Struggles that I didn't ask for

Well I asked for it didn't I:  It's funny how when no one read my blogs I wrote all the time and wished for an audience.  Now that I have one, I find it hard to find energy to write.  I say energy because I have tons of ideas and topics I want to write about but often lack the energy to write a post.

That's because I have other things that take up my time like projects around the house, work and attempting to get back into marathon running shape.  Also, I've learned that hammering out 500+ words on a post is one thing, but it helps if there is a good picture to go along with and if I can through in a good SEO headline all the better.   Yuck, that is a lot of work and sometimes I'd rather not bother.

************
Some things I struggle with:  A short time ago the carpenter that was working on my neighbor's deck asked me what I do for a living.   I told him I'm an application manager and he asked me: "What's an application?"

I really don't know what to do when this comes up and it comes up in various forms more often than it should.  I'll be at a party and someone is making small talk or I'll run into a friend I haven't seen in a long time and they have a non-Corporate America type job.  I'd say 80% of the time a simple "I work in IT" gets the job done.  But every so often I run into someone who just has to really, really understand what it is I do and cannot accept a throw away answer like "I work in Information Technology." 

 Everyone knows what a doctor is and what a lawyer does.  And while they really don't know the day-to-day activities, they can make a good enough guess of what an accountant or an administrative assistant does.  But a lot of Corporate America titles in no way, shape or form describe the mind-numbing, soul-sucking tasks we perform.

Is it really my job to fill in the gaps in the knowledge/experience of the carpenter who probably never spent any time in a white collar office environment?  Or the massage therapist or self-employed translator that doesn't know the inner workings of CA?

And while we are on the subject things I struggle with is asking people for help.  One of the reasons I struggle is when you tell someone your problem, they usually suggest a course of action based on the elevator pitch you made summarizing your problem.

And if my issue were such that it were that easy, I probably would have thought of whatever solution you came up with 30 seconds after hearing about the issue I've been struggling with for x weeks.

The other frustration is filling in the back story necessary to bring someone up to speed, especially if I've told the story before.  Contrary to popular belief, I don't expect anyone to memorize every aspect of my life.  However I feel if you are compelled to ask me the same question more than a half dozen times, maybe, just maybe you should allocate a brain cell to remembering the details so you don't have to bug me a 7th time.