Sharpening my focus...

I guess it's been about a month between posts. Aside from being busy (a lame excuse, to be sure), I have been struggling about what to write. It turns out (for me, anyway) that having too much freedom is actually limiting. Fortunately, you, my reading public, figured it out for me. I am thrilled (and flattered and humbled) that a number of you (more than 5, less than 100) have actually asked me why I stopped writing after producing several entries in Week 1. And then the light bulb went off! I have no unique expertise to share and I realize that my the populace of readers won't expand much (if at all) beyond those who know me. However, given that I live so far from many of the people who mean so much to me, I can use this blog as a tool to keep you posted on what's transpiring in my life. Admittedly, I can only do this in a superficial, stick-to-the-facts matter, but any of you who would like some emotional elaboration can always call or e-mail if something piques your interest. For many reasons, this shouldn't be the place for me to share my innermost feelings. Having seen so many articles about the link between what one blogs and the end of that person's career growth, I'd prefer not to be the subject of one of those articles. (Just in case I ever have a career again. :) ) . . . Does this mean I have to abandon the "Oprah" dream? . . .

So, you ask... what's new? Well, for starters, I have a job again, albeit another contract attorney job. I'm working at Amazon.com handing procurement, operations and retail contracts, among other things. This gig is slated to last "four to six months, maybe longer", but perhaps there will be a long-term opportunity at some point. This position will also give me a chance to add some operations experience to my resume. I did have some exposure to ops at T-Mobile, but the Amazon job is a true legal ops position. I will also continue to network to put myself in the best position to land a permanent job later this year, be it at Amazon or elsewhere.

I started the job in earnest last Wednesday, immediately upon returning from a great trip to New York. I almost had to cancel my visit; I interviewed at Amazon on Monday, 3/9, heard back (from the recruiter) on 3/10, and was asked to start on Monday 3/16 - the day I left for NYC. The folks at Amazon were wonderful in accomodating me - I actually started work that Thursday, 3/12 - got acclimated for two days, met several people, got familiar with company policies and procedures, and then hit the ground running when I returned on 3/25. The trip to NYC was great - I managed to see 11 friends and my Mom, Dad, brother and nephews. I put about 1,000 miles on a rental car and enjoyed every minute of it. I missed my girls, of course, but it was great to be home for a while. Thomas Wolfe was wrong . . .

One more point of interest (perhaps)... I'm contemplating running another marathon for charity - some of you will recall that I did this in 2001 and raised $4000 for leukemia research. I think I'm up for the challenge of training for a marathon (my last one was in 2006) and I should pursue some challenges aside from job-hunting and keeping my daughters out of jail. If I decide to do this, I'd probably do it through Team in Training again and look for a late fall marathon. Raising money is harder than the physical training, and as you'd imagine, I'd be asking all of you (and many others) for donations. And, as I did last time around, I would/will match the largest single donation. I'll keep you posted.

That's all the news here - at least all of the news that I can share without compromising anyone else's privacy. Even a blogger with a few interested readers that can't genuinely be called "followers" (even though Blogger labels them as such) has to weigh some of the same considerations that journalists think through - or should - before publishing.