First of all, I have to share a joke that Wes told me.  It’s pretty awesome, and it makes me giggle every time he tells it to me (which is often, because I ask him to at least once per week).  Ready?  Here goes:

Rene Descartes walks into a bar.  The bartender asks him, “Will you be having the usual tonight, sir?”  Rene thinks for a moment and replies, “I think not.”  Then he disappears into a puff of smoke.

My husband has the most delicious wit.

Speaking of my husband, there’s been quite a lot of talk about him lately here at Casa de Mitchell.  In a totally good way, I promise.  Let’s see, where to start?  Do I start in the past or the present?  Let’s start in the past and I’ll bring you up to the present.

Wes didn’t finish college.  There, I said it.  He was in college studying music composition.  He’s a gifted musician and had aspirations of writing film scores when we first met.  He completed an internship, had several projects under his belt, and was doing really well.  This interest naturally led to an interest in music production, which he’s extremely good at.  After producing several albums for local (small) bands, an opportunity opened up in sales at a car dealership.

He jumped at the sales opportunity because producing albums pays next to nothing.  Unless you’re Timbaland.  He excelled at sales, and quickly moved through the ranks at the dealership and won all kinds of awards.  Then, an opportunity opened up at Wells Fargo as a home mortgage consultant and he seized that particular day.

The job was awesome at first.  He loved the work, his boss, and the income was steady and enough to allow us to start making some financial progress (hooray!).  Tragedy struck last year in the form of the economic crisis and ensuing credit lockdown.  Home loans became close to impossible to attain, ergo so did his paychecks.

He toughed it out as long as he could, but he and Wells Fargo parted ways in October of last year and he signed on to be the national sales director for a company that does loan modifications.  It’s a decent gig, but it’s still sales.

Therein lies the rub, which also happens to be the entire point of me writing about my husband’s work history.

Sales.  It’s a tough industry.  You never know how much you’ll be making in any given month, and you’re subject to the whims of the economy and consumers.  Even though Wes is one heckuva salesman, he’s looking out at the future and it is bleak.  He doesn’t want to wait until it’s too late to make a switch, so he started eyeing going back to school.

Wesley has a ton of natural strengths, but by far one of his most discerning characteristics is his geekdom.  He’s a hardware whiz, a software warlock, and has yet to meet a computer/programming problem he couldn’t figure out.  Seeing as how we’re located square in the middle of one of the software capitals of the nation, he looked into going back to school to learn software programming.

He researched the most stable career in the most stable industry and selected the best program at the best school with the aim of achieving the best qualifications to do the most stable career.  He met with a reputable local school, took a personality test, and discussed options.  We palavered, we researched, and we planned.  It’s official: Wes is going back to school.

He’ll be in classes at least two nights every week for five months, but by the time he’s done he will be qualified and eminently hireable (as affirmed by the recruiters he talked to during his research).  We’re taking on more student loan debt (hooray!) but it’s worth it to know that Wes will be able to do a new career he loves and make the kind of income with the kind of stability that will give me the chance to (hopefully) be a stay-at-home mother.  Who blogs.  And writes novels.  And maybe compulsively takes on new projects because she gets bored easily.

With this decision made and behind us, we can cross one Big Life Issue off our list of issues to discuss.  There are times when even my bones feel weary from making so many big decisions all the time.  I want to surrender my Adult Club card and go eat cookies and play outside.  I feel dwarfed and exhausted, unsure and too sure simultaneously.

But.  No matter what decisions me make well or screw up, there’s one thing I can trust: My husband is a geek.  Even if all else falls apart I know that, which is why I feel so certain Wes will be an excellent software developer.  And stand-up philosophy comic.  But mostly I feel good about the software developing.