So, as I've mentioned to some friends in 'real' (read non interwebs) life, back in November I had this brilliant idea to register for full time classes just days before I accepted a promotion. The promotion kicked in December 5 but in a lazy way: training my replacement on site. Easy peasy.
On January 2, I became a free range crafter (which sounds way cooler than my real job title) and was set loose in a store that needed a trainer and some operational guidance. Translation: 1/3 of the staff doesn't know what they're doing, 1/3 of the staff knows what they're doing but refuses to do it for a variety of self absorbed and absurd reasons, and 1/3 of the staff just doesn't show up on a regular basis. It's pretty hectic and there are a lot of 12 hour days but there are weekends off, something that's pretty uncommon in retail, and the novelty of that hasn't worn off yet.
And then, on January 9, classes started.
Holy gee. Color me stretched to the max. Sometime, I forget how arrogant I can be and then I decide to do something like what I'm attempting now and it all comes back to me with astonishing clarity: occasionally, my ego smothers all commonsense and clearly there were decisions made in that oxygen deprived state. Back in my mid-twenties, this particular mental deficiency led to what I fondly refer to as the year that almost killed me: I accepted a promotion to bookstore manager, got married, got pregnant, bought a house at a foreclosure auction, became a landlord, sold the old Saab, bought a less old Saab, moved, renovated an apartment while 8 months pregnant, sold the old pickup truck, bought a new pickup truck, took to landscaping with a chainsaw to work off some hormonally induced hostility (ok, that last bit really wasn't stressful but it was fun), gave birth to the world's colickiest baby, went back to work full time, transferred to a different bookstore, remained calm the day my then husband called me at work to announce that he'd quit his day job so he could start a business... Interestly, while I can list the sequence of events, I can't recall much detail about the year. Or the year after for that matter.
I'm not quite that busy...not quite, though it felt a little close for the first two weeks. These days, I'm better equipped for stretching things a bit, though sleep seems more important than it did 15 years ago. Conveniently, the myriad sticky, frustrating, and sometimes just downright wierd situations that crop up at this store are perfect discussion material for the class I'm taking on human relations in organizations. This week, I need to choose a HR research paper topic and a little piece of the brain is fairly shrieking in protest that we haven't written a research paper since high school and auuuuuuuuughhhhhhh!
Dear Brain: Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt. If I may remind you, that last paper we wrote was on the effects of radioactive fallout and we had to pretend to nuke England. Ok, we didn't have to nuke England but it's an island and that was convenient for our purposes. Now, what could possibly be less fun than that? Besides a paper on TQM/Process Imporvement? Exactly my point, now lighten up. Love, Erica
Exhaustion induced silliness aside, this is possibly the most fun I've had in years. I feel stretched and it's fun. Of course, my eating habits have gone right to hell (might have something to do with eating breakfast and dinner in the car) so I rejoined Weight Watchers online and commited to 1 hour/week with a personal trainer for the next 8 weeks (plus additional work out time during the week, obviously. Having the trainer keeps me honest while I'm getting back into the habit of looking after me. If I don't work out between appointments, I don't progess.
We'll see how it goes.
I am so proud of you!
Posted by: Cookie | January 25, 2012 at 05:20 PM