Saturday, August 18, 2012

Back to Work


I have worked seven days at my new job.  I miss my leisure but not the uncertain future of being unemployed.   Now the days are a blur of commuting, trying to figure out the requirements of the job and remembering names of people I have met more than once.


Each day I make a hundred mile round trip.  I have time during lunch to wander around the state capital where there are notable buildings, statues and plaques galore.  In my office, everything is state agency gray.  There are procedures for everything.  It would be daunting, if it wasn't so amusing.    I happen to have arrived just as heavy talks were beginning about "dress guidelines."   Tomorrow I will go to Goodwill and stock up on shirts that can't be mistaken for t-shirts, and tasteful skirts.  If I wasn't so advanced in years, I might care, but I don't.  


My biggest problem is getting enough sleep.  I have not convinced myself to sleep enough hours to be perky at 6:00 AM.  But I knew that any new schedule was going to be difficult after the luxury of the 9-5 of Legal Aid. 

I am trying to learn how to fit my other activities into the time available.  It will happen.  But dinner time preparations are suffering mightily.  I'm going to have to shop and cook for the the week on the weekend.  A new regime to learn. 

Today I continued the tree inventory of our neighborhood.  I love the reality of identifying trees.  If I had a life to do over again, I would throw my lot with the biology of our planet, rather than with words and laws.  But I am here now, and I will get what I can out of it.