I love my job; I really do. I think that in today’s economy, everyone who has a job is grateful for just being employed. To extend that gratefulness even further, everyone who has not been devastated by a tsunami, flood, earthquake, fire, or Arnold Schwarzenegger has something to be thankful for. And in these times of social media and losing employment because of an indiscriminate remark or photo, it is especially prudent to watch what one says about one’s employer.
But there is one thing about my job for which I am ungrateful, and that is the temperature. Many of you who work out in the elements and lack air conditioning will call it insane to rant about this wonderful modern convenience that we call central air conditioning, but there comes a point when even modern conveniences can go too far (a topic we’ll revisit more in the future).
For me, that point is when it’s a beautiful sunny 90-degree day is beaming at you from picturesque windows, and you are hunched over a heater with a long winter sweater. That point is when your head is so cold that you feel the freezing of your hair follicles and want to pull the hood of the sweater over your head in a Grace Jones fashion statement, even when said sweater does not come with a hood. Most severely, that point is brought home when you realize that your joints are aching and your sinuses are throbbing.
The irony is that this building was newly renovated in the fall of 2008 and this pre-existing problem was supposed to have been fixed. I think that it is unfortunate to suffer from brain freeze that is not self-inflicted through the quick sipping of a Slurpee®. So I’ve decided to come up with several alternatives to combat the slow coagulation of my blood into icicles.
My first solution is to layer up with even more warm clothing. So instead of picking out that cute summer blouse, I opt for a sweater. Sometimes I get clever enough to layer my look with the summer blouse and the sweater, but let’s face, in the morning, it is enough to get out the door with pants on that are only moderately wrinkled, much less putting the planning into more than one layer of clothing. But pre-family, there were summers where I decided that a scarf would add to my warmth. Then I coupled that with a pair of mittens. And while I was at it, I figured I toss in a pair of earmuffs. The problem with this solution is that I look insane. And since part for my job requires exposure to the public, my boss vetoed the idea, especially when I tried to wear all three.
My second solution is to drink plenty of hot liquids. Now I can just justify that daily hot cup of blueberry-flavored coffee that I stop by 7-11® to get on those muggy summer mornings. I am even thinking of trading in my 12-ounce cup for a thermos, so that I can prolong the enjoyment of that flavor. I also have a large stash of tea in my cubicle “pantry” as I like to call it. But I recognize that I cannot drink purely hot caffeinated drinks all day long because they will inevitably give me the jitters. So I have trained myself to enjoy a steaming mug of hot water. The problem with this solution is the increasing frequency of bathroom breaks. This has turned me into the cuckoo—as in the one that pops out of the clock; I amazingly have to pee in hourly intervals. And now, my job has opted to renovate the bathrooms in my building one floor at a time (which were surprisingly NOT included in the initial renovation), meaning that I now have catch an elevator up to the second floor for much needed relief. So far, this has not resulted in my hobbling to the elevator like a deranged duck when my bladder cannot wait for the rest of my body—but then again, I’ve only been back at work for three days.
My final solution is going outside to thaw out at regular intervals. I like to coin this practice taking air breaks. Here’s my theory: employers legally allow smokers to go outside and take a quick puff at regular intervals during the day. But what about non-smokers? Shouldn’t we be allowed that same privilege? The only reasonable answer is yes, and I fully intend to take advantage of this opportunity. I also decided that it would be a good idea just to leave the building for a half hour and take a brisk walk around outdoors. The major drawback with this system is two-fold: one, constant in-and-out exposure to the elements gives me a head cold, and two, even if I were to take those brisk walks, I run the risk of sweating, which could again result in catching a cold.
So my final desperate solution is to sit here, closely snuggled up to the heater, hoping that the passing patrons don’t mistake me for an ice sculpture.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
The Return
Well, it is official; I have returned to the land of the living workforce. In truth, I’m not sure what I expected when I returned. I suppose part of it was the expectation of a little more fanfare. It was all too easy to fall back into the work routine. In my head, I suppose I envisioned food, drink and general merriment and noise coming back with almost an open house atmosphere as people stopped by to say hello and welcome back. After all, I’ve been gone for the better part of three months. But in truth I am sitting here doing less than what I’ve been doing all the time I’ve been off, especially in these last couple weeks So I find myself sitting here feeling quite lethargic, almost to the point of abject sleepiness, so much so to the point where I am actually sitting at my desk dozing as I try to write this blog.
