It's Not Always A Man's World

I've come to realize that both jobs that I'm presently working are jobs that are done traditionally by women. I've been a medical transcriber for about five or six years, and the Mrs. and I started a dogwalking/petsitting business about three months ago. The vast majority of medical transcribers have always been women, and now I'm finding that the majority of dogwalkers/petsitters are women, too. This is curious.

In my former life, I was a rock and roll/R&B musician, about as testosterone-fueled a business as you can find outside of professional sports. The other thing that occupied a lot of my time was playing basketball, which is also a dude-oriented pursuit. So I've done an occupational 180-degree shift. I do both of my jobs side-by-side with Mrs. Shnooky, and we've never been closer. Our dogwalking/petsitting business is going just as I imagined it would, and we're both really good at transcription.

I don't know what this all means or if it even means anything. But I get to work from home where I love it and not have to deal with co-workers or bosses face-to-face. I don't even see the dogwalking clients for the most part -- just the dogs. I don't feel my masculinity is threatened, and it's kind of interesting being a guy in a gal's world.

I heard a great record by James Brown on the radio the other day. Apparently, the Godfather of Soul made an album in the late 60s with some big-time jazz bands instead of his usual band, and I heard a recording of "It's A Man's World" with JB and the Louis Bellson Big Band. Amazing stuff. Maybe I don't hate music after all.