BiL (who just left after a nice visit here) went back to school in his late 20s to become a chef. He loves it and can find a job ANYWHERE. You do have to stand for endless hours, though.

After his horrible marriage broke up, he moved out here from Connecticut to stay with SiL up in San Luis Obispo. He got a fantastic chef job in three days. He works at a college, and can take any classes for free.

The chef whose pic I linked to really would fit around here well. His idea of a birthday cake for a friend was to make a giant penis-shaped cake that he fitted with a PVC pipe that was attached to a bicycle pump that spewed whipped cream all over the birthday boy.

I went to trade school. The other option for high school was pretty violent and scary, and I had enough problems.

Made it hard to get into college, later.

I think Electrician would be okay.

I've learned an important tip working with electrical wiring. Double check to make sure you have turned off the breaker for the circuit you are working on rather than some other circuit. I speak from experience.

Double check to make sure you have turned off the breaker for the circuit you are working on rather than some other circuit.

Ah, yes. I learned that one the hard way, when I was switching out the power cord on my clothes dryer. "Will this even work in the plug?" ZAP "Yes. Yes it will. Also, yikes!"

I keep thinking about buying lotto tickets, but then I remind myself of the odds, and how they're better if I want to get struck by lightening.

Speaking of spending money, I'm outta here early so I can run over to the DMV and get my registration for my plates taken care of (it expired in November--oops!). Then, I'm off to Best Buy for my very first MP3 player, a recordable DVD/VCR combo so I can finally get rid of all my old video tapes, and to see if they have any decent laptops left in stock (my big Xmas present from my parents--my 9 or 10-y.o. desktop has had it).

Gud, I think trade jobs are in demand. I know in my neighborhood - there are only 2 plumbers that get recommended and both are older guys - neither has young apprentices that I've ever seen and it can take weeks to get on their schedule sometimes. There are more people who do renovation/carpentry work, but not a lot who get recommended out. A/C repair seems to often be handled out of the big box electronics stores, but when I was in the southwest buildign houses, HVAC stuf whas what we seemed to wait a bit on because they were over scheduled/in demand.

I only ever buy lotto tix when my whole office is buying, on the principle that I really don't want to be the only person here who still needs a job the next day.

Electricians do have some serious job-related safety issues, though--my mom's high school BFF lost her brother when he touched a power cable while doing an install.

The receptionist in my office participated in a non-traditional jobs for women program, certified as a carpenter, got in the union, the whole bit, and then decided she couldn't deal with the day-to-day bullshit she had to deal with as a woman in a non-traditional job. So now she's underpaid and underappreciated in my office, and builds stuff for her own house.