Then I came to the realization of what was missing. One, the time during which I returned is our quiet time; students have finished their research papers, exams, and semesters, so this place is a barren wasteland with no students. On top of that, I also realized that I didn’t tell many people, “Hey I’m back,” save my immediate office mates, so that canceled the idea of the open house. Second, the last time I returned, it was for an OCCASION, and that explained the lack of cake, cookies, and pastries (I did manage to scrounge up a cereal bar).
Finally, the biggest reason that there was no fanfare or big hoopla was this: there is no Ayden to complete the occasion. Yes, my son has become the mainstay show stealer each time I came to visit during my prolonged absence. And don’t get me wrong: unlike the past two days where I’ve been so absorbed with working on packing and the house that I’d been too busy to miss him, today I have thought about my little one a whole lot, even though I had a great opportunity to chit chat with my partner-in-crime at work.
So what has this industrious worker been doing to keep herself busy? Well, I just mentioned talking to my partner in crime. Truthfully, she’s probably been used to not talking as much for the last few months that it will take her sometime to get used to the morning routine again. I also brought in those boxes of books and sorted them. In addition, I also went through a lot of my emails that I didn’t want to sort through at home. Though I still have 249 in my inbox, it’s a far more manageable number than the almost 400 I had when I came in this morning. I feel confident that I can knock that out by the end of the week. So I’m kind of proud of the progress I’ve made.
Then I came to the realization of what was missing. One, the time during which I returned is our quiet time; students have finished their research papers, exams, and semesters, so this place is a barren wasteland with no students. On top of that, I also realized that I didn’t tell many people, “Hey I’m back,” save my immediate office mates, so that canceled the idea of the open house. Second, the last time I returned, it was for an OCCASION, and that explained the lack of cake, cookies, and pastries (I did manage to scrounge up a cereal bar).
Finally, the biggest reason that there was no fanfare or big hoopla was this: there is no Ayden to complete the occasion. Yes, my son has become the mainstay show stealer each time I came to visit during my prolonged absence. And don’t get me wrong: unlike the past two days where I’ve been so absorbed with working on packing and the house that I’d been too busy to miss him, today I have thought about my little one a whole lot, even though I had a great opportunity to chit chat with my partner-in-crime at work.
So what has this industrious worker been doing to keep herself busy? Well, I just mentioned talking to my partner in crime. Truthfully, she’s probably been used to not talking as much for the last few months that it will take her sometime to get used to the morning routine again. I also brought in those boxes of books and sorted them. In addition, I also went through a lot of my emails that I didn’t want to sort through at home. Though I still have 249 in my inbox, it’s a far more manageable number than the almost 400 I had when I came in this morning. I feel confident that I can knock that out by the end of the week. So I’m kind of proud of the progress I’ve made.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The 17th of May
Tomorrow I return to work and you would think that I would have some sort of separation anxiety from my son. But I have eliminated that by taking him in two days early. And honestly, I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to contemplate the fact of missing him. Besides, I have total confidence in my caregiver, who happens to be a close friend of mine whose children and child youth programs I’ve worked with on many occasions. Plus, she has a Master’s degree in Child Psychology and is CPR certified. So, I have no cause for worry since I know she will treat him like a member of her family, as she and her mother have always treated me.
But don’t think that while my son was at daycare, I just stayed at home and whistled Dixie, came home and went to sleep. I’ve been hard at work—and at this point, I need to backpeddle just a bit. Two Wednesdays ago, my mate and I purchased a home together. It’s our first one as a couple and my first shot at home ownership. I was actually able to convince my DAD to move in with us. It’s been my dream for a while to be able to take care of him. I want to leave care of my mom to by brother, but somehow I think she will ultimately become my responsibility too, although I refuse to have her live with me.
But I digress. As you can imagine, there is a lot of work to be done to move ONE place, much less consolidate two apartments into one. Surprisingly, my dad has not accumulated as many possessions as I thought; in fact, it is I who has the most accumulation among the four of us (Ayden comes in at a close second). What I’m attempting—and I do say attempting—is to throw away some of the accumulation. There have been several days of straight packing at both places. Day 1: shoes and purses. The easiest thing to say is that I have a lot. Two tubs of shoes and one tub of purses later, I’m feeling pretty good, even though I have four or five loose purses and about a dozen pair of shoes.
