When other people say it’s been a crazy month, it’s a highly subjective thing. When I say it’s been a crazy month, I mean Tom’s still in Cali (coming home for goodish tomorrow!), we’ve moved to a new house & a new town (well, new to me & the kid if not Tom, seeing as it’s his hometown), Kade started kindergarten, I haven’t talked to my dad at all though I bumped into my mom once, & I finally, after months of searching, multiple resumes & interviews, started a new job! So if my blogging has been worse than usual lately, & my writing just as bad, at least I have a handy multitude of excuses right?
It’s the middle of my fourth week, & yet I can’t stop grinning. I had lunch with a friend who is also now an ex-coworker, & she could see how stupid with happy I am right now. The learning curve has been like hauling myself up Everest, but at risk of sounding like a cliché, this place is much more my speed.

Even though I work in what feels like a basement & I’m usually cold (although that’s better since a new coworker leant me her little desk heater!) & my commute is always over an hour now, my to do list is miles long & intricate & technically I’m a temp for now….those don’t stack up to what I’m doing, or the level of responsibility I’m finally at, or my awesome new coworkers!

Not even a month & I’ve already attended one happy hour, supported the Research Safety Fair, attended one training with three more at bat, collected access to everyone’s calendars, run all over campus, sampled the various eateries, set up a weekly check in meeting with my manager, seen the sunrise each day from the Tram, & my bribes of introducing the candy bowl & daily quotes have been fully accepted. That list isn’t even complete!

Even though I spent three years of my life at another company (I know, hear the millennial talk as if that’s a long time!), other than seeing my friend every day, I haven’t missed it one iota. Nope, no more listening to vicious gossips, no more fighting with the stupid jamming printer, no more clueless (if sweet) boss, no more “We don’t need you for that {basically anything more than paper-pushing}”, no more vastly unpredictable traffic.

The biggest thing I miss is my commute buddy. Kade’s preschool was five minutes from work, half an hour or more from the old apartment, so I had him with me for the majority of my commute, chatting, watching the iPad, cursing at traffic, the whole bit. Now he’s either sleeping on his aunt’s couch (mornings) or tearing around the neighborhood with the other kids (afternoon) as I drive up to Milwaukee, catch the MAX train, walk to the Aerial Tram, catch the sunrise, & finally start making coffee in my office & hunting up a nice daily quote to write on the community white board.

It’s hard in some ways, as much as I love my new job, but we’re both hugely looking forward to having Tom home for good!