A working woman again

I am working full-time again, the first time since 2010. Granted this is another contract position, meaning I don't know when it will end but it most likely will in the not too distant future. In any case, boy has it been hard to join the rat race again, waking up at 5:30am to get ready, working all day and dealing with Austin traffic! By the time I get home from my 45 minute commute, I have about 3 hours left to get stuff done before my weary body gives out completely and I head to bed. The problem is that I'm so pooped at night that I don't want to do anything but veg out in front of the television. Now I hate to complain because it's great to get a paycheck and I've been job searching for a long time, but after all that I've been through physically over the years, my body/mind just doesn't bounce back like it used to. Unlike my sister who works an insane amount of hours and has been known to stay up until midnight paying her bills, I need at least a solid eight hours of sleep to feel okay the next morning. I honestly don't know how all you women out there work full-time and raise children. What I'm finding is that since working, my social life, my hobbies, and my never-ending quest for a PERMANENT job, has all gone down the tubes. I'm sure that my working friends and family can completely relate many times over. I don't remember when the last time I painted something. And I sorely miss going to my monthly Pink Ribbon Cowgirl luncheons. In fact, I shouldn't even be wasting my time right now writing this blog post and instead I should be reading my emails and checking the job boards. Ugh.....

Raising money

This past Saturday the Pink Cowgirls held a massive garage & bake sale to raise money for the family of one of our own, a woman who recently lost her fight with breast cancer. By 6am a group of us were assembled to unload, organize and put out for display the bazillions of items that people had generously donated. Most of us helping out at the sale were wearing our Pink Ribbon Cowgirl t-shirts. The doors opened officially at 8am as we were still trying to put stuff out, and it seemed like every few minutes people were arriving to drop off even more items. Meanwhile we were swamped with customers! It got pretty crazy for awhile. One of the Cowgirls made homemade ice cream to sell, while others brought brownies, cookies and cakes. We even sold homemade dog biscuits!

The day was long and tiring but also a ton of fun, made even better by knowing it was for a great cause. And I loved the sense of community that was felt by all, but especially among the Pink Cowgirls. We're still calculating the total amount we raised but I know that there was almost $4000 in checks and cash, not counting the credit card sales.