Post Vacation Mondays...

Yeah, there are those days where you find yourself wishing you could stay on vacation for a few more years.  The nice part would be not having to follow a schedule, just the ability to do what you want.  The down side to that would be, short of a winning lottery ticket, the down side of wishing to live indoors, eat food which you haven't had to raise and kill whether or not it's in-season, and the desire to remain part of the 21st Century, such as it is.  You know, wonderful modern conveniences such as the internet, electricity, heating and cooling, running water, indoor plumbing, etc.

So there's that.  And then there's the "I return from vacation to my new job" day.

Which wasn't what I expected.  Yeah, you know.  I did not see this one coming, either.

But there I was, looking at the previously defined schedule, and noticing they wanted me to start at 8 am.  Was that 8 am my time zone, 8 am Pacific Time, or 8 am Eastern?  Gulp.  Brain kicked over into "better safe than sorry, assume your own time zone" at 7:45 this morning, so I finished gulping down the remainder of my breakfast, then headed into the kitchen.  My typical post-breakfast duties I've set for myself are to refill the ice in my "work mug".  This thing is metal, most likely an aluminum of some sort, insulated all to heck, with a plastic lid.  Or in other words, if I fill it with ice cubes from good old-fashioned ice cube trays where the ice cubes themselves are about an inch wide, an inch and a half long, and an inch or so tall, I have about 75% of that ice left in solid condition at the end of the day.  Yeah, it works.  So I load the mug from the bottom to the top with ice, then it's still there at the end of the day.  Most days, this means a tray and a half, or call it about 24 ice cubes, each morning. 

So I typically make enough ice - that is, I remove the frozen water from the 4 trays in the refrigerator, to fill the ice cube bin which is stored in the door to our fridge.  On Mondays, and special Mondays like today, I end up emptying all 4 trays.  I use 1 1/2 of the trays to fill my mug, the rest are for the other folks in the house here.  Tomorrow, I'll likely end up doing maybe 3 trays, Wednesday through Friday, probably one tray each, as the ice "bucket" is usually full to over the top.  Which means at the end of the night I can steal a half-dozen, add them to my mug, and have cold water the next morning, too.

So I did that little task, refilling all four trays, then dashing downstairs.  I fired up the monitors and logged into the computer ... which was running as if, as usually happens, someone poured molasses into it.  The thick stuff.  So I got logged in, connected to the VPN, and punched in.  This process, on a "as fast as possible" day, takes 2-3 minutes.  This morning it took about 3.  So I punched in, technically, 2 minutes late.  That's pretty bad for a first day, but I was in.  

And facing over 120 email messages.  I also had several chat messages - which expired, and were gone.  And about 45 other urgent messages in another system.  Then I got a ping from my new boss in the chat client.  To call her.  Which I did.

An my new boss (I shall call her Brenda, which ain't her name, but it works for the purposes of this work) began with an apology.  Which is never a good way to start the day, but I appreciated it.  Because my new job had gone the way of the dodo - in other words, the new position, which she desperately needs, was eliminated.  

Gulp, says I, I thought I had a job here today...  But before that came out of my mouth, Brenda informed me that my former team, which I was an integral part of, all of my supervisors informed me back on September 30, when I communicated with my remaining team members because they were still doing my old job, I'd spent the entire summer passing out the patients we couldn't keep to other providers so they could continue to get their necessary therapies.  So I spent the end of my day that September 30 thanking everyone for the support and the positive messages, and wishing them well.

But that team had seen, last week, the departure of two integral members.  Oddly enough, both were hired after I was, one by a month, one by 2 1/2 years, but they were both experienced in that which we do, so they hit the ground running.  I was an "expert" because I'd done the job for so long, in so many odd situations, so things were ... well, not exactly new to me.

So my previous boss, whom I will call Amy, was thrilled when it became obvious that I would be looking for a job come this Monday when the job I thought I had disappeared like ... well, perfume on a windy day.  

Or other things.

So my new not-to-be-boss Brenda asked if I would be willing to go back and do the job I'd been doing until June 7th, this year, before I was rolled onto the "giveaway" team.  My momma may have raised a few people of questionable intelligence, but when faced with that particular question, my only available answer was "yes please".  So Brenda asked if I'd be willing to consider joining her team if, in the future, the position was available, and I said I would certainly be willing to apply for it.  I like to be challenged, but I also like the job I had been doing.  I was able to make a real difference.  And could continue to do that.  

So as soon as I got off the phone with her, I called my old boss, Amy.  She was thrilled to hear from me, explained the situation, then asked how I was equipped with my computers, etc.  After I informed her what I'd been using, she said that there would be a new laptop and a new docking station which would, eventually, be sent for me to pick up so I could ... work more efficiently.  

So there's another desk re-design and construction project in my future.  But the job is one which I know how to do.  So here we go.

So that was my Monday, today.  I spent some of the day getting back into the groove of that which I had done, and catching up on the latest updates and changes.  And away I went.  So I got that to look forward to for now.  We'll see how it goes as I lumber into the future.  But it sure is nice to have a job.  And there are certainly easier ways to earn a raise...  Especially ways that are much less likely to increase my blood pressure.

But that's today.  Onward to tomorrow.