I was welcomed aboard Monday at the highest-paying job I’ve yet held.  I used to work in a computer center but I am not one for technology. At my new job everyone was talking about the new executive health program and how great it is, and all that.  This isn’t anything new to me.  When I was director of development at Shinestone, I had my OWN gymnasium.  All I had to do was walk down a tiny corridor and turn left.  There it was, parallel bars, balance pole, and all.  Now here I’m making $20K more than I was at Shinestone and I have to share an executive workout gym with ten other people!!!  I was quick to hide my disappointment, but Lynn, the only other woman in administration, was paying pretty close attention.  She had heard all about Shinestone and all their so-called perks.  But did I know about the embezzlement scandal?  Why don’t you just not tell me about it, I jived her.  (Of course I knew about the embezzlement.  You couldn’t work at that place and not know about it!)  Even so—no point in discussing a rather embarrassing situation with a new co-worker.  Why give away any of their secrets, for positive or negative results.  Right now, I was feeling that at Ten-to-One Companies Limited, I wasn’t getting as good a deal—except for that magical, life-affirming salary, that is.  You know, I think I’ll forego putting down toward that condominium on the riverwalk just now, wait a few months, and see what happens—maybe Shinestone will get down on their knees.

So I got the loan and bought the technological equipment and hired the help and bought the materials.  This is how I have ended up bancarrota.  I went back to my bank and asked them what they discovered about the German company, and they came back with a clean bill of health.  The following week the Germans came to visit me.  They flew in and I even picked them up at the airport.  We toured the plant and they talked to the floor managers and other operations staff.  They seemed quite happy.  So we went out to dinner that night.  The next morning we would be traveling downstate to see some materials suppliers.  Those guys were hard partiers too.  Up until all hours.  Finally I left them at a local place and went home.  It was 2am and I had to be in at 6am.  I laid down and no sooner than I did that than  my alarm was going off.  Fortunately, I didn't have much to drink, so I felt fine.  The next morning at 8am the Germans marched in the door, and they looked quite refreshed.  How they can be I don't know.  We left after some coffee and tea, and it took about 3 hours to get downstate.  

I used to write for a How To website called eHow.com.  The site is the most extensive database of how to articles relating to technology today on the Internet, ranging in articles from how to file bankruptcy to how to brush turn on your computer and everything in between.  The freelance gig I had with them was in the areas of sports, hobbies, games and recreation.  It did not pay that great, but they were easy articles to write.  I could also write about what I knew best.  I wrote stories on how to be the ultimate fan of a few different sports teams, how to best attend different sporting events, and how to articles that consisted of card playing strategy.  Eventually my well ran dry of ideas of new how to articles.  You are not allowed to repeat ideas that are already on the site, and I could not come up with any more ideas for how to articles.  The way that it works with the site is you have to commit to a certain amount of articles, and then they give you a deadline to meet to have them all completed by.  Eventually I could not come up with enough ideas, and it was time to find a new freelance gig.