It's so easy to stick with a regular routine, the tried and true daily grind. Everything is so safe, so easy and, if we're really honest with ourselves, it can be boring and stiffling as well. This is the place where I have been for many years. I'm at the age where my body has begun to switch gears into, shall we say, a more mature mode. As I'm deep into the perimenopause phase of my lovely, oh so fascinating feminine cycle, I'm pretty much a constant puddle of very warm, rosy, moist flesh and my memory and powers of concentration have not been as up to par as usual. This all sounds much worse than it really is and I've got a pretty good grip on the situation so far. However, some deeply buried need in my conciousness has bubbled up to the surface and this need is telling me it's time to shake up the synapse in my brain before it's too late and they begin to rust or die or do something equally gruesome. Obviously, this is a major reason why at the age of 52 (almost), I decided to start all over again in a new job. I think I must be out of my mind.
And goodness, how things have changed in the process of securing a job in the past ten years. There's a bit more running around than I recall that I must accomplish before I'm considered completely hireable. I have to make an appointment to get fingerprinted at one location. I have to make an another for a physical, TB (tuberculosis) and drug test somewhere else and return back in a to-be-determined amount of time to have the results of the TB test read. Add to the mix my upcoming appontment at the DMV for my driver's license renewal.
The one thing that's making these several appointments so overwhelming for me is where they are all situated; namely in what I think of these days as "the big city". I live in a relatively small town. It calls itself a city but to my native east-coast way of thinking, a population of 11,000 plus does not a city make. Almost all my driving is within my home town. I work in the next "city" south of us and my commute is all of about 15 to 18 minutes. In a pinch, I can make it in 10. My work hours have been 6am to 2pm so there's practically no traffic when I leave for work and I generally take the back roads to get there. The brief distance back home is a piece of cake on the highway so I use it to go home. Once again, there's not much traffic around 2pm.
My new job is in a very large city further south. My new hours will be 8am to 4:30pm and on a late, calm Sunday morning it took me 35 minutes on my trial run from home to get to the new job site. I'll be smack-dab in the middle of the commuter traffic both ways, Monday through Friday. They say you get used to anything but I repeat, I must be out of my mind.
4 comments:
Bleah! That change in commute WOULD be kind of intimidating. Still, from what you have described, this seems like a good move for you. As you say, sometimes you feel like you just have to shake things up a little or go completely stagnant. IMO this will be great for you! If not, I can't imagine that your old workplace would have a hard time welcoming you back with open arms... Lisa :-]
Listen girl, it is that you are having cold feet right now. But don't let that start making you second guess yourself. You know that this is the job for you and your mind is telling you, it seems to me, to start back peddling. Don't you dare do it! You said you picked up good feelings at this new place and that's what you should alway follow, you instincts. Don't worry about commute time and all that other stuff it will work out. Get yourself some books on Tape or CDs The time will fly by. You have got to start thinking positive. I get the feeling you don't think you deserve to have something good happen to you and now that it has you are suspicious of it. Am I right? Maybe I am stinking my neck out too far saying all this to you but I just had to say it. You will be great! You have been given a wondeful opportunity you deserve it.......TAKE IT WITH A SMILE! OK, are we still friends? haha!
Actually, it's not the commute "time" that scares me; it's the frenetic pace of the traffic during the commute. And ugh, all that merging...I hate merging. Thanks for the kind words Lisa and Jan.
I find it funny, you and I live three blocks from one another, and my job in your same town is about a half mile from one another. You make it to work in 15-18 min (10 in a pinch) I make it in 7-8, 6 "in a pinch". Hehehe bad driver!!
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