Thread:Mainframebabe/@comment-35708978-20180611185710/@comment-29954643-20180611232756

They are ALL my alter egos. And you sound close enough to have been a clone. My reasons for leaving a steady (far too low income considering the workload and hours) salaried position was much the same. Not zero office politics but far less of the petty stuff affects a contractor type. I didn't realize how much I was going to prefer hopping around from widget to widget quite as much as I did, but a 'hostile merger' (should really have been called a takeover), left me feeling pretty hostile myself.

I had been planning a European vacation until I suddenly found myself without a job but with 3 months of extra pay as I had been laid off. I had 3 weeks before I was scheduled to leave so I called on one of my customers (since I was able to avoid signing that non-complete agreement that they thought they could slide past me along with my MAP money (mergers and acquisitions plan) and they were delighted to have me come and do a quick 3 week contract for 3x what I would have been paid by my previous employer to do the same work.

At the end of that first successful project (fixed their GL interface to payroll), they told me to contact them when I returned and they would find more work for me. Apparently, I had found a definite hourly rate 'sweet spot', huh? So, instead of a 3 week vacation in Europe, I took advantage of my windfall, and decided to stay the entire summer (May-Sep) in Europe and splurge. On my return, my faithful client did indeed ask me to proffer a project plan for the implementation of a new Benefits interface, which they accepted. I was there for the next 3 years and was pretty darn shocked what my tax bill was the first April 15th. Luckily for me, the tax laws (at that time) did not require me to pay more than 90% of the previous year's taxes without penalties because the penalties on all that unforeseen income would have done me in, I am sure.

Anyway, Enigma is in your waiting room and I look forward to watching your game advance quickly. The best friends to help you advance are here on this wiki, so you did find the right place to come to learn how to play this game. Happy Gaming, my newest friend! 😎😍🌈🌼🌺🌻 - El

P.S. Thanks for the birthday wishes.