Author: Patricia

What’s a country that’s at the top of your bucket list?

I have two country’s at the top of my bucket list. The first country is GREECE. I’ve had an affinity to it since I was a kid and the same for the UK. I want to travel to other places but if I were to make it to these two, I would die happy. ❤ 😀

Do you believe in karma?

I do. I don’t know when, don’t know how, I just know that it will come for everyone, eventually.

What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?

You’d think that I would be more spontaneous in my life because it seemed that any plans I have made, always fell through and I got used to it happening, so I stopped making plans. Never thought to be spontaneous, except for 1 time.

I took a trip to Solvang. When to bed one night and thought, I’m going to go on a road trip, so I told my fiancé and kids, and 4/5 of us got in the car early one morning and took off. It was a great day and Solvang was beautiful. Glad I did it. It was a lot of fun.

Now, it seems, I have no time, or I’m too tired. 🙂

How do you make time for self-care?

Usually, after I get home from work, I retire to my room or my fiancé’s house for about an hour and just chill. Sometimes I may take a nap, but to do NOTHING, is amazing to me, to regroup,

I work at a high school and while I absolutely love what I do, it can be very mentally exhausting some days.

I do need me time and just chilling is my self care.

If you had to get a tattoo right now, what would it be and why?

I would get a tattoo of my late husband and my mom’s favorite flowers (2 or 3 of them) their names and their dates of birth and death. <3.

What jobs have you had?

I’ve had several jobs that I have really enjoyed. I started working at 16 at McDonalds. That’s like a typical teenager first job.

When I was 18 and graduated, I worked as a sales clerk in a Woman’s clothing store. I was there a year when the store closed. I met some amazing young women, and my boss, who knew all about fashion as she was once a model. I’m friends with her to this day, but she is extremely busy as a Pastor of a Church, I don’t see much of her, unless I check social media.

From this job, I went on to work at an answering service as a switchboard operator. I worked at this job twice. First time was from 1983 until about 1987. I worked myself up to become a supervisor. It was A LOT of fun! We answered calls for 800 accounts and had 2 or 3 two way radios.

I left this job to work for an ambulance company that we happened to answer for when I worked at the Answering Service. I started here in October 1987 until May 1993, when I went out on maternity leave. I didn’t go back after I had my daughter. The company sold to someone else, so there really was nothing to go back to. I started off as a dispatcher, then moved up to becoming a billing clerk and subbed in Dispatch when needed.

On to greener pastures in 1997. The next job was a dispatcher for a tow truck company. It was a decent job. A bit cutthroat amongst the drivers. Drama between the owner and his wife, but on the plus side, I met a few people who work for AAA who I am still friends with and on another plus side, I was able to bring my second baby to work with me! This job, not sure if the company just shut down or was bought out, but in a year, it was gone.

Between 1998 and 2003, I was the Before and After school Childcare provider at the school of the Church we were attending. It was great and very convenient because my daughter was now starting kindergarten and she attended school there.

In November 2006, year after my husband died, I started working for a school district. I started off as a sub employee, filling in for clerical, noon duty supervisor, and a Sr. Instructional Assistant in Special Ed. I subbed for 13 years, until I became permanent in 2019. I will work for the same district, and I absolutely love it! I’m still an SIA in Special Ed, but now I’m pushing in, working with high school students with IEP’s. This is by far, I believe, my favorite job. High schoolers are great! They make me laugh with all their shenanigans, and they keep me young!

I LOVE what I do!

Describe one simple thing you do that brings joy to your life.

One “simple thing” that brings me joy is the laughter of my granddaughter. It’s like listening to Cherubs play.

It hurts my soul when she cries, but oh when she laughs, even her fake laughs, crack me up! I love spending time with her, which is every day because she lives with me.

I work at a high school so a lot of times, I go home tired, I take a little time for myself, to decompress then I’m reenergized when I put on my grandma hat to hang with her.

She’s almost two years old, not quite 3 feet tall, and weighs 24 pounds. She’s petite, but so full of energy and personality.

She brings so much joy to our home, I just adore her.