Productive Member of Society

I started work today! Woo!

Well, truthfully, it was a little less than Woo. I arrived this morning to find that no one had considered where I was to be housed or how exactly I was to accomplish any of the numerous tasks that had been assigned to me. In other words, there was no space for me, no computer for me to use, and I had to specifically ask to borrow a pen and paper to make notes. I camped out in a conference room for today, though I had to share it with the lunch-breakers, and borrowed a laptop that kept melting down and losing all of my work. Then, no one could find a pen. It was a little odd.

That was the worst of it, though. Happily, there is much for me to do and I got a good start on it today. I worked consistently and was challenged but not overwhelmed. It was nice to read all those big medical words again and engage my brain for the first time in many months. (Though I will say that I nailed the House diagnosis in the one about the cancer researcher. That show is utterly ridiculous, but I was still proud of myself.) I am excited about these projects and about my role in them. Already I learned enough to answer questions that one of my bosses had about her own project! This is where the Woo! comes in. Woo!

Tomorrow, however, there will be changes. For one, Patrick and I cannot ride together. This morning was like a tornado and the cold war wrapped into one awful caffeine-free experience. Last night I specifically said what time I needed to be at work and what time we would need to leave in order to get Colin to day care in order for me to be on time. 7:55am. That was the latest I wanted to leave the house. I was very clear about this, and Patrick knows how much I lose my head when I am late. So perhaps you can image that this morning at 8:20am, when Patrick was standing in the kitchen without a shirt on, having lost his glasses, and fussing with the espresso machine, that I was NOT PLEASED. I was not pleased AT ALL. It was a rather unpleasant exchange and, though we still kissed goodbye when he dropped me off in front of the hospital, there might have been a foot or two between our lips. So. We have agreed that we will ride separately until I settle into a routine, though it is completely stupid to take two cars to the same place. It will avoid allowing the stress to take years off of our lives, thus giving us that much longer to drive each other absolutely crazy. Maybe later we can re-attempt the carpooling. I am not holding my breath, to be honest with you.

A second change will hopefully be a little preparedness on the part of my employers. Now that I've shown up, been in the way for an entire workday, and bothered them for things like a pen and a computer, I am confident that they will find me a workspace and provide the materials necessary for me to keep to myself and stay out of their lunchroom. I know I would if I were in their shoes. Who like to hear the tappity-tap of keys when trying to gossip about the girl in the next cubicle? I know I certainly don't.