Life - The shock of working again.

I wasn't really prepared to go back to work.  I was very ready to to be retired.  But, we had decided this would be a good thing, so back I went.

Mind you.  I have worked from home full time for 5 years, and part time for 5 or more years before that.  So, I was very concerned about the noise of working in a cubicle farm.  I'm used to being the only one around.  No one making any noises but me.  Now I know I should really have been afraid of the silence.  This place is creepy quiet at times considering how many people work here.  No one is on the phone, everyone talks in whispers to each other.  Maybe if they realized I don't know how to whisper they might not have hired me.

Of course, there is one place where it's no holds barred, and that's the kitchen.  You walk in there and everyone is talking all at once, very loud and animated, in at least three different languages.

There are the other things that I have to deal with, like "coming out" to everyone.  Best line yet - "you don't look like one."  I just smiled and told her we come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and smiled.  We're daily lunch buddies now.

Then there are funny things, like IM'ng each other even though we just have to look over the 3 foot cubicle wall to see each other.  I am not kidding.  My lunch buddies and I sit three in a row, and we have these long conversations each day without even uttering a sound.   Some days I just want to laugh out loud.

I've also made it through withdrawals.  I am living without getting on the internet for any personal reasons and it's no longer making me crazy that I can't check my email.  (No, I haven't entered the world of 3g or 4g phones, but I did finally add texting to my phone.)

This week the thing that got my attention had to do with aromas.  Monday, the ladies room smelled like Double Bubble Bubblegum.  The problem with that is that I can no longer handle sugary smells.  Yuck.  Then yesterday someone walked down my aisle with a very sugary pastry.  I didn't see it, but I sure could smell it.  OK, I can deal with the silence better than the sugar smells.

The one thing I'm not adjusting to is the loss of "me" time.   Our evenings and weekends had been ours to do with as we want for the past two years.  Now, that time is when we get all the chores done that I used to do during the day.  At least I was able to change my hours from 8-5 to 7-4.   But I'm still not making it to the gym, or getting much sewing done.  Of course, tonight was really the first night we didn't have to do anything, and I'm sitting here writing this blog.

So on that note, I'm off to do something for me in the 1 1/2 hours I have left to my day.