The simple things...

It has been a very challenging month (give or take 2 weeks) and it has led me to this revelation...
Sometimes I want to go back to the simpler things in life.
To sum it up...
I had to watch 2 of my closest friends get laid off from the company I work for because the owners are cutting costs (plus 21 other people who I love and have missed terribly since 8/1) and I am still there, typing and stapling and filing away in the silence that used to occupy their voices.
It's hard.
It made me think about a job vs. a career. I am tired of having a job. What do you do Lauren? Well, I am an Office Manager in a company that sells All Inclusive Vacations...a J.O.B. When I think back to what I wanted to be 'when I grow up' it was a nurse. So after saying tearful goodbyes to loved friends I decided to back to school and become one, just like that. I am 31 and starting college all over again. I was worried I would be the oldest person in my Chemistry class, and it turns out I am probably on the younger end.
I got very sick recently (including a fainting spell while sitting in a wheelchair in the hotel lobby), while in Mexico on vacation with my sister and very close friend...
NO ONE wants to get sick in a foreign country, let alone Mexico. The only thing worse than that is coming to the decision that you will allow a doctor with very broken English to inject two different needles full of medicine into each one of your butt cheeks. He kept saying the problem was metabolico and I finally gave in. The only thing worse than THAT, is having your sister push you in a wheelchair through the Cancun airport while your 4-month pregnant friend (oh, I didn't mention that before) wheels all 3 pieces of carry on luggage behind you...a LOW point.
That sums up the last 6 weeks...a lot going on. And if you know me, you would agree.
That brings me to the apex of this post. On my way to school on Saturday, I had to go through a Turnpike toll plaza. I am probably one of the last people to buy a Sun Pass (which I am not proud of) which is the single most ingenious invention ever created for FL tax payers. It was one that only cost $.25 and there was an EXACT CHANGE lane. I totally forgot about those. I remember when I was little and my Dad would drive up just past one so that either I or my sister could throw the quarter into the big white plastic basket from the back seat. He would always have one extra quarter ready for us in case we missed. Well yesterday, I had exact change, and I pulled into that lane and threw it in, on the first try. It took me right back to those days in that old rusty colored Ford LTD (with the upholstery that would give me knee burns if I slid across the backseat too quickly) when we used to throw the quarters into the Exact Change basket and...
I smiled to myself.