Wishing you a peaceful Sunday, whether it’s being spent on the road or at home. We have one more day in Connecticut before we head back down south & I’m looking forward to filling it with good memories.
Because I got nothing else tonight:
(I do not love the long drive, but it will be filled with audiobooks, podcasts, music, and an excellent traveling companion. But think of us when you head to bed on Wednesday night, because we’ll still be on the road.)
How about you? What do you enjoy about the holiday?
With snow predicted in the mid-Atlantic region tomorrow evening and with dark and somewhat dreary weather punctuating the unexpected extra time on my hands (Honestly, it’s so November. I’ve just gotten spoiled living in the south, where cold and dank weather doesn’t generally arrive until December or sometimes even January.), I’m having a harder time than usual remembering how much I love fall. I thought it was time to recap ten of the things I love about it to help get me back in the mood (since there’s still another five weeks left of it…):
How about you? What do you love about autumn?
If last weekend was filled so completely that I didn’t have time to think about my situation, this weekend was not filled sufficiently. There was too much time on my own, too much time spent in my own head, too much time thinking about how things could have gone differently (not just about being downsized; it was a fun spiral that ran the gamut from dishwashing to grad school).
I realize this is a loss, and while I am not especially upset at having to find another job (that’s not entirely true; I’m looking forward to having a new job I love, but not to finding one), I am still at a loss for the sudden way in which losing the old one occurred. And losses take time and energy to deal with, and there is a grieving process. I’d like to hope that being aware this is what’s going on means that it won’t last too much longer, but I’d be lying if my own consciousness of a problem has historically indicated any ability to move through it with alacrity. But there’s a first time for everything, I suppose. And as long as I realize there’s the potential for this to become a problem, I can take the steps necessary to guard against it — rising earlier, getting out into the sunshine, exercising, talking to people… — and to take further steps if necessary.
I literally keep telling myself to suck it up and power through this, and I will. Just maybe not in ten days. Everyone who kept being surprised when I said I was going to just take a single day to wallow may have had a clearer picture than I did about that aspect of things. So, yes, my plan of thirds is still roughly going to hold true. But I think I will reorder things for the time being so that the self-care comes first and that I’m not dragging myself outside at 4 p.m. in pursuit of a flagging sun.
Because the days will roll past whether I see the sun in person or not, but they’ll sure feel a lot more pleasant if I do.
Today was grey and dreary and involved a trip to the vet for our older cat, Jeremiah, whom, I suspect is suffering from kidney disease. I expect to hear from the vet on Monday that it’s time to start him on a regimen of fluids. But other than a little stiffness when he first gets moving after a nap and some excess thirst, I think he’s doing well for a 16-year-old cat.
While the weekend is looking drier and sunnier, it’s also looking chilly, which means that I’ll be breaking out the woolens. Here’s some of what I’m hoping the weekend includes:
How about you? What are you planning to do this weekend?
Life handed me a surprise change in fate last week when my office announced a major reorganization and let a large number of us, including me, go.
I’d been contemplating a job change for a while, since while what I was doing was interesting, it wasn’t what I was passionate about. But I was comfortable, I liked the people I worked with, and I was afforded enough freedom in the breadth and accomplishment of my tasks to keep me content, if not happy, so I didn’t pursue the hunt with much vigor, dismissing job listings frequently and applying for new positions rarely. Obviously that approach no longer works.
In my better moments, I’m inclined to look at this change in fortune as an adventure: Who knows what the future holds?! There are a great many possible paths before me yet, and I am okay with experimentation. When traveling places in real life, I like to look at the big picture, plot a rough line to my destination, and then wing it, much to the frustration of those companions who prefer a plotted course. I figure that this jaunt to my next career will likely take a similar approach, and I am okay with that.
I have some ideas about what I might like to do, but remain open to what the winds blow before me. I had an older coworker at one point who said you don’t have to figure out what you want to do when you grow up; you just have to figure out what you want to do next. I can do that. After all, I’ve just spent 15 years working on projects that I never would have chosen if left to my own devices, and I’m probably the better for it. And I have a healthy appreciation for the role of whimsy in decision-making.
My current game plan is to divide my time up into thirds: a third will be devoted to job hunting, professional development, and other career-related tasks; a third will go toward getting our apartment cleaned up (because we were already short on space before I brought 15 years’ worth of odds and ends home from the office); and a third will go toward personal enrichment and mental health care, so that when I do find that next position I’ll be able to enter it as my best self.
Obviously, though, if you can send some good thoughts my way, I’d appreciate that.