I don't really have any idea what I'm doing, but I felt the need to start writing about what's going on in my life, and maybe someone might read it and have suggestions or support or just laugh! I've written in a journal sporadically over the years, but I don't like writing to myself. I'm critical of my own writing, I talk back to myself, and it rarely helps rid me of the angst or whatever motivated me to write in the first place. So I thought I'd try a blog. If not one single person ever reads this (which I realize is a distinct possibility) that'll be okay too. Just need to do something different.
So I had a great job teaching English in NJ, and then I met my future husband. I wasn't happy in NJ - all my friends had moved away and I spent a lot of time visiting them, grading papers or going on bad eharmony dates. After a year of dating and driving 2 hours each way to see each other, we decided to get married and merge our lives. I had no great love of New Jersey, although I did dearly love my job for the first time in my 10 years of teaching. I had been there for 3 years, and had just gotten tenure. The pay was decent - not at the top of the payscale for the area, but not at the bottom either. I had great benefits, good work friends, and I loved the kids. It was a small town, and the people were generally very friendly and kind. I had just created the middle school's first newspaper, and would have been the coach of the JV softball team for the high school the following year. Things were going well - but my fiance was a realtor and it wasn't feasible for him to pack up and start his business all over again. Also, he owned his house and I was only renting; it was much more expensive to live in NJ than in the mountains of PA where he was from. I rationalized that it would be easy for me to find another job; afterall, I had always found a teaching job when I needed one; I was a great interviewer, and I had the aforementioned Master's Degree. So, with some sadness and trepidation, I made the decision to leave my job and move to Pennsylvania. I loved my fiance dearly, and we were both hard-working people. We'd find a way to make it work! Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into...
