didn't mention - salary.  Of course I enjoy money and all the freedom and fun it can provide, but at this time in my life I realize it's not my motivating concern.  After existing on an unbelievable cut in salary, and getting by, I realize money is great, but spending my days in a positive, cooperative, encouraging, environment with good people is truly my present goal.  How do I find such a place, after all that information cannot be found on any website.  Perhaps that's why references and referrals of work locations have become so important to me.  I don't mean to sound full of myself, but I am a capable woman.  I am a fast learner and a hard-worker. I have succeeded in many, varied fields and have been happy doing many, varied tasks, as long as I was around positive co-workers.  So, I suppose I have learned something important by taking some time to think out what I am looking for.  My main task right now is to find a position where they will welcome me aboard.  A position where I can become a positive, hard-working team member.  A position where whether I am filing and handling office details or analyzing data, or selling, I am in a place where I feel valued and productive. I miss being part of a work family. 

Know of any place worthwhile?

The Unemployment saga continues

I spoke to the nicest woman last Friday.  The Vice President of Human Resources at a company very conveniently located to my home.  I would love to work for this company.  The information I have of them is all positive and always was positive from before I even thought of working there.  My brother has had dealings with this company for years and ALWAYS spoke highly of them.  So, when he was kind enough to pass my resume along, I felt truly lucky to investigate this possibility.
After speaking with the Vice President, I wanted to work there even more.  What a nice woman!  Warm, kind, interested.......but, as luck would have it, they are in the midst of a hiring freeze.  So, I will continue to hunt for something.  It's just so difficult to always end up back at the start again.  However, I have to take it that each opportunity brings me one step closer to finding something......after all, what choice do I have?

Recipe for Sweet and Sour Turkey Meatballs

I promised recipes…and so we begin.

Sweet and Sour Turkey Meatballs

(you may substitute ground beef if you so desire)

My Grandmother, my Aunt Marilyn and my Mother would take turns making these for Holiday dinners.  The round shape of the meatball signified the circle of life, the cyclical nature of the year.  The balance of sweet and sour illustrates that life, to be appreciated, needs to be balanced, that any given year will hold both good and bad times, but when taken as a whole, they can be treasured.  And so, with that in mind, here’s the recipe.  I hope it becomes a special part of your holidays.

The ingredients you will need, to serve 8, are: 

1 ½ pounds of ground turkey breast

1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs

2 cans tomato sauce

2 cans cranberry sauce

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp parsley flakes

!/2  cup instant brown rice

Mix the cans of tomato sauce and cranberry sauce in a stock pot (about 6 quart size) over medium heat, add lemon juice and bring just to simmer.  Once the sauces are combined reduce heat to medium - low.  Mix the turkey breast with all other ingredients, plus take two tablespoons of the heated sauce and add it to the ground turkey mixture.

Mix the ground meat and with wet hands form into 1 ½ inch balls.  Drop balls carefully in the large saucepan.  After all the meat is formed, add a ¼ cup of additional brown rice to the sauce pan.  Cover and cook for one hour.  Serve over rice or noodles.

Enjoy!!

Time Flies

The noise was loud in the market. The end display of canned baked beans had been accidentally knocked over by the person stacking them.  The cans were crashing to the floor and rolling all over the hard tile.  The stunned worker had a look of anguish on his face.  The store manager was quickly heading toward him.  I felt badly for him, a young man probably a few years younger than my son.  I wanted to go over and tell him it was just an accident, these things happen.  But, as I stood there watching the incident unfold, a young baby near me was crying, screaming loudly, from the noise.  The Mom was busy trying to hold onto her other child, keep him from going after the cans that were rolling all over the floor.  You could see her exasperation building.

The baby continued to scream, building to sobs as the mom looked dazed.  Then, without much warning, the mom’s patience was gone and a rage set in.  She must have forgotten she was in public. She began screaming at her toddler and her baby, which, of course, only made them cry harder.  The scene was one of mayhem.  Between the baked bean fiasco and the noise from this young family, it was crazy. 

The mom continued to yell at her children, telling them they were embarrassing her, and to behave.  (I felt like saying the same to her).  I watched as her sobbing baby’s eyes looked at her mom as if to say, “Mom, I was frightened by the noise, please don’t make it worse, comfort me”!  But, instead, the mom was beyond reason. She yanked the hand of the toddler and with the other she pushed the cart hard down the aisle.  I heard the baby’s cries for a bit longer but gradually they subsided.  On purpose I wasted a bit of time on the aisle I was on, hoping they would get far ahead of me.  I couldn’t stand watching the fear on the children’s faces.

I am an “older” mom.  My ‘children’ are now 27 and 22 years old and the days of screaming toddlers are long behind me.  Of course I remember the stress of those times, there are challenging days, however, I felt like taking the mom aside and telling her how quickly these days pass.  Before you know it, your children are off on their own path.  You wait for phone calls and times shared together.  Those times are all you want.  I felt like telling her to treasure the moments when comforting your child involves nothing more than a good hug and kiss. When you hold them close and let them know they are safe, that you won’t let anything harm them.  Cherish those moments, for they fly by.

So, to all those young moms out there, please take a moment to realize that although the days of having young children may seem like they are never going to end, they will.  Appreciate them, comfort your children while it’s in your power to do so.  Remember, minutes and days may seem long, but years go fast.

