Looks Like We’ve Made It (So Far…)

One week ago, I was waking up to a bright-as-hell morning in Massachusetts for the first time in over four years. The day before, DB and I had finally finished our 800-mile journey from Cincinnati to New England without any issues whatsoever (aside from gas prices, that is). We’re here. We’ve made it.

Finally.

Monday was my first day at the new job and so far it is pretty spectacular. I went from working in a global conglomerate that operated like a well-oiled machine and provided little employee satisfaction/gratitude/etc.; now, on the other hand, I’m working for a private, semi-start-up company of less than 400 employees that has little to no standardization at all. It’s a breath of fresh air, and at the same time I feel almost like I’m being reckless here.

You mean to say I don’t have to get 57 and a half signatures before accomplishing a portion of a task? I can wear jeans? Coffee is free? We are getting an extra day off in August “just because”? I don’t have to plead my case to get an upgrade-able plane ticket just to use my own miles, because we actually automatically get business class seats for air travel? (And I get to keep the miles I earned, you say?) You trust us enough to not block flash player, adobe acrobat, and java applications from our web browser? I can print in color? MADNESS!!!

In all seriousness, I’m thrilled with my new job. The people are nice, helpful, and smart; the work allows me to be creative and think outside the box; I get to tap into my developed interest in consumers and marketing. As usual, I’m failing at learning everyone’s names, but those who I have met have been very welcoming to me. It’s all good so far!

Living-wise, things are just okay. As if the lingering odor of dog and poor cleaning products isn’t bad enough, the one window air conditioner in the living room isn’t exactly enough to cool a 2-bedroom apartment during New England’s first heat wave of the summer. It’s been in the upper-90s during the day and in the mid-80s during the night, resulting in my sleeping in the living room next to the air conditioner after waking up in a pool of sweat at 2:40am.

We have found an apartment to move in in July, though, and it’s in a pretty great part of Boston. We’re not as close to the T [subway] as I’d hoped to be, but we’re on a bus line and only about a mile from the closest T stop and some really great bars, restaurants, etc. Plus, it’s a pretty cheap place on a dead-end street with a back yard, porch, huge basement for storage, free laundry just for our apartment, a big kitchen, two spots in a driveway, and free street parking. One big negative: no pets allowed. So much for getting a puppy… 😦

There is only one other apartment, and the layout of the two is that of a townhome (side-by-side, rather than upstairs vs. downstairs like traditional multi-family home apartments). Our future neighbors are two male engineers, so we’ll be a home full of enginerds! (On a side-note, it was hilarious listening to our realtor try to tell us that two men live in the other one-bedroom apartment. He stuttered and looked uncomfortable. Sure, they may not be gay, but even if they are, the realtor seemed nervous that we would respond with, “WHAT??!! Two men living together in one bedroom?! I do not want to live in a homosexual brothel, sir! Good day to you!” and storm out. Needless to say, I think our neighbors will get along fine with us!)

To make matters even more awesome, DB and I had dinner with an old college buddy of ours a few days after we returned back to Massachusetts. It was awesome to see him again after so long! Tomorrow we’ll be seeing another friend and her boyfriend for dinner and drinks. I haven’t seen her in even longer, so I’m pretty excited! (And they have a dog! Yay!)

Despite all of the accomplishments achieved and good stuff going on, there’s still so much to do. I can’t change auto insurers until I get my car registered. I can’t get my car registered without getting it inspected and without getting an in-state driver’s license. I can’t get an in-state driver’s license until I can prove residency in Massachusetts. I can’t prove residency until I officially move into our new apartment. Hopefully Saturday we’ll sign the lease and I can get the ball rolling on all of this. I just can’t wait until everything is done once and for all (and for DB to get a job)!

A Good Morning

Yesterday started off a little bit rough. I was running late to work and when I arrived, I saw my General Manager (boss’ boss’ boss’ boss) for the first time since I gave my resignation. He’s a really good guy – funny, a true “people person”, diplomatic – so I figured I’d approach him at his desk and make small-talk about my move, expecting the same half-hearted congratulations I’ve been getting from others.

By the end of our conversation, however, I felt awful. He didn’t even say the passive-aggressive things other people had been telling me: something along the lines of, “Well, you’ve got to go where live takes you. There’s never a good time to leave a job.” He never wished me luck and told me he won’t be able to go to my goodbye lunch. The conversation closed with a, “Well, I’ll see you around.” Now I know why earlier that morning he was walking around my group’s cubicles but never stopped in mine.

I felt that a bridge had been burned, which was the one thing I didn’t want to do. But, as this blog post title hints, the morning got much, much better.

