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	This week's ReEntry editor is a social worker who just recently realized that she will be spending the next 40 years of her life going to work every day. She's glad that she can still find humor in her workplace, and writes about it just about every day. Meet... Stasi

I love reading about the trials and tribulations of people in career-mode (or the lack thereof.) My reading list spans a wide variety of working journallers: from web design to college student to secretary to school teacher to lawyer to doctor to stay-at-home mom. Needless to say, I really wish the "What Do They Do?" 'burb would be updated! Here are a few "worker ant" entries that have made me laugh or cry in recent months.

July 23rd
"The Long Road Home" by Tala

"You know... it's sad when it comes to this, playing kiss ass so you don't lose your job. If I could shove it, I sure as hell would. But I can't. I am the money maker ("Hey honey, shake your money maker") and the one with all the insurance. So I have to find a way to hang on... find a way to persevere. And I will... just because that is me."

That is she. That is all of us, at one time or another. Desperately needing to find a voice in the workplace yet stifled by our need for money and other benefits that the job gives us. I'm hoping that writing this entry gave Tala some peace of mind after a long hard day, because it sure made me laugh and want to shove my own job.

My Darling Authors
"Freak Magnet" by Moira

A few years ago I was trying to relax in the bathtub I had a glass of wine, some incense burning, and candles all around. Everything was great until I reached for the soap, knocked the glass into the tub, and then managed to cut myself badly on the broken glass.

So badly in fact I ended up going to the emergency room but not until much, much later. We'd just been forced to switch insurance providers and I had all my insurance stuff at the job. So I bandaged up my leg (the cut was on my thigh) and drove to work...

One of the women from our accounting... insisted I go into the bathroom and show her the wound.

'I grew up on a ranch in Montana,' she says, 'I can take anything.'

So I pull down my pants and show her.

She starts screaming."

Moira is a copy editor, a job she claims is not interesting despite the glamorous image we hold in our mind about book editing. She loves to tantalize us with little factlets about what she learned at work that day, and she has me convinced that it is possible to still love to read after doing it all day long. Read her from start to finish, I promise you'll enjoy it!

I Went to College for THIS?
"Elsewhere" by Bobbi

"I pick them up, take them back to the room and they're already starving again. It's time for snack. The school doesn't provide one, but luckily I've told the parents on the telephone before the first day that the children will need a snack. Half of them don't have one anyway. Break out the Goldfish! The teacher came prepared! Uh-oh... little Johnny has saved an ice cream sandwich from the lunchroom for his snack and now it's dripping all over the floor. We have a quick lesson in the properties of liquids and how they freeze and melt as I wipe up the mess."

Haven't you ever wondered what a school teacher really thinks of her students? Find out from Bobbi. A kindgergarten teacher with a secret wild-streak, she'll tell you about how she is always afraid that one of her students will see her getting plastered at the bowling alley. "If the parents only knew what their kindergarten teacher really does," she told me once. I'll never look at school teachers in the same light.

August 17th
"Beautiful Imbalance" by Kim

"I look at other people my age, and feel almost jealous. They have, or they seem to have, great lives. They have nice things, great jobs that pay well. They have all these 'things' (material and non material) that I, so far, can only dream about. Granted, most of these people have probably worked very hard to get where they are. I know I've made choices in my life resulting, more or less where I am now, I know I made my bed, I have to lie in it. But I sure... don't have to like it."

I check in with Kim on a daily basis just to see if she's found the dream job yet. So far, no luck. Though I think her luck is about to change: she is about to make a huge move from Louisiana to Chicago! Hopefully the job market will be kind to her.

Original "ReEntry" concept by Gus () and other DIARY-L participants.