I heard a discussion on the radio about the unemployment rates in the country right before I started my walk, and I got to thinking, what sort of job would I get in Florida today, if I were to start looking for one? If I really needed one?

So here’s the situation: I am forty six years old. As I’ve said before, I have no degree of any kind – I dropped out of school in the eleventh grade, and did a GED (high school equivalent) in 2000 in California, so even that is now ten years ago. I did not have a work permit all these years living in America on an H4 visa attached to my husband’s H1, so I did not develop any on-the-job skills all these years either.

If I list my skills, I thought, I might gain some insight:

~ I did some photography. I was good, but photography today is beyond me. I used film cameras. I could learn the equipment used today, I’m not particularly afraid of tech – but, it seems counterproductive to embark on an iffy career by investing thousands.

~ I had kids, and raised them, a combined 33 years of experience there. So I could possibly babysit. I’d really rather not. I don’t have a general love for small children – I always wonder about it when people say “I just love kids” – as if they are a species by themselves. I tend to look at them as individuals, same as any other people – so you like some, you don’t like some, and some like you (me), and some don’t. So I won’t be babysitting.

~ I fed those kids I raised, and not just with fast food. One of them will vouch for my cooking, one of them will not. But general comments and sighs and sounds of pleasure from friends and family over the years make me pretty confident that my cooking is alright. So there’s a little ray of hope: I could go into business in the food industry – again high investment – or, I could get a job at a restaurant. I can chop onions, peel potatoes, fry, sauté,  grind, garnish… not wait tables, though, I’m not the most patient or polite person, I might get fired for advising a large patron to go for a salad and walk instead of the steak and fries.

~ I edited a book. Really. The author, Pat Regan, will vouch for my editing skills. So I have a little experience with that. The publishing business is not in the best of health here in America, but it’s a thought. Bit of hope.

And… that’s it and that’s all. No, there’s also housecleaning – dish washing, laundry (I’m not big on folding), driving – I can drive long distances, so I could have a taxi for school kids – school and back, school to swimming and back, soccer, baseball, acting classes and back… kids again. Maybe not. I considered getting a trucker’s license – and find that I am perfect for this job: To get a CDL (commercial) license, I need a GED, a clean driving record, I have to pass a physical, and that’s pretty much it. And I have it all. Plus, I imagine myself on blue highways gathering material for a new book, and this seems, at least in  the imagination, a perfect job. In reality I suspect it is hard, dreary, and caffeine laced on most days, and dangerous on some. Still – I can’t help but consider it as a life I would like to live, at least for a short time.

Of course I’m a writer, and my second book is getting ready for release, and I am in the process of writing the third, and fourth, and fifth (really). But judging from sales of the first, which the publisher says are not bad, and what all my writer friends who are considered successful say – “you can’t live off writing unless you are Stephen king” – royalty is not a good strategy for paying the bills.

Suggestions welcome…