Belize Adventure Part 3

After El Paso, we made our way through West Texas. If they ever had water in that place, it is not evident! We stopped at an RV site somewhere in Nowheresville and met a bearded guy who had been "trying to get home" for the past 18 months! Course, his vehicle did not run and he ate only liquid meals so the urgency obviously had left him. As we entered East Texas, churches became bigger and brighter and the landscape became more verdant. A very cute RV site was our home for a couple of days near to Brenham. Ducks in a pond, $500K rolling homes, a community building with all the bells and whistles greeted us - it was very hard to move on. Move on we did, however, to our ultimate destination in the US - Brownsville. That was our jumping off point to Mexico. By this time, we had taken approximately 10 days to get to the southernmost point of our US leg. I had been in constant contact by cell phone over this period to my old job - giving instructions and advice to the folks who had taken over my life at K-BOB'S. With trepidation, both my husband andI realized this was it - our last day to link with everything we always knew. I cancelled my cell phone service, we slept in Walmart's parking lot with our generator running. The next day, we drove to the crossing point and promptly turned around. The prospect of traveling through Mexico alone with 3 kids was daunting. We lingered for 3 days in Brownsville, going fishing, investigating the area and generally avoiding the inevitable. If we were ever to reach our dream. we had to pluck up the courage to enter the unknown.

Reprehensible behavior of many recruiters

As a long-time professional in the US market and recently laid off from a Director position, I am appaled by the lack of respect shown by many recruiters who call to discuss opportunities, make commitments to forward professional profiles to companies, then never get in touch again. This reflects poorly on the retaining company and the recruiting firm itself. If a recruiter stands to gain $20,000-$30,000 commission from a possible hire, would it not make sense to treat that person with respect and make the necessary phone call, especially if you may need them again to fill a future opportunity? Is this to become a pervasive contagion throughout our culture or should we professionals modify the behavior as a positive example to those just starting out?

Austin Texas

Just flew out to Austin this week for a job interview with a company. I discovered that Austin has a very lively downtown with an excellent nightlife scene! Needless to say, I had to check out several of the bars and live bands. Am now finally home and resting up. After all, I'm no longer 20!