What does everyone do for a living?

I am retired from General Motors took a early retirement three years ago. I was 55,and they were offering early out all over USA. I work part time a few days a week at a pottery shop.

full time grad student in the process of applying for doctoral programs : ) Very busy and def have pushed through the worst of the disease!

I am a college professor, I developed my perianal fistuala during the last year of my dissertation writing, delayed writing and job searching by one good year. Well not exactly flexible schedule, I have to be on campus four days a week and on certain occasions on Saturday's too. The only thing is that I have adjusted my schedule in such a manner that I start my day only around 11 am or after and I work until 8 pm or 9 pm depending on semester. This allows me to deal with CD in the mornings. On Fridays I work out of home, glued to my computer, telephone, and fax. I effectively hid my disease for sometime, until it erupted in a ugly manner and chair of the department visited me in the hospital concerned that I might die (last few years I have landed up in hospital with a obstruction several times). Still I manage to put a good front and don't let my students or anyone else let into the seriousness of my illness. Only thing is that CD has really really cramped my style, I don't go out of town (stay within a 50 mile radius) very often and even if I do go to major cities or something like that and I always keep a close eye on bathrooms and look up the nearest hospital (just in case).

LOL,Mike, LOL.
Impressive,LOL,impressive...

So interesting to see what everyone "does" :)

I'm a Legal Coordinator at one of the major record labels/music companies in Los Angeles.  I oversee majority of our copyright issues.

Graduate student in chemical engineering. Defending my thesis next month (fingers crossed) and FINALLY getting outta here.

SydneyJo -
When I fell in love with Muay Thai it became an obsession and like oxygen. Before started Thai boxing I was like a normal girl who would do an hour of exercise a week and be exhausted but when you fight which involves training for 4- 5 hours a day eg below. it changes forever what your 'idea' of being fit and active is and fighters I know just love being "fighting fit" even when they are not actively fighting. The other thing that motovates me is the fear of losing my skill and not being the best teacher I can be so even when im very sick I can think of nothing worse than sparring and have someone front kick me in the stomach, but it makes me a better fighter because I move better trying not to get hit ha ha.

Normal daily training when i'm fighting:
morning run 3km
weights training / plyometrics training
Bag rounds for 1 hour
Thai Pad rounds 1 hour
Sparring/ grappling rounds 1 hour
afternoon sprints 3kms

When I have trained like this for so long it seems like a holiday to 'just' go for a run and hit some pads, and don't get me wrong there is NOTHING left after I exersice and may spend every other minute on the couch for the rest of the day but knowing I did it helps my mind so much. I have lots people that come to me to teach them how to fight also like woman for anti rape, younger guys who are not big in size that get targeted when they are out and other people so its always an easy motivation when your job is helping people protect themselves or give them more confidence.

Sniper -
I have had so much trouble with joint pain! I nagged my doctors to tell me why I had it but never had an explanation so after a few visits to natruopaths and Chinese herbalists they thought it was related to blood quality - which made sense to me because I was severely anemic and malnurished so after I had an iron transfusion and some chinese herbs and vitamins and stuff the joint pain is %80 better. Although when I did have the pain I just had to work through it. I believe there can be nothing wrong in giving your sick body fresh air, keeping your muscles moving, endorphins and a pat on the back for doing what felt impossible when you woke up in the morning ha ha.

At the end of the day my career choose me and although i used to have a desk job (which seems the best option for someone with Crohn's disease) one day this disease will calm down and I will go back to fighting again and be my happiest so till then I can happily wait and suck up the bad days and know that I can handle anything this disease throws at me if I can handle the kicks in the guts when I've been on the toilet all day.

pb4,,nothing boring about housework. I do my share and its good exercise. As for missing conversing with adults, the ones I use to work with were more like 3 year olds..

Riss, you do exactly what I would love to do. I'm a third year law student and attempting to figure out what exactly I'll be doing when I graduate in May. For the first time in my life I am in remission. I'm definitely not back 100% to feeling great, what with the endometriosis and other stuff I have going on, but I feel like it's my version of a "normal" life. I'm loving it and able to go to power yoga almost every day.

Illini said...
Graduate student in chemical engineering. Defending my thesis next month (fingers crossed) and FINALLY getting outta here.

I heard that is one of the hardest fields, along with organic chem. My brother applied to U of I for agro-business.

CrazyHarry said...
organic chem wasnt too bad, but being in the class with a like a hundred pre-med students vying for 15 spots into the program made it super duper competitive that you had to clean house to get an A. thanks for unneeded stress.

i sick so much with crohns in college, that i did env eng instead of chemical cos it "easier", even though i took a lot of chem eng classes and the env program was more of a chem curriculum than a civil eng curriculum. advanced thermodynamics was just left field stuff. "fugacity is something that doesnt exist, but we can measure it" - ***? that is one thing i'll always remember from that class. it didnt help that the prof was a visiting prof from india whose accent was so thick that you it was impossible to take notes and you were always 4 sentences behind what he said trying to figure out what he said. he knew his stuff though, but the accent just added another not needed difficulty to the class.

best of luck on your defense illini. imho and from my experience (i have an MS in chem & env eng), if your adviser(s) think you are ready for a defense, then you'll pass. you just need to put in the time and jump through that last hoop, which is the hardest one.

Speaking of IL. My brother talked with a professor today on whether he would be admitted. They said they were highly interested and had to review his case. Someone called me once about admission before and he asked me some questions and said I was accepted at the end. Who knows? I hope he gets in. IL is good for agriculture.

Does being a student count? Currently in my fourth hour of Middle Eastern History but without complaint.
I did work at an arts and crafts store for a while before their physical requirements exacerbated Crohn's symptoms. I'm hoping to work in anthropology when all is said and done. Microbiology got the best of me, unfortunately...
On a better note though, I really admire the things all of you are doing.