So! I just glanced over my last blog post and remembered how lost and confused and downtrodden I felt one month ago... However, several big things in my life have changed since then. The first and foremost would be the addition of a NEW and EXCITING fancy shmancy JOB in DC! I got interviewed and almost immediately hired for a position at a commercial real estate management company located just a few blocks from the White House in downtown DC about three weeks ago, and since then my life has been turned upside-down.
I ride the metro to work, which aside from being ridiculously expensive is also unreliable and frustrating at the most inconvenient of times. I like to be in control of my earliness or tardiness, as getting to work on time makes me look professional and hard-working, while lateness makes me look like a lazy uncommitted bum. However, when someone else is in charge of your transportation to and from work, the appearance of laziness is not my fault and makes me feel both guilty and frustrated at my lack of control over the whole situation.
Take yesterday, for instance. I left my house nine minutes late, figuring I'd make up the time in transit - I usually arrive early enough to get a latte and saunter in to the office (it's hard to saunter in heels!) a few minutes early, so I was really not too concerned by the few minutes lost. I had driven to the metro station with no problems (about a 30-35 minute drive most days with decent weather and traffic), got a seat on the crowded train and was deeply absorbed in my fantasy novel and iPhone music when suddenly I became aware that an unusual announcement was being made. Yanking off my headphones, I was just in time to hear the unfortunate news that EVERYONE was to be required to disembark at the next stop, immediately. The train would then be returning to the station (for maintenance? I never actually heard the reason). Grumpily, myself and a few hundred others shuffled out onto the platform at Arlington Cemetery, three stops from my exit but (according to Google Maps) at least a 32 minute walk from my office, with me having no clue how to get there and not wanting to hike in my heels and skirt all the way to work. Besides, I would just wait for the next train with everyone else, right?
Wrong. Two or three trains came and went, each more full than the last and not wanting to suffocate from trying to shove my way into an already overstuffed train, I kept waiting for the next one... and the next. I called my boss and left a voicemail explaining my predicament, just before squeezing into a finally less-crowded train and resuming my trip, all out of sorts and mildly annoyed. We then proceeded to drive into the middle of the deepest darkest tunnel on the whole trip and just sit there for ten or fifteen minutes, enough for everyone to start giving each other uneasy looks as though sizing each other up for possible cannibalism.
I finally arrived at work about 35 minutes late and my supervisor was extremely understanding. She used to commute by metro but now she drives herself to save the hassle (though I had imagined that driving into the city would be a nightmare unto itself!). So, no harm done. I was even able to make up the time lost by staying late last night and coming in a bit early this morning, so I won't even lose any pay.
I seem to have gotten off track a bit... Oh, yes. I was pontificating on the joys of being a gainfully employed and contributing member of society! I don't know when I've ever been so enthusiastic about getting up at the crack of dawn and spending an hour and a half getting to work, wearing heels and pantyhose and other business-wear... My morning routine has expanded to include hair-drying, the application of makeup (shocker, no?), and packing my own (trying to be healthy) lunch, and for the most part has cut breakfast down to a 'Special K' bar (my doctor has me on a diet because my cholesterol sucks).
My office has 36 people besides me (going to be 37 with the addition of another new hire next week), and I man the front desk - answering the phone, directing calls, distributing the daily mail and newspapers, keeping the lobby neat and tidy... processing checks and invoices, ordering office supplies, keeping the copy room and kitchen clean and well-stocked. I take on any number of jobs; folding, envelope-stuffing, postage-printing and mailing seem to take up a good chunk of my time, as well as keeping spreadsheets of corporate property listings up-to-date and well formatted. I help out anyone in the office with copying, faxing, labeling, filing, and other duties as needed. I greet visitors and make them coffee. I set up meetings, arrange the chairs in the conference room, call caterers and make big important decisions like "tuna vs. chicken salad" or "Splenda vs. Sweet&Low".
I guess you could call me an "Administrative Assistant"... but the official job title given me by this company is "Director of First Impressions"... and I find I like that better, goofy though it may sound to some. I'm loving the corporate atmosphere, the new clothes my mom helped me buy my first week, having my own desk bedecked in post-its which I ordered last week in a variety of fun colors and some photos of my family and best friends which I printed at home and mounted on the wall next to my computer. I like reading on the metro, going out for coffee at the French bakery across the street, arranging meetings with vendors to find the best prices on supplies.
There are times when I run out of things to do and get bored. It is then I wonder whether I ought to be finding new projects to do, rather than getting on Facebook or listening to music. I am here at my desk, available for anything that needs to be done, computer and phone at the ready... but for instance on a rainy Friday evening when many people leave early, my supervisor's on vacation and there's just not a whole lot going on... I find myself -- what else? -- blogging! I am "the writer", after all (one of my new coworkers greeted me as such my first day and I was thrilled).
So, whether they make me an offer to become a permanent salaried employee or whether I move on from here in a few months to something else, for the time being... I'm HAPPY. Imagine that? Happy, at my job. Happy, in my choice of activities. Happy to be reading again, at least two hours each day between the metro and my lunch hour. Content, for the time being at least, to be living at home with my sister, my parents, the cat and dog... I'm happy!
As to the activities outside of work: I'm taking a ballet class at the local community college with my sister on Tuesdays... my first dance class since high school (6 years!). It's fun and nostalgic and more difficult than I remembered because of how out of shape I am. I've been out on a few dinner dates with a really nice guy in the past couple of weeks =P I went to a wedding last weekend, visited my best friend in Harrisonburg the weekend before, and tonight I'm hopefully going to the football game with my mom at my old high school, to see the marching band of course. I also took my first ever "zumba" class last night, also with my mom! It was amazing fun, but completely exhausting! Woke up sore and feeling almost feverish after having more exercise in that one hour than I've probably had in years... But it's still a good feeling - to be exercising again, and in such a fun way! I've got to make myself keep it up! You know, in the 2 seconds I have to spare between work and my commute and those couple hours I waste every day on silly things like *eating* and *sleeping* and some such nonsense...
Sore, exhausted, annoyed by the gob of mascara in the corner of my left eye, bored from lack of work this rainy tired Friday evening... and yet, I'm still Happy! Here's to success, and new challenges, and a good weekend for relaxing and reading!
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