Day 2: packing my glass artifacts. I am one of those people who believes in having a glass for every occasion. That means white wine should be served in white wine glasses; margarita glasses should be for margaritas, etc. So you can imagine how many glasses I have. Keep in mind I made sure that both apartments had these components, so we’re basically looking at a minimum of eight glasses in many cases. Luckily I have a corner curio cabinet to absorb some of the cabinet space these would take up. Oh, did I mention my souvenir shot glass collection? Every new place I go, I buy a shot glass: Atlantic City, Vegas, Puerto Rico, Cancun, etc. And while I’m not exactly what you call a world traveler, I have been a few places. Getting the plates out of the way and working on packing bathroom items, toiletries, and perfumes/lotions. I got that out the way with relative ease since Dad took the brunt of that cleaning out of the way. All I had to do was sort through what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to chuck. Basically, anything that was old was thrown out.
Day 3: Incense and candles. No bull. I like the decorative element. I also like the look of them when they’re lit. Plus, they’re practical. And honestly, almost every time I go out of town, I end up buying scented candles to enhance the smell of my hotel room, and I almost always forget to pack them. So I have a full packing box for each place. Paperwork, office and my computer station. That I had a hell of a time with because although the desk area seemed small, I had a lot of stuff packed in there, and most of it needed to be sorted and packed individually.
Keep in mind that in each of these days, I was dividing myself among three places: the two apartments and the home. While I hadn’t moved anything in the house, one of the main things I wanted to was to get in there and CLEAN IT from top to bottom. This meant using almost a dozen different cleaning supplies: carpet freshener, window cleaner, paper towels, toilet bowl cleanser, floor cleanser, a Swiffer duster, towels, sponges, Scrubbing Bubbles. And I’m spraying, and I’m wiping and bending and stooping and climbing and SWEATING for a few hours at a time, getting a little done each day.
Day 4: Tackling, as I named it today, the ROOM of DOOM. This is by far the hardest task because before I moved from my Dad’s I was essentially using the room as a walk-in closet. There are clothes EVERYWHERE imaginable. Some I can wear, some I can’t, some (like my bathing suits and workout clothes, I no longer have time to wear. In addition, the room ended up also being a large book repository. Okay, to be honest, book, magazine, and writing repository. So today, I continued the task of attacking the room in phases. The easiest way is to break a large task into manageable chunks. So today’s tasks along with sorting the books was to pack the covers, sheets, towels, and other linens into one large bag; jackets, coats, and winter hats into another; and to tackle my photos. I still have one bathroom and the kitchen to clean at the house, but this is the only day I did not go to the house, because after I stopped at Dad’s apartment, I decided that today was a good day to do laundry back the other apartment. I had $16 on the laundry card and laundry that needed to be done, especially Ayden’s, since he goes through a couple of outfits and receiving blankets per day.
Tomorrow: I go to work for the first time in four months. I miss the girls and the melee, and just the general atmosphere of the college. After all, it has been my second home since 19. Also, in the evening, I have to go meet the Terminix representative to see if he can give a better estimate than the Orkin man. So after I leave work, I plan to swing by and get Ayden. With any luck, I can maybe take some of Ayden’s or my clothes over and fold them to make effective use of my time. It will also depend on Ayden and how he feels because for the last two days, he’s been conking out early due to his new routine.
But don’t think that while my son was at daycare, I just stayed at home and whistled Dixie, came home and went to sleep. I’ve been hard at work—and at this point, I need to backpeddle just a bit. Two Wednesdays ago, my mate and I purchased a home together. It’s our first one as a couple and my first shot at home ownership. I was actually able to convince my DAD to move in with us. It’s been my dream for a while to be able to take care of him. I want to leave care of my mom to by brother, but somehow I think she will ultimately become my responsibility too, although I refuse to have her live with me.
But I digress. As you can imagine, there is a lot of work to be done to move ONE place, much less consolidate two apartments into one. Surprisingly, my dad has not accumulated as many possessions as I thought; in fact, it is I who has the most accumulation among the four of us (Ayden comes in at a close second). What I’m attempting—and I do say attempting—is to throw away some of the accumulation. There have been several days of straight packing at both places. Day 1: shoes and purses. The easiest thing to say is that I have a lot. Two tubs of shoes and one tub of purses later, I’m feeling pretty good, even though I have four or five loose purses and about a dozen pair of shoes.
