Why A Blog?

I'm not sure what direction this blog will take. I DO know that I started it to save my sanity! Since moving here to be with my fiancee a year ago, I have not been able to find a suitable job. I'm a teacher with experience, and I know everyone thinks we always need teachers...NOT so in this area. There are wayyyyy too many of us and not enough jobs and now even more cut backs. So, the obvious option is to substitute. Let me tell you about substituting! It stinks, exceedingly. Now, I don't mean the kids, they're great(ok, mostly). What I primarily mean is how you are perceived and treated by 'regular' school staff. I would say about 80% of the time you are treated as lesser beings. People are very dismissive and ungrateful. Now, I am a reasonably confident person and a highly qualified teacher. However, after a year of being treated disrespectfully on a daily basis; it starts to wear at your self-esteem. You CANNOT complain or you will not get any more work. Other secondary reasons that it sucks are that you never know where you will be going or what hours on any given day, you don't get paid on holidays or all summer, no benefits, the pay is less than what daycare workers make(no kidding!) and last but sadder to me is that you don't make any friends isolated in a classroom in different places all the time. So, I've had my pity party for some time now. I've lost motivation, have gained weight and I don't feel very worthwhile any longer. This is such a difficult adjustment for me. I'm 43, on my third career, highly ambitious and capable. Yet now I have nothing to challenge my active mind and nobody to share with, essentially. Enough of that! I saw 'Artful Blogging' and peeked inside one day. Oh my gosh! Fabulous stuff! It made me feel like doing some of my hobbies again and not so alone as I peruse all the lovely, creative blogs out there. I hope to make some friends along the way here and delve into some artwork that I've yet to try. If nothing else, at least I have this space to go to each day and share something positive that I have done. It already is making me feel more like myself again. I know I'm not just a teacher, fiancee, mother and perhaps I have been too driven, too career-oriented for most of my life and have placed too much value in that as my worth. We shall see where the journey leads...