Work

I have worked somewhere since I was 13 years old.  Before and during high school, I worked at our school community's bookstore.  It was a job I loved: we girls would unload the new books and prepare them for the upcoming school year. Old books were treated in the opposite way - numbers removed and prepared for resale to the community.
After high school, I worked for a doctor who didn't work too far from my alma mater - IU, so it was easy to work around my classes and convenient to either drive or walk when necessary.
When I went to Germany, I had a wonderful job there teaching mini German classes to incoming American soldiers.  They were taught enough German to be able to go to a pub or restaurant and order, take public transportation, visit museums, etc.  I had always worked either part time or full time plus attending school full time despite the fact that I had a muscular illness.
Then I met and married my husband.  Soon, I was not being offered any more classes at the education center.  I later found out that this was at my husband's request.  He didn't want the soldiers looking at me.
After 13 years of working and going to school full time, I was left with nothing to do.  I then spend my time roaming the city where we lived, returning to the hobbies I previously enjoyed, like knitting and quilting, and learnining new crafting ideas. I did enjoy crafting, but I hated the idea that my husband considered me too weak to work; I didn't know that he had also told my boss that the men couldn't look at me.
After a few years, I became pregnamt with twins, followed two years later with a single. That kept me busy for a while, but I was still sewing and crafting, making clothes and toys for the kids.  One day, I decided to try a new business: making clothes and other things to sell through the mail.  When I presented my idea to my husband, he had a fit.  I was "too sick" to do that.  A few days later, I received a phone call from his mother; she told me how lucky I was that I didn't have to work. But I WANTED to work, and with my husband's work schedule, I couldn't work outside of the home.
So, I didn't begin my business.  I stayed at home, making things for the kids and for gifts for friends and family becoming more and more depressed.  He was gone approximately six months out of the year, so he couldn't be a dependable baby sitter if I worked, and my pay wouldn't cover a baby sitter for three small children, even then. The children became even more important to me than before.

just married

It was so difficult writing about my little dog the other day.  I cried as I wrote and couldn't write the words that I wanted. I can't understand why someone would do something like that to a harmless - and lovable - little animal.  At least, that time, it ended positively. Others were not so good.
I remember when we lived in the South.  We had three kids then - under 3 when we moved there.  Occasionally, the constant momminess would become too much, so I would leave the kids with their dad. They would see me putting on my going out clothes, and they would cry. I'd feel so bad, but I needed to get away sometimes. I only wish I'd know just how bad of a dad that he was. 
I've been dreaming so much of Germany lately.  I go there on trips, or I go there by myself. I visit places that I loved and wish I could go there again. I loved the place even though it was the scene of so much  badness.
I worked at a military post where I taught simple German courses to incoming American troops.  I loved the job.  I showed the men around the city at the end of the course, and they got to practice all the phrases and things that they had learned during their 2-week course.  Not only was I able to earn money, I was able to meet a lot of new people, something that I loved doing, too.
My husband and I met at one of these courses.  I wasn't his teacher, but I needed help with a situation in my classroom and was sent to his for help.  I thought he was so handsome - tall with dark hair and eyes. He helped, and then he started coming by where I lived asking me out.  I finally said "yes" as I had just survived a horrible year with a stalker and wasn't really looking for a boyfriend.
He soon wormed his way into my life, and it wasn't long before he asked me to marry him.  I agreed, and we were married in Europe.
It wasn't long before I wasn't being assigned any classes. I later discovered, much later, that he had gone to the administrator and asked that I not be assigned to teach any more.  I sometimes visited him at work, but he asked me not to visit him because the men looked at me. I thought this was rather weird; I'ld never had any trouble before with the men in the past, but it wasn't that much to do if it made my husband feel better.  I thought that he probably knew more that I did about that.
I missed my job. My one bit of independence. But the men couldn't stare at me.