Remembering Holidays Gone By.....Passover

The scent of brisket filled the air, even on the front porch!  Cooking the meat low and slow was always part of the Seder preparations.  The morning had been spent making the mashed potatoes, the spinach casserole and the cooked apples with cinnamon.  My Aunt was bringing her famous Passover kugel, made sweet and delicious and my in-laws were bringing the dessert.  My cousin was bringing the “Kosher for Passover” wine and the gefilte fish was the domain of my Mother.  I had prepared the turkey yesterday and the table was set, actually the multiple tables were set, with paper plates made special for the holiday – a Star of David decorated the center of each plate.

I thought everything was coming together nicely.  Considering I had forty people coming to my townhouse, I was relatively calm at this point.   As I swept the porch, however, a strange silence was apparent.  I went back in my house only to find that it was quiet, no television was playing, and I could have sworn I had left the kitchen light on…..it was off.

I must have flipped a breaker, I thought as I walked into the house.  Everything was quiet, everything off.  Luckily, it was light enough that I could make my way into the basement and check the breakers.  With a quick rise in panic I noticed that none of the breakers had flipped.  It wasn’t going to be that simple, we had lost our power.  Forty guests were scheduled to arrive in less than 3 hours.  Dinner needed to warmed and served, the brisket needed to be cooked through…panic set in.

I picked up my cell phone and called my husband.  “Check the breakers,” he told me.  Since I was a bit agitated at this point, I pointed out that I was not an idiot and had already done that. He said he’d call the electric company.  Anxiously, I paced back and forth across my darkening kitchen.  On the first ring, I picked up my phone to hear my husband telling me there was a major outage in our neighborhood and the estimated time to be back up and running, at this point, was 6:15 PM. 

“Oh No!”, I cried!  Everyone was supposed to arrive at 5:30!  What should I do?

My daughter and son arrived home from school.  The big news was that just when they were calling the buses, the school went dark!   They took their book bags up to their rooms and munched on apples.  I called my Mother.

Don’t panic, she said, we’ll just move the dinner to her house.  But, that wouldn’t work.  My townhouse wasn’t large, but her apartment was way too small for 40 people.  Plus, how in the world would I notify everyone when most were coming right from work! There wasn’t time to switch anything; we would just have to make do.

I found all my candles and lit them all around the downstairs.  The tables actually looked very lovely with the soft light of the delicate flames.  I opened the oven briefly to check the “doneness” of the brisket.  Luckily, it was almost ready…so, what else could I do but fire up the barbeque, wrap the meat in foil, and cook it the rest of the way outside!

As my family arrived, one by one, I explained the situation and everyone took it in stride.  After all, we were getting together to celebrate freedom – why not be free from electricity! (I could think of a host of reasons, but they were all trying to be supportive and in the spirit!)

My Mother arrived and put the gefilte fish on the plates.  Luckily, that is not served hot.  We sat around the tables, each table separated by the generations.  The youngest table sang the Four Questions by candlelight.  It was actually quite moving. (And, luckily, it wasn’t totally dark yet since it stays lighter later in Pennsylvania in the month of April!)

By this point, the brisket was done, and actually looked quite good.  I placed my soup in 3 pots and heated them, one on the side burner, two inside the barbeque.  If you’ve never eaten barbequed matzo ball soup before, this was certainly a new experience! 

We decided to take a break after the soup, tell stories, as the rest of the meal heated up, item by item, on the grill.  I learned so much!  Stories that no one had ever taken the time to elaborate on before were told.  Maybe it was the atmosphere of the candles or the shared dilemma, or the Holiday, but even the youngest of the children listened intently to the stories of past Passovers.  Stories that involved relatives who were no longer with us and stories that involved a time of slower pace and less angst. 

As each part of the entrée was warmed enough, we would eat that part as the other parts heated in turn.  Each dish was properly savored and appreciated.  Each cook told of how it was prepared, interrupted with quips and side-stories.

As the last of the turkey was served, the lights came up, the television started blaring and everyone looked around at each other. 

In unison, we shut the lights, turned off the television, and finished our Seder in a quiet, candlelit fashion.  It was truly a special Passover!

Unemployment woes

Okay, so I'm 53.  I realize I'm not young, but I'm not old either!  I had a job interview last week.  I was very excited since I not only knew people who worked at this company, I knew I was absolutely, positively right for the job.  I have all the qualifications and then some.  My experience in an almost identical position, doing the almost identical work, was successful and those who worked at this location knew me and recommended me.  So, did I get the job?  No.....they "passed" on me.  That was the word from the nice woman in HR.  Passed on me, like I was a fruit salad!  Why?  Because the system I worked at previously was too sophisticated and they didn't feel I would be able to work through the problems on a less sophisticated one.  Actually, their impression is completely off.  I did work with one system that was more sophisticated, but I also worked with one that was probably less sophisticated, and I told them so during the interview!  And, in any case, the first woman who interviewed me (about 30 ish) who would be my boss, said that no one outside the company knows their system and anyone would have to learn it.  So, I am left with a few options. Either they just didn't like me personally OR my age worked against me.

I am so frustrated!  Just had to vent.

Welcome!

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