Sleeping Beau....well, sleeping anyway

Slept all day yesterday, all night last night and was well on my way this morning. The whole time I'm thinking, 'What was I thinking? I don't have the energy to do a blog. Nimrod.'. Another project started, not completed. And this one, quite publicly.

My whole life, I've tried to figure out what to do with myself. After high school, I went to college because it seemed like the smart thing to do. Back then, my parents were willing and able to pay for it so it wasn't a struggle financially. I went for two years, dropped out for a year, went back for a year, the whole time taking courses, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. It finally seemed like a waste of my parents money so I quit after the third year. Before long, I was bored and unemployable so I enrolled in a local tech school and got my degree in data processing. Then I got a job at Mutual (well, it was my third job after graduating but that's another story). So, I'm working at Mutual and I loved/hated my job. I wanted to do something else (like culinary school) but I was hooked on the paycheck. And the vacation time I had earned. So I stayed.

Trying to be brief...I started at Mutual in 1985. I started having pain in my neck in '86 or '87. It spread and got worse. It was so bad in 1995 that I thought I was going to have to quit. I didn't think I could sit at a computer anymore. But we did some things, made some changes (ergonomic) and it got better. Then again in 2001, the pain got really bad. This time it didn't get better. The pain was all through my torso, my hips, legs, feet, pretty much from the neck down. Then in 2003, the fatigue hit me. I had worked a bunch of overtime over a couple of weeks (we were in crisis mode at work). It took about a year before the fatigue got any better.

So, August of 2006, I had been on pain meds since December of 2001. I was exhausted. After 21+ years at Mutual, and 34 years in Omaha, I quit my job and moved to New Mexico. Now what?

By now, I'm 49 years old and I still don't know what I want to do. I had lost interest in cooking a few years back. I enjoy interior design but I don't have the energy or strength to do any of the work myself. I guess I could go to design school. I've dabbled in energy psychology (www.emofree.com), I considered buying an anti-cellulite machine, I got into a nutritional supplement distributorship.

When I found the chocolate company www.sarashealthychocolate.com (or rather, it found me), I was pretty excited. I love the products (way better than nutritional supplements) and I thought it was a great opportunity to build a business. But something still wasn't right. On the one hand, I'm still struggling with the pain and the fatigue and even though this is a great opportunity for people to make money and possibly improve their health with these products, it wasn't enough to make me jump out of bed in the morning and feel like I'm doing something worthwhile. And I guess that's what I was looking for.

And now I think I've found it. After 51 years (or 31, if you give me a 20 year start), I think I've found something rewarding that will make the world a better place. Something that is so me, it's not even funny. To be continued....