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I'm a writer who never kept a diary. I never felt comfortable with or had the desire to write about myself. If I made an attempt, it would always come out all wrong and I'd quickly return to the safety of the fiction endeavors that I so love. Following (writing about) the adventures of “Evil Assassin” or “Sexy Vampire” were so much more exciting. When I was at the so-called appropriate age to keep a diary, social networking was not even a glimmer in a marketer's eye. Everything was personal and private. If news was to be shared, you had to call someone - on a rotary phone!

Well, times do change.

Once upon a time, I used Word Perfect. A hard battle was fought before I switched to Word. Once upon a time, I searched with Yahoo! and when Google came onto the scene, I turned my nose up at it. Today, I too Google with the rest of the 99.9% of the Googlers out there.

I'm still not on Facebook. Betty White said it was a waste of time, and I agree with her. So far. Twitter, however, I have become addicted to. It is a 140 character voyeuristic window into other people's lives. I feel a little dirty as I read the tweets of those I'm following, but in a good way. I don't need a shower when I'm done. Even better, I water daily the buds of friendships with twitter strangers, people who live near and quite far from me. I tweet about what they’ve tweeted, mentioning them so they know I’m out there listening. Sometimes, they respond in kind and a mini twitter conversation takes place.

Things really do change.

Today, I have a blog and write about my life. In essence I have an online diary that I've opened to the world. Some have stumbled in, mostly from my tweets directing them to it. And a fascinating and wonderful turn of events has since occurred. The buds of friendship have started to blossom.

Strangers whom I do nothing more than tweet with have taken precious moments from their days to read my words and comment on them, either on my blog or in tweets to me. These little offerings have made me smile, laugh, even feel warm and gooey. So to all of you, a huge thank you!

Follow them. They are good, kind people who you will enjoy getting to know.

@annikkawoods
@Ren_Thompson
@jackdrew
@LovelyLu
@SueanneShirzay
@GraceWen
@HWeissauthor
@ThatBarbPerson

I recently started following Barbara's blog. It's great and I recommend it. Find it here: Brainstorms & Bylines.

Now, I must admit that these shout outs to my twitter buddies is not entirely my own idea. I have been reading a blog for the past several days and stole it from him. This guy is hilarious and has what is almost a disturbing take on life. I recommend him for some light, wacky reading when you have a moment. He refers to himself as Robblogger. His blog is Inspired by Caffeine & Nicotine.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming, Notations by Diane Amy. A sweet little ongoing story whose conclusion will take many seasons to reach.

Today Something Happened

Today I landed a job. Nothing too remarkable about that except that I'd been seeking one for over a year. I got laid off in May of '09 from a job that I thought I'd keep until retirement. A job I enjoyed in online marketing. So much for best laid plans as the economy tanked. Anyway, today I got a job. Sort of. In retail sales, something I've never done before. I'm now on call at a large well-known department store for $7.40 per hour. I can look forward to approximately 10-15 hours of work a week. The math on this one is easy. I'll be lucky to take home $400 per month. That's a long fall from $67,000 per year plus performance bonus.

I suppose beggars can't be choosers. That's how the expression goes, isn't it? My unemployment benefits ran out a few months ago, and I have since been sucking dry my meager savings. Any employment is good employment, I suppose. My goal now is to make this work, get rave reviews from whoever my managers will be, and pick up as many hours as I can. This plan should lead to full time, 40 hours per week, and that much more income to pay my bills.

So this is how I begin my days of blogging. With this good news of a sort. I'm happy about it, but not really. It's nothing to sing and dance about. As my fiancé said, we'll still go broke but it'll just take a little longer now. That was a joke, sort of.

Do I sound bitter? That's because I am. I'm 46 years old and too tired to start a new career. Except that I have no choice. Ha! I sound like Danny Glover from Lethal Weapon. Ah well, time to make some lemonade out of the lemons life has handed me. Let's see. Here's one glass of that sugary sweet libation. I now have an excuse to purchase some new clothing! And, I get an employee discount of 20% off in the bargain! Yeah, I can live with that. Things are looking up already.

Now for some more fun. My job hunting days are far from over. Since I don't have regular hours, and hence, no steady income, I must find another job. A daunting task, yes, since it took me this long to get my first, but I remain optimistic. The snot-nosed little kid who hired me today (yeah, he was a twenty-something), did so on the spot. Maybe being crazy overqualified, which little snot nose reminded me of more than twice, at a retail position is the way to go. I'll find out soon enough. I have another interview lined up for tomorrow at another well known national department store. Maybe I can be on call at two retail locations. Fingers crossed. Whoo hoo!

I'm a writer (unpublished, yet) so I hope I've not already become a boring blogger. I'm not all that good at writing nonfiction. I prefer dark tales of bad things happening to good people and how they rise to the occasion to battle the forces of evil to become heroes to themselves and those around them. Errr, sort of. And now that I think about it, that, hopefully, describes my life as it is right now. I should start seeking an agent. This could be my big break! Not really, and for the record, I like writing simple urban fantasy and horror stories.

I suppose that anyone who stumbles upon this diary of mine can come along for the ride as I chronicle my Adventures in Retail. Hmm, sounds like a book I'd read. Hey! I should write it! Anyway, I welcome all those who do find their way to my humble blogging abode. Have a look around, read a few words. Heck, even settle in and put your feet up on the furniture. I don't mind at all. Here's a glass of lemonade, the use of coasters are optional.

Well, there you go. I've written my self-imposed goal of a minimum of 600 words. I should have striven for 700, I'm sooo close. Ah, there we go. Thank you and good night.

(702 words)