I smell rat droppings!

Metaphorical rat droppings, that is.

Today, I had a flashback to my days in the corporate rat race. In my previous life, I was a computer consultant. I loved it -- at first. I was the hero. I rode in on my white horse, fixed everything, and rode off into the sunset. After leaving adequate user documentation, of course. And then I got paid a huge sum of money.

When I moved to Florida, I got a real job as a regular computer employee, and found out what it was like to work in a real office as an insider. It sucked. The people I worked with were shallow, self-serving, and devious. They would throw me under the bus as soon as look at me. Every time I chose to act like the adult and ask the questions that everyone needed answered, I was kicked to the curb and then dinged on my review as being overly concerned about the issue. People would whine about something, knowing that I would think that management would want to know about the discontent and issues brewing in the department. Then I would find that I was being played.

Never in my life have I hated working as much as that job. Okay, I take it back. I hated my boss in 1990 more than any other boss. I hated my co-workers in 1994 the most. I hated the client the most in 1990 the most. But never have I hated them all as much as my last job.

So this morning, at 6:30, I got up, took a shower, dressed in the nice clothes -- I only wore them to church yesterday for two hours, -- packed up The Boy and sent him off to the Honda dealer with The Husband, packed up The Girl and took her to The Big City for therapy.

Wicked flashbacks... I actually had to change into grubby jeans before I could leave the house. Seriously, major flashbacks. I could smell cubicle hell -- rat droppings and all...