I’m Julie-Ann and I’m a workaholic.

There.  I’ve said it.  I think about all of life as work.  When I’m not doing my “work for pay” I’m working on projects.  What’s funny is that I was once a project manager for pay and I wasn’t very good at it.  They were uninteresting projects and I hated facilitating conference calls.

I didn’t love the projects I was managing.

These days, I like my “work for pay.”  I work for a good company, I’ve had a series of smart and inspiring bosses, and hey, I do my job from an upstairs office with a window overlooking all the action on Blethen Street in my hometown.  I can watch children going to school, neighbors walking their dogs, and my fourth grade friend Alan driving by and beeping.

I like my co-workers, too.

This work I do for pay, I’ve done it for most of my adult life, except during the time I was an unsuccessful project manager and a brief period where my friend Jaxon and I worked for what now seems like an imaginary internet start-up company and took naps in our cars at lunch.  Wait, then in the early days of cell phones, he and I both worked in Waltham and commuted on Route 128, talking incessantly to each other while driving.  We talked about traffic, rain, traffic, and whether we could handle another day of it.  His commute was much worse than mine because he had to take Route 495 to Route 3 to Route 128.  He would call me to report on the various detritus in the median strip.  Umbrellas, lawn chairs, and refrigerators.  Poor Jaxon…if you have ever lived within 100 miles of Boston, you’re weeping for him too.

Like me, Jaxon does his work for pay from his home now.  My prediction that “someday we’ll look back on our days on Route 128 and laugh” has come true.

Yay!

How did I end up on Route 128?

On Saturday, I was on a mission.  I was listening to Squeeze (Argybargy) and finishing up a few last things on my desk at work.  The 80’s tunes were just the tonic and I was “in the zone” while typing furiously and putting things in place.  Jaxon tells me his go-to 80’s motivational bands are The Clash and The Stranglers.

Yikes!

I’m on vacation for the next two weeks now and I’m looking forward to banging through a few home projects, reading some books, and doing all my “work” at a slower pace.  I’m still a little Argybargy-amped, though, so once I finish the dishes and drink a second cup of coffee, I’m going to mow the lawn for the last time this year.

Maybe I’ll paint a bureau, move some furniture around, and do laundry like it’s going out of style.  I’m done with Squeeze for now and I’m switching over to The Pogues.

I’m on vacation and I’m living on the sunny side of the street!