The Core (and unrelated pictures)

May 25, 2006 | Category: On The Job

Mark Twain said that if you put all your eggs in one basket, then you better watch that basket.

So CD's job has suddenly gone from being someplace he goes every day to being an epicenter. It provides our insurance, our income, our current concept of future.

Which sucks, because his job? ... Sucks.

He works in IT at a financial company. Which means, first of all - he's not core.

Best career planning advice anyone can ever give you is this: If you want to move up, you need to be in the core.

That means, you need to be creating the product that your company is selling.

If you're in IT, then work for an IT Company. If you cook, work at a restaurant. If you're in marketing, work for a marketing firm.

If you're a nurse and you work in the health office of a high school, you may be very happy. But there's no "up" from there.

CD keeps the lights on for the IT infrastructure of a company that provides financial services. Which means that there is limited "up". There will be limited compensation. The technology will always be an afterthought that meets the needs of the company's production.

Which is a big reason we continue to look for something else for him - anywhere, as long as it would challenge him and support us.

And the reason why I get these phone calls now, to listen and support as he bangs his head (metaphorically) against the wall. 'Cuz, sure - it didn't matter much back in the day that he knew he could quit if he had to. Ha. Big changes, I'm telling you.

Meanwhile, we finally dumped all the pictures off the camera's flashcard...

Bear and the ceiling at Union Station during one of Bear and I's day trips into the city. One of the things I love about going anywhere with Bear is that it is never just a trip to Point A. There are trees to inspect and designs to study and ceilings with patterns to look up at.

Clearly, Bear has been having fun. I have no clue which Transformer this is, but it was in a series of MANY pictures. It scares me a little, that he lined up his toys and carefully took portraits of each and CD and I had NO CLUE.

OK, now this I remember. This was one of Bear's recent karate tournaments. No one believes me when I try to explain the level of chaos and cacophony.

The moment it gets warm, this boy runs out and starts dousing himself with the hose. You should SEE our water bill in the summer months. It is insane. Can someone explain to me the compulsion this child has with being wet?

The INFAMOUS FOX EARS. The bunny ones I tried to dye? Yeah, that was a disaster. But I let him tie-dye one of his shirts with "fox colors" and that turned out pretty good. His first tie-dye experience and my first in at least a decade. I mean, the backyard grass is now spotted but the shirt isn't bad. Bear loves it, which is most important I think.

Here are CD and Bear hanging out in front of the school after the show. I may be projecting, but even with our impending fall into utter poverty I really believe that, as a family, we're happier. Or it could be that this is the eye of the storm. Huh.

This is a battle cruiser of Bear's. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to figure that out, because the pictures on the card just after it...

... were of the U-Boat 505 that lives at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. Where we went the day after the thing at Bear's school. It is so incredibly huge on the outside and so incredibly tiny inside. And an amazing sight altogether, to turn the corner down a hallway and suddenly be looking down on an entire German submarine that was captured in the Atlantic over 60 years ago.

Three generations walking down the sidewalk as we left the museum. My mom, CD, and Bear far off in the lead.

And finally, some sculptures tucked along the side of the Museum, easy to miss unless you had a curious and bright redhead pointing them out.

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