Day 2: packing my glass artifacts. I am one of those people who believes in having a glass for every occasion. That means white wine should be served in white wine glasses; margarita glasses should be for margaritas, etc. So you can imagine how many glasses I have. Keep in mind I made sure that both apartments had these components, so we’re basically looking at a minimum of eight glasses in many cases. Luckily I have a corner curio cabinet to absorb some of the cabinet space these would take up. Oh, did I mention my souvenir shot glass collection? Every new place I go, I buy a shot glass: Atlantic City, Vegas, Puerto Rico, Cancun, etc. And while I’m not exactly what you call a world traveler, I have been a few places. Getting the plates out of the way and working on packing bathroom items, toiletries, and perfumes/lotions. I got that out the way with relative ease since Dad took the brunt of that cleaning out of the way. All I had to do was sort through what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to chuck. Basically, anything that was old was thrown out.
Day 3: Incense and candles. No bull. I like the decorative element. I also like the look of them when they’re lit. Plus, they’re practical. And honestly, almost every time I go out of town, I end up buying scented candles to enhance the smell of my hotel room, and I almost always forget to pack them. So I have a full packing box for each place. Paperwork, office and my computer station. That I had a hell of a time with because although the desk area seemed small, I had a lot of stuff packed in there, and most of it needed to be sorted and packed individually.
Keep in mind that in each of these days, I was dividing myself among three places: the two apartments and the home. While I hadn’t moved anything in the house, one of the main things I wanted to was to get in there and CLEAN IT from top to bottom. This meant using almost a dozen different cleaning supplies: carpet freshener, window cleaner, paper towels, toilet bowl cleanser, floor cleanser, a Swiffer duster, towels, sponges, Scrubbing Bubbles. And I’m spraying, and I’m wiping and bending and stooping and climbing and SWEATING for a few hours at a time, getting a little done each day.
Day 4: Tackling, as I named it today, the ROOM of DOOM. This is by far the hardest task because before I moved from my Dad’s I was essentially using the room as a walk-in closet. There are clothes EVERYWHERE imaginable. Some I can wear, some I can’t, some (like my bathing suits and workout clothes, I no longer have time to wear. In addition, the room ended up also being a large book repository. Okay, to be honest, book, magazine, and writing repository. So today, I continued the task of attacking the room in phases. The easiest way is to break a large task into manageable chunks. So today’s tasks along with sorting the books was to pack the covers, sheets, towels, and other linens into one large bag; jackets, coats, and winter hats into another; and to tackle my photos. I still have one bathroom and the kitchen to clean at the house, but this is the only day I did not go to the house, because after I stopped at Dad’s apartment, I decided that today was a good day to do laundry back the other apartment. I had $16 on the laundry card and laundry that needed to be done, especially Ayden’s, since he goes through a couple of outfits and receiving blankets per day.
Tomorrow: I go to work for the first time in four months. I miss the girls and the melee, and just the general atmosphere of the college. After all, it has been my second home since 19. Also, in the evening, I have to go meet the Terminix representative to see if he can give a better estimate than the Orkin man. So after I leave work, I plan to swing by and get Ayden. With any luck, I can maybe take some of Ayden’s or my clothes over and fold them to make effective use of my time. It will also depend on Ayden and how he feels because for the last two days, he’s been conking out early due to his new routine.
What a Difference... (Original Author Date May 3, 2011)
…a few weeks makes! I’m still no expert at this whole parenthood experience, but my son and I have settled into a comfortable routine. Our morning typically starts at around 4am; he wakes up, gets fed, and goes back to sleep. Then at 6am, he’s back up again for another feeding and stays up for a while; sometimes only an hour and at other times, he’ll stay awake until 11am and go down for a brief catnap. Then it’s back up for a while by 2pm for his afternoon nap and I usually let him sleep until around 4.
We even have a little TV routine going on. We get up and watch a little of Fox 5 Morning News, fall asleep, wake up for Wendy Williams at 10am; have a free period at 11, where I’ll either take a shower and bathe him, or watch Dr. Phil or some other show of interest; at noon, we usually watch classic Looney Tunes, followed by Tom and Jerry at 1pm, and round out the afternoon with The Talk (admittedly, it’s usually just me watching The Talk).
It’s funny that in a few weeks our entire routine will be shaken up and changed. I will be returning to work on the 18th of May.
We even have a little TV routine going on. We get up and watch a little of Fox 5 Morning News, fall asleep, wake up for Wendy Williams at 10am; have a free period at 11, where I’ll either take a shower and bathe him, or watch Dr. Phil or some other show of interest; at noon, we usually watch classic Looney Tunes, followed by Tom and Jerry at 1pm, and round out the afternoon with The Talk (admittedly, it’s usually just me watching The Talk).
It’s funny that in a few weeks our entire routine will be shaken up and changed. I will be returning to work on the 18th of May.
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