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Well, I took on a 6 month contract that started FINALLY in mid-Aug. There were a few weeks between the offer and actually starting the job; I was starting to think it had been some kind of scam. But I've gotten two paychecks now so I think it's a real job.
I am one of 15 people they hired for a new project gathering information into giant ugly excel workbooks for eventual conversion to yet another database in a company that seems extremely database-heavy. Not all divisions of the company use all the databases so apparently there's information in one place that people in another unit never see and it creates confusion and upset when people who 'should' know this-or-that are bothering the people in charge of client service with silly questions. Or something.
Anyway....I am learning a LOT. (Pivot tables! eeps) and I feel like everyone in my group is much smarter than me. I think I may be among the three oldest people hired for the project, so that's kind of a wierd feeling. But everyone is very nice, very smart, and super helpful when I get stuck. And I am not getting stuck much anymore. The first few days of training, I was just like "Lord god almighty what have I gotten myself into??!?" and a couple of times I felt overwhelmed and wanted to quit. But I've stuck with it and I am finding that I'm pretty good at this job once I've gotten the hang of 'where to look for what information' and 'how to navigate crazy intricate excel sheets'.... but it's been taking up a lot of my bandwidth. I dont' have as much time to whine on FB or read Dreamwidth or post self pitying nonsense, which is all good.
I am feeling challenged, but energetic.
I don't love commuting to an office 3 days a week, but we do get monday and friday to work from home.... I am starting to have thoughts of 'what if I get a permanent offer here,"....*shrug* I am not going to make any plans along those lines. I was out of work from april 1 to mid august, my savings are a little bit low. I'm mostly going to refill my reserves and make sure I have money for property tax.
My car had expensive repairs.... husband picked up the tab for that. He feels OK about it. I don't.
My sister is having a lot of second thoughts about the place she picked for Mom, of the several places she sent me to check out .....I thought it was pretty good but apparently one of the owners is a dick. She wants to move Mom back to IN and care for her full time. I don't honestly see that as being do-able, but she's the POA and all of that, she has a degree in social work and has worked in elder care, so if that's what she decides, that's what will happen. Mom's health is holding steady. My aunt L. visits her every day to read her romance novels, my brother A visits every other day and they watch movies. I visit on weekends and bring my little dog and something sweet (donuts usually)... I feel pretty useless and boring sitting with her, but that's what we do now.
anyhoo...that's my life. work taking up most of my time and brain. Nothing social to speak of.....in a way I miss having friends, but if I'd ever been a good enough friend, I wouldn't be alone now, now would I? So. For the best. No travel plans or cruises to look forward to. I remember I used to cope with life by keeping busy and having plans. Now I just do the daily-walk dogs, go to work, come home, cook, walk dogs, tv, sleep. and keep everything small and plain. I don't hate it. It's just....not very interesting to talk about with anyone. But there's no one to talk about it with, so it all works out.
I am one of 15 people they hired for a new project gathering information into giant ugly excel workbooks for eventual conversion to yet another database in a company that seems extremely database-heavy. Not all divisions of the company use all the databases so apparently there's information in one place that people in another unit never see and it creates confusion and upset when people who 'should' know this-or-that are bothering the people in charge of client service with silly questions. Or something.
Anyway....I am learning a LOT. (Pivot tables! eeps) and I feel like everyone in my group is much smarter than me. I think I may be among the three oldest people hired for the project, so that's kind of a wierd feeling. But everyone is very nice, very smart, and super helpful when I get stuck. And I am not getting stuck much anymore. The first few days of training, I was just like "Lord god almighty what have I gotten myself into??!?" and a couple of times I felt overwhelmed and wanted to quit. But I've stuck with it and I am finding that I'm pretty good at this job once I've gotten the hang of 'where to look for what information' and 'how to navigate crazy intricate excel sheets'.... but it's been taking up a lot of my bandwidth. I dont' have as much time to whine on FB or read Dreamwidth or post self pitying nonsense, which is all good.
I am feeling challenged, but energetic.
I don't love commuting to an office 3 days a week, but we do get monday and friday to work from home.... I am starting to have thoughts of 'what if I get a permanent offer here,"....*shrug* I am not going to make any plans along those lines. I was out of work from april 1 to mid august, my savings are a little bit low. I'm mostly going to refill my reserves and make sure I have money for property tax.
My car had expensive repairs.... husband picked up the tab for that. He feels OK about it. I don't.
My sister is having a lot of second thoughts about the place she picked for Mom, of the several places she sent me to check out .....I thought it was pretty good but apparently one of the owners is a dick. She wants to move Mom back to IN and care for her full time. I don't honestly see that as being do-able, but she's the POA and all of that, she has a degree in social work and has worked in elder care, so if that's what she decides, that's what will happen. Mom's health is holding steady. My aunt L. visits her every day to read her romance novels, my brother A visits every other day and they watch movies. I visit on weekends and bring my little dog and something sweet (donuts usually)... I feel pretty useless and boring sitting with her, but that's what we do now.
anyhoo...that's my life. work taking up most of my time and brain. Nothing social to speak of.....in a way I miss having friends, but if I'd ever been a good enough friend, I wouldn't be alone now, now would I? So. For the best. No travel plans or cruises to look forward to. I remember I used to cope with life by keeping busy and having plans. Now I just do the daily-walk dogs, go to work, come home, cook, walk dogs, tv, sleep. and keep everything small and plain. I don't hate it. It's just....not very interesting to talk about with anyone. But there's no one to talk about it with, so it all works out.
