Long Time, No See

Wheel of Life

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since my last posting. Time flies when you are living your dreams....

Who am I kidding? I have been swamped with work and just haven't had time to organize my thoughts into a coherent, entertaining essay. However, following dinner with my friends Clodagh and Jerry last night, I realized that I am in a rare place of happiness. I have found a blissful moment where the hectic swirl of the world seems far away.

Since I am five weeks into the new job, the radio silence can be lifted. As you may remember, I accepted a new position at Lulu Press in March. Although I am no longer working in my beloved downtown Raleigh and I have to actually drive to the office now, I am thrilled with my work and excited by the team of highly dedicated and creative people with whom I get to spend my days. I am still drinking from the fire hose, so to speak, but I am getting my head around the job and I am eager to get to the office every morning.

Of course that is not how it started. Sometime around 2:00 PM on my first day, I started wondering if I had made a horrible mistake. So many new faces, names, personalities to learn - not to mention that I barely understood a third of what people were talking about in meetings. And, boy, you better believe these people do have some meetings. I have learned that being the oldest person in the room sometimes has its advantages in that I can use my experience and distill it into a varnish of artificial self-confidence. After all, these people didn't know that I was really a walking meat bag composed of jitters and self-doubt. Simply raising my hand and reminding people that I am the new guy, seems to jolt everyone back into English - for a few minutes anyway. Fortunately, I am picking up the jargon pretty quickly, thanks to Google.

Since those tentative days and sleepless nights, I feel that I have begun making a contribution to the success of the company. Perhaps only a small contribution at this point, but I do see a bright future for myself there and hope to stay as long as they will have me.

As to my former position, well, I am still moonlighting for them in the evenings. I just couldn't leave them in the lurch. Somehow I think this generosity has contributed to my recent karmic happiness, but it could also be the consultant-level hourly wage they are paying me that has smoothed the way for paying off the credit card, insurance, and future vacation debt yet to be incurred during my upcoming visit to the Greek Isles in August.

Life is good!