Well, I think it's safe to say that there is a point where the human body (and mind) just can't take any more additions to the To Do list. I took off the entire week between jobs to get organized, and what happened? The house got 25% organized, but then a tree fell through our deck and smashed it up. And the power was out for several days during a 90-plus-degree week, which led to the DH and myself actually leaving the house to go furniture shopping only for the reason that it was air conditioned. .
Mostly. That curio was sexy. We love Bob's.
So it's been a week, the house is still a disaster, we have no refrigerated or frozen food, and Javi's pissed off that I was gone all week.
I didn't expect to be working so much during my first week. It wasn't the actual work hours that were bad - I only had to say past the 13 hour mark once, which totally beats my old job - but it was "meet the interns" week and there were way too many social events to count. I only made it home before 11pm one night all week, and I came home so exhausted yesterday that I slept until 2pm today. 2pm!!
The new job is insanely awesome. I love the dynamic atmosphere, the intellectual-yet-social environment, and the perks are to die for. The much higher paycheck doesn't hurt, either. It's like all the crap jobs I've had since moving here -
baby store retail schlepper
bartender
administrative slave with deranged boss
adjunct professor at five colleges simultaneously
contracted FDIC worker
retail schlepper again
overworked underpaid ops analyst
- finally led to something great and awesome. I was even given an extra week vacation each year because of my grad degree and 'substantial post-secondary work experience', even though it wasn't entirely relevant. Finally, a place that realizes that even random jobs help shape your professional work ethic and demeanor.
Oh, and it doesn't hurt that I'm a lot older than most of the kids at my new job. And the only person I've met so far (out of more than a hundred) that didn't attend an Ivy League. Amusing. I made sure to put an obnoxious Go Vols! in my company profile. You gotta own it, right? I'm already known as a pretty fierce bitch at the new place - might as well show confidence and pride about my background, or else someone might think it appropriate to make fun of me.
So for those of you that know where I work, please don't post about it going forward because I can't mention it online. Ambiguity is my friend where social media is concerned.
Oh yeah. The whole point of this was to mention that I'm an idiot and I accepted an additional course for the upcoming semester. As many people know, I teach part-time at a for-profit online university. It's one of the more reputable ones, so I'm happy to be a part of that world. But with this new job and its extended commute, free time is a thing of the past. Insurance will only pay for a portion of our chop-down-the-tree-struck-by-lightning-and-rebuild-the-deck-in-a-better-way-since-it's-all-screwed-up-now-anyway project, in addition to our need to build a $6000+ french drain in our basement before we can finally finish it, so every incoming dollar helps. Especially this year with needing to pay off the wedding and deal with all the home repairs.
I'm concerned about my ability to manage all of my commitments - most of all my house - so it will be interesting to see how we can avoid the let-the-house-turn-to-shit-while-we-work-insane-hour-weeks trap that we fell into before.
My ideas so far...
- Work ahead on my online classes so that I already have the canned responses and posts (this week's assignments, etc.) ready to go
- Hire Vanessa (our house cleaner) again. It's been six months since we "used" her but she did a pretty good job and was inexpensive. I take a lot of pride in cleaning my house, although you'd never know it from coming over... we own two Dysons and I buy my cleaning products (Mrs. Meyer's!) in bulk online - but you can't possibly expect me to vacuum, dust, and scrub when I get home from work at eleven. Can you?
- Go to work early to beat rush hour traffic and squeeze in a mini workout at the gym in my building (!)
I accepted to teach a summer class too and even though I don't work your crazy hours (13?!), I still have a longer commute, work more hours than I used to, and am beginning to think I'm crazy for accepting to teach a 4 hour course twice a week after work. Ugh. So much for the gym. (No, my office doesn't have a gym in the building unfortunately!)
ReplyDeleteOh I'm glad they gave you a class! I know you were concerned with enrollment. Yeah, your new job seems pretty intense but how cool is it to work at a company that affects every major financial company out there? I'm jealous! :)
ReplyDeleteTrue, it is pretty cool! Just kind of intimidating. :-) And yeah, the class is still technically underenrolled (by their standards, anyway), but they still haven't canceled it. I don't even know whether to prepare a syllabus or not.
ReplyDelete