There’s a note on my calendar today that I put on there sometime back in November, I think, that says “Sunrise starts getting earlier in the morning!”  Because I actually went through the sunrise-sunset times for my area and found out the exact day when I can start looking forward to eventually seeing the sun before I get to work in the morning.  Because this is why I live in the south (one of many reasons) and I MISS THE SUN SO MUCH sometimes that there are large swaths of November and December that I have absolutely no memory of what happened for those weeks.  And it’s times like that when I wonder if maybe I really should get on medication for that kind of thing, and then the sun comes back and I get outside more often and I wonder what on earth was wrong with me back then and why can’t I remember what was going on?

The sun is rising earlier in the morning tomorrow than it did today and that makes things just a little bit better.

Also, there are windows in the building where I work now.  I can actually see the sunlight!  The windows are all northern facing so there’s no actual direct light at any point of the day, but there’s LIGHT.  And that is so much better than working in the white-walled, grey-cubicled, florescent-lighted box where I used to work.

The guy I used to work for contacted me yesterday to do a quick document review because he was seriously under the gun and needed help.  So I took an hour to look it over and get it all set except for the signature he’d have to get and the actual finalization of the physical document.  I work with his wife now (have I mentioned that before?) and she told me today that he was so thankful for the help.  She mentioned (to him) that I seemed really happy and that she thought that I enjoyed having more to do.  (At which point he got concerned that he shouldn’t have bothered me, which was silly because I wouldn’t have helped if I didn’t have time.)  But it made me happy to hear that she thought I looked happy.  I am happy!  It’s just good to know that it shows.

I am thoroughly enjoying my new job.  The days go by so quickly!  (Except for the meeting today from 9 – 11:45.  That was long.  And I didn’t understand half of it because they kept using acronyms that I didn’t know.)  My boss wants me to be there on Fridays so I’m back to my 9 hour days on Monday – Thursday and 4 hours on Friday; for this week anyway, while he decides if that’s going to work for him.  It’s either that shift or I’ll do overtime every single week to put in time on Fridays just because he wants me there that day.  We’ll see.  It’s tricky for me to actually excuse myself from my work at 4:30 (getting there at 7am) because there’s so much to do and people aren’t expecting me to be leaving at that time.  But I LOVE leaving at 4:30.  I get home before I’d usually get off work previously.  It’s still light out!  (Are you sensing a theme?)  Justin and I have gone for walks in the afternoon/evening because there’s time and light (LIGHT!).  My evenings are so much longer with just the addition of that one hour!  If I can talk my boss into this, it’s going to be AMAZING.  Plus, there’s a yoga class at work on Wednesdays at 5:00 and if I leave my building by 4:30, I can get to the main plant, change clothes, and get to the class.  Did I mention it’s free?  And that some of my previous coworkers (who I miss) are also in the class?

Of course, tomorrow I might have to go to a meeting from 4 – 5pm so I’d not make it to the class, but hopefully that won’t happen all the time. I went last week and it was SO FUN and I hurt for days.

My tailbone still hurts, by the way.  Guess how much fun that was in my 2 1/2 hour meeting today?

But other than the hours and the windows in my building, the work is just so much more interesting.  I still have so much to learn, but I’m starting to get the hang of things and starting to get these people organized.  They’ve really gotten disorganized, especially since their admin left back in November (November?  It’s kind of ab blur… ) and there’s been a lot of catching up to do for everybody.  Today I got people to start scheduling the overtime they’re planning to do over the weekend (if any) and start working on the reports about what they’re working on for the boss.  I learned how to order food for a big meeting that’s happening next week.  I found a ton of information for a bulletin board that I’m supposed to maintain.  I learned a lot about a schedule that we’re going to build and I’m going to maintain.  I sent a bazillion emails about a bazillion different things.  I sorted out items for a spreadsheet that will need to get tracked to make sure the items get done on time and reported to the right people.

I don’t sit still all day!  I get to help people.  And organize people.  And, okay, some of it’s annoying (trying to schedule a meeting with 14 people for 2 hours when there are only 3 conference rooms that really work for that many people, unless I want to put them into rooms that hold twice that many or make them stand the whole time, is SUPER ANNOYING) but most of it is interesting and challenging and I’m happy to be doing something that matters to people instead of staring at drawings and editing a book of information that no one cares to read and has the same information over and over and over again for each airplane.  My replacement started yesterday — she had orientation so I haven’t heard anything about her.  But maybe I’ll drop her a line tomorrow.

First day of my new job!  It went smoothly.  I mean, okay, my boss left around noon and he’ll be out of the office until Friday morning.  He left a list of things for me to figure out before he gets back.  So it’s not like I have nothing to do, that’s for sure!  My boxes of stuff were already at my desk by the time I got there this morning, so after checking in with the boss and getting my tasks, I got to start unpacking and settling into my new space.  I have more desk space than I used to have, but I don’t take up a lot of space, so it’s mostly just empty.  It makes me feel minimalistic!  Sort of.  (Not really.)

Anyway, today was a mix of hectic mixed with patches of “so what should I do now?”  Calling to get someone to fix the copier, emailing someone else to get toner cartridges for the printer, calling to get my phone number transferred over to my new desk, calling again to ask why only people in my building were able to call, setting up a meeting and calling people to make sure they’d be able to come to the meeting, and then getting an email saying that another meeting is being held at the same time involving most of the same people.  I’m going to let the boss figure out that one.  But I should probably still set up the coffee he asked for.  So far, it’s a lot of administraive assistant-type work, but I’m confident that it’s going to be a lot more than that.  Super admin plus!  I can order coffee AND plot all your tasks into Excel and Project and explain all about your resource issues!

I have a lot of tasks to learn:  they’re tracking a lot of information in a lot of different places and I have to figure out all those places and who needs what information and by when.  Having the boss away this week is actually going to be really helpful in that since I get to focus on what everybody else needs in the quiet of his absence.  After his return, things will pick up pace a lot.  So everything I can figure out this week will make next week so much easier.  Which is obvious, but still.  I’m glad it seems like I’ll get a quiet week to roll into this job.

Here’s hoping that my cold will finally go away so I can concentrate on the work!  And it’s be really fantastic if my tailbone would let me sit down on a chair like normal instead of sending spikes of pain up my spine.  Sitting without pain and not coughing up a lung, doesn’t sound like too much to ask, right?

Good luck on your first day tomorrow, Nathan!