Career Archives - Page 2 of 2 - The Dusty Parachute by Susanne Kerns

Top 10 Reasons to Visit The Dusty Parachute in 2015

January 1, 2015June 30, 2016 The Dusty Parachute by Susanne Kerns Leave a comment

New Year’s Day is the perfect time to reflect back on the past year (while lying hungover on the couch eating stale Christmas cookies.) Many of the bloggers I follow are doing fun ‘Top 20 Posts of 2014’ lists. I thought of doing something similar but seeing as how I have only done around 30 posts since starting The Dusty Parachute a few months ago, that would be like saying “Come to the site & read everything!”

So, instead I’ve categorized some of my 2014 posts to help give you an idea of which ones you will enjoy most based on your interests. Assuming that many of my 2015 posts will fall into these same categories, it also doubles as a “Top 10 Reasons to Visit The Dusty Parachute in 2015”.
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How to Follow the Facebook Pages You’ve Followed

November 6, 2014June 30, 2016 The Dusty Parachute by Susanne Kerns 2 Comments

Stay at home moms do some pretty strange things during the course of a week, (performing emergency Lego minifigure extractions from the bowels of plastic alligators comes to mind).

But probably the strangest things I do with my week, does not happen ‘at home’.

It’s happens on Tuesday mornings when I go to my kids’ school and spend 30-40 minutes straightening up the Lost & Found rack and then photographing every single (kid-germed, playground-dust-caked) coat, sweater, hat, shoe (usually singular), water bottle, lunch box, book, dinosaur, tip jar (?), barrette, etc and post the photos to a Facebook page I set up for the school’s Lost & Found.
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A Tribute to My Amazing Husband (after 2 glasses of wine)

November 5, 2014June 30, 2016 The Dusty Parachute by Susanne Kerns 3 Comments

My husband’s first book was released today.

I had planned on making him a special celebratory dinner before he left to New York, but since I couldn’t go to the store after our daughter came home sick yesterday, we ended up having eggs for dinner instead.

I thought maybe I could squeeze some congratulations in this morning, (not a euphemism), but he got up quietly to take care of our daughter at 5:00 am when she was feeling sick again and had to work some timing miracles to get in to vote in today’s election before his flight left. Before I could remind the kids to congratulate daddy on his big day, he was already reminding them to be nice to me on my birthday, in a few days.
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Why I Have a P.O. Box in Manchaca, TX

October 22, 2014April 20, 2017 The Dusty Parachute by Susanne Kerns Leave a comment

I’m one of the most trustworthy* people you will ever meet. Probably the most deceitful thing I have done this year was substituting ham for turkey in the kids’ lunches last week while still calling them ‘turkey sandwiches’.

So, I felt positively Gone Girl’esque yesterday as I drove to the next town over and got myself a super secret PO Box. Okay, so it’s not super secret since I’m telling you and the first thing I did was text my husband a picture of it telling him:

Why do I need a PO Box? Am I having a scandalous long-distance affair with someone from the 1850’s? Do I ……. okay, that’s about the only reason I can think of that I would need a PO Box.
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I’m an Enigma Wrapped in a Mystery, Wrapped in Comfortable Mom Pants

September 18, 2014July 25, 2016 The Dusty Parachute by Susanne Kerns 17 Comments

The first time I took a Myers-Briggs test was at my first job, almost 20 years ago. I was 23 years old, working 80+ hours a week as an Assistant Media Planner at a big ad agency. Our Media Director had just returned from some management training session and was very enthusiastic about us all gaining a better of understanding of how to work with each other based on our personality types.

This was going to be interesting.

My direct manager was a professional/executive type by day, but at night he would transform full goth, put on vampire teeth and go to rave bars, often coming in the next morning with traces of eyeliner and drinking near-lethal amounts of coffee to survive the rest of the day.
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My parachute is dusty, and so is my ‘Parachute’ book.

September 18, 2014June 30, 2016 The Dusty Parachute by Susanne Kerns Leave a comment

You know that my job search procrastination has reached a special level when I’m willing to go out and start cleaning the garage. And you know the world is trying to guide you back to your job search when among the piles, you find a dusty copy of “What Color Is Your Parachute?”

I immediately note two things about the book: 1) It has clearly never been opened and 2) It’s the 2004 edition. I try to recall when and why I acquired this book. By 2004 I was already pregnant and I quit my job in 2005 with no intentions of working again for at least 4 years. I can only assume that I bought it around my 3rd month of being a stay-at-home mom, when I was still building Excel worksheets to analyze feeding times, duration and volume consumed, (oh yes I did). Without a doubt, not working was a much bigger shock to my system than that tiny baby was and I have a feeling that even then, somewhere in my sleep deprived haze, I was anxious to start figuring out what my post-kid phase would be.
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Last Day of Preschool = Last Day of Excuses

August 15, 2014June 30, 2016 The Dusty Parachute by Susanne Kerns 6 Comments

Today is my 4 year old son’s last day at preschool. The 2 bottles of champagne are thank you gifts for his teachers…The bourbon is for me.

I don’t need a drink because he’s done with school. I need a drink because in 10 days he will be starting ‘real’, as in 6 hours a day/5 days a week, school and after almost a decade out of the work force, it’s time for me to get serious about thinking about what I want to do next.
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