callkathy

Today's Plinky Question: Who is your best friend? To which I add: Do you have just one or is there a number of them?

My best friend? I don't have just one. I have several. Let's see now...



There is my husband, who is the love of my life and best friend. Most days, he is the best of the best. Love him dearly. He gets me. We work together and live together. For over 26 years, he has been my other half.



Then, there is my oldest and closest friend... the mother of my goddaughter, one of my roommates from college. The person I can tell anything. Michelle understands me in ways no one else does. She knows what I have been through. I know what she has been through. We have been there for each other through good times and bad. Through the joys of watching our children grow up and the pains of letting them go. Through job changes and life changes. We don't see each other nearly often enough.



Always in the list would also be my goddaughter. She reminds me how good things can be. She keeps me in touch with the "younger generation". She makes me smile just to know she is there.



Next would be my mentor: Betsy Weber. She has helped me understand that I have skills that others need. That life goes on, even when bad things happen. She is the one that showed me a social media job was possible, profitable, and workable.



There are others who are good friends. Long term friends. People who used to be best friends, but because of changes in our lives I don't connect with any more. People I couldn't imagine not having been in my life. People like my older sister, who I am very glad is back in my life after a time of disconnection.



All of these together make up my support system. My best friends. The reason I survive and thrive.

Like many, I started in babysitting. One kid or many, evenings or weekends.The first stint that sticks in my memory: New Year's Eve while in 8th grade in Rio de Janerio. 3 kids, from 6 pm to 2 am. Made the equivalent of about $2 per hour.



From there I worked my way up the scale and through the years. In High School, I was a sought after sitter... I came with toys and books for the kids. I knew how to keep them entertained. I could cook basic meals. By Senior year, I was making $5 an hour for my regular gig (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from the time the kids got out of elementary school until 6:30 when their folks got home from work.



During college, I worked on campus in the computer lab for a few hours a week, true. But the bulk of my pocket money came from watching the professor's kids. There were a group of 4 or 6 of us who watched the kids for a couple of the computer science professors. One of us could be found at each house close to 6 nights a week. By this point, I was making $5 an hour. The kids were so much a part of my life that most of them were in my wedding.



Babysitting got me through some rough times. I never went back once I graduated... Or rather, I never charged for it again. I have been know to borrow a kid or two at times over the last couple of decades, but I don't make money at it any more.



Babysitting taught me a lot that matters in my life now: How to explain things so that anyone could understand. How to do 3 or more things at once. How to hug and kiss a hurt away. How to discipline with logic that even a kid could understand. How to keep my head.



Not to mention that I still can make a pretty good kid's meal - I just prefer to have my husband do it.