About 10 minutes after my awkward, unsatisfying talk with my General Manager, the Vice President of my division (boss’ boss’ boss’ boss’ boss) came to my desk and made me feel absolutely, 100000% awesome. Unlike my General Manager, the VP is somewhat monotonous in his speaking tone, isn’t much of a conversationalist, and I’ve only ever spoken to him in formal meetings to get his signature or in volunteer activities we both happened to be at. (He even drove me to one volunteer event in his gorgeous luxury car!) Despite all of this, I doubted that someone so high up in a company, reigning over 500+ people in my department alone, would even know who I am.

Well, apparently he does.

He said, “I heard that you’ve resigned. I’m so sorry to see you go.” He continued to tell me how he’s enjoyed how involved I’ve been in volunteer activities and thanked me for the work I’ve done for the groups in which I’ve worked. By the end of it, he shook my hand, told me that if life takes me back to this area to let him know, and said that I’d be welcomed back.

The best part? He was being genuine in what he said; I could see it in his eyes. He looked at me differently than my boss, my General Manager, and even my coworkers… it was just… different. I definitely appreciated it, and it brightened up my mood immediately. Lesson learned: in big companies, you can feel small; however, there’s bound to be one person who truly feels you’ve had an impact.

By the time this entry is posted (I draft, then schedule my posts to be entered at certain times), our PODS storage unit will be in front of our apartment and DB will be packing it up. Not only has packing been halted due to our box labyrinth proving to be an obstacle, but we need floorspace for the air mattress we’ll be sleeping on for the next two nights while DB’s mother and brother are in town. I anticipate hope that I will come home to a more open living space, although we’ll only be living in it for less than 6 days.

Goal: have the storage unit completely packed by Monday night. (I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope…)

T-Minus 18 Days

For the first time in my [albeit somewhat short] professional career, I’m putting in my 2-weeks notice. Well, I’m not doing it today (although I’d like to!); rather, I’m doing so on Tuesday – the day I get back from a 3-day Memorial Day weekend.

It’s so strange. I never feel like I’m one of those golden, indispensable employees-of-the-month types, but I am happy to say that I received job offers from the only two jobs I interviewed for. (Sure, I applied to over 2 dozen jobs and only ended up with 2 interviews… but I choose to ignore that statistic!) I don’t mean to sound pompous, but I’m allowed to be proud of myself once in a while! (Believe me, it doesn’t happen often.) I’m sort of in-demand!

Well, this whole thing is the motivation to start this blog. I’ve had so many other blogs about specific things (usually food or fitness) but this time I’m going to talk about one thing: life. Mine is changing right now for the gazillionth time, and that’s what makes life so interesting: every day is like Day One.

I’m growing increasingly nervous about giving my two-weeks notice; as I mentioned, I’ve never had to do this kind of thing before. I’ve left jobs, but not like this. Leaving my high school Dunkin Donuts job when I was leaving for college doesn’t even compare to this.

I’m told that my work is difficult and important, although I’m not entirely convinced that it is. Regardless, I do have lots of it to do, which will all be handed off to my two unsuspecting coworkers and my very, very unsuspecting supervisor in a mere 18 days. (I feel very bad for the the former… not so much for the latter… but I’ll get into that in a future post, I’m sure.)

18 days. That’s when I will be “escorted” out of the building. (They apparently have to do that here, and I’m not entirely sure why.) I’ll hand in my badge and be done with this place. It’s not all that bad… well, at least it wasn’t until about 5 months ago… but, again, I’ll get into that in a future post!

There is so much to do in the next 18 days, too. Like, an honestly ridiculous amount. We need to pack, pack, pack, and pack some more. We need to clean the place so we will get our deposit back. We need to make sure that both of our cars are tuned up for the long drive from Cincinnati to Boston. We need to sort through what will be stored and what will be put in our cars for the move to our temporary housing. (Shall I call it half-way housing? Maybe?) Boyfriend needs to keep job-hunting so we can have two incomes for the first time in two years. His mom and brother are visiting for his graduation (in exactly 2 weeks from today), so we have the joy of preparing for that.

The good thing is we have still been pretty productive. Boyfriend and I started packing this past weekend but are having difficulty selling the things we don’t want to bring with us. (You’d think living around a dozen fraternity and sorority houses would mean somebody would want a hardwood poker table and 40 pieces of bar glassware and accessories!) I finally reserved our PODS moving box.  (Of course packing all of our crap in the thing will be an all-day process, I’m sure.) I think we’re doing okay.

I’ve always been considered pretty eclectic, ever-changing, and off-the-wall, so changes are fun to me… but I am still looking forward to the settling-down part!

18 days away. That’s it.