Life Gets in the Way

Sometimes life just gets in the way of the things we want to do. For the last few months I have known that my job was going away as the grant that funded it was coming to an end. I never really mourned that fact as my job was created more-or-less because other people could not get along. Those people  were no longer in the picture, so the various aspects of my job could go into their logical homes and most likely function even better there then they were able to as independent fragments gathered into an imaginary whole.

For about a year I have been selectedly applying for jobs in the region (as well as applying for some jobs within the system for political purposes). Finally two weeks ago, the right opportunity came around and I was offered a job that had been on the horizon for nearly a year. The person recruiting me kept telling me to be patient, but it was getting increasingly difficult the longer it went.

In a whirlwind week, I resigned from my previous job, organized the transition documents and activities to the appropriate people, and boxed my program’s documents from the previous six years for archiving, packed my personal effects, contacted key persons in the community and various affiliated organizations, and was out of the old job four days later.

Normally two weeks notice is the custom; however, I think the human resources department decided it was easier to release me after four days at the end of a pay period rather than try to figure out partial pay and benefits. I think it is fair to give Human Resources low marks for something like that given their reasoning, not the understanding that they were merely being efficient.

All that to say, that though I know I am still in the honeymoon phase with the new job, I am deliriously happy. For the first time in a few years, I really have to think about what I’m doing, what I want to do, and how I want to get things done.

So back to the beginning: sometimes life gets in the way of the things we really want to do – like this blog. I have been incredibly inconsistent over the last few months because of the busyness of everything going one. Yes, the old job sometimes kept me busy, but nothing challenged me – it was busy and that’s all. That busyness coupled with a lack of energy to do much of anything left me with little to write or time to write about nothing.

I’m not Seinfeld after all.

Through the whole of the inauguration and those heady events, I wanted to write about the tears and my feelings, but every other blogger was doing that and there was really no sense in adding to the clutter. So, I’ve largely been silent. With all the true work I now do, I doubt I will have as much time to write as I have over the last couple years, but I am certainly going to keep up with my observations from time to time – like the Home Depot I spotted as the plane I’m on was taking off from Dallas Love Field. Due to a light out it said “Home De ot.”  Seriously now – you’re a home improvement store – FIX THE LIGHT!