A job and some other things

Hello again!

I think it’s been 3 months (that’s a quarter of a year!) since I’ve posted so it’s time again to fill you in on my very exciting life.

My complete aversion to travelling has worn off and I was able to go to on a few trips, nothing foreign – unless you count New Mexico.  It’s good to get out because here I still spend 98% of time with relatives.  I got a job, but that didn’t really help with diversifying of my social network (more on that later).

This has nothing to do with travelling, but last weekend I went on  this hike thing to some local sand mines.  Here is a picture of me, my sister, my dad and some niblings in the mines.

I was working on a project of organizing my parents’ pictures and have lost all momentum.  I realized I like tasks with hope of a clean finish but sorting 100 years of pictures is really hard.  And when I ask my mom if a baby is me or my sister she only knows sometimes.  So what hope is there of her knowing which baby is which in the box of Eklund black and whites my dad found in the garage.  Label your photos folks. 

I’ve been cooking more, it’s a lot different cooking when you a) have other people to eat your food and b) have other people paying for the ingredients.   I had some expired airline miles that I was able to cash in on magazine subscriptions (a fair trade) so now get Southern Living and Cooking Light. I like to pretend the recipes in Southern Living are from Cooking Light and are secretly healthy. 

When I last wrote I was applying for a job that required heavy lifting and forklift driving.  Then my cousin-in-law informed me that it actually would require me to lift heavy things and drive a forklift so scratch that.  So we were back to another 2 months of sporadic emails and then they created a new job for me.  Then I had this “interview” (with a different relative-through-marriage that works there) and then I went on vacation and mid-April I became InSite Administration for Clean Harbors Industrial Services (actually there seems to be some discrepancy on if it’s Industrial or Environmental Services).  One day someone asked me what division I was in and I said, “This one.” Now I know “this one” is material processing. 

A big part of my first few weeks was watching training videos, approximately 40 videos in I got to the ones titled “Who We Are” and learned about what this company actually does.  A direct quote: “What does Clean Harbors do? Plenty…in a bunch of industries.”  Well, if that doesn’t clear things up, I don’t know what would.   The “Who We Are” videos did not cover names of people working in my office but I’ve learned that Tony or Brian are normally pretty good guesses.   Another big video topic was safety.  If you’re driving a truck in a snowstorm, be extra careful.  I don’t think that knowledge is directly relevant to my job but it will help if I’m ever called on to life coach a truck driver (except one in California, we’re in a drought).   Also keep in mind that the main cause of fatigue is lack of sleep (not lack of caffeine). 

Up to this point in the email I have been at work waiting for my next task, and don’t feel guilty because I already color coordinated my files. Here comes the switch to personal time

Now that I’m done with training videos, what I do is a little bit of a mystery.   Basically I ask people if they need any help and then I sit in my office, with my space heater on, listening to podcasts, drinking tea/water, and doing whatever data entryish project someone needs help with. Drinking tea/water is great because it gives me an excuse to get up from my desk more frequently (either to the kitchen or bathroom). And has fewer side-effects than smoking.

But sometimes I do have stuff to do and I fail- really this job is keeping my humble.  Yesterday I had to cover the phones for someone who was out.  Let’s just say if I received a performance review based on how long someone was on hold before getting directed to the proper person, I would be fired.  I was literally walking around the office inside and out trying to find anyone to help me figure out who the call was for and how to use the phone to transfer calls.

In general the people I work with are very nice, except for the few that walk around scowling.  The woman I work with the most is super chatty, like ask me anything about her and I could tell you.  What kind of socks does her boyfriend wear? How often does she wear deodorant? SERIOUSLY I NOW KNOW THESE THINGS (although I just realized you’re probably thinking you know too much about me too-it’s different though).  Also one day she told me about her boyfriend’s friend smoking pot in the back seat of her brand new car, which was just super rude.  I told her about my one friend whose dad smokes cigars- we really had a bonding moment.  But really she’s wonderful and has been gone the last few days and it’s been rough.

OK, I could tell you even more about this but you’d probably read too much into it and think I’ve gone completely crazy.  So here are ten straight-up great things about my job. 

1) As of today I have health benefits including dental and vision.  I was thinking I’d need to use the vision right away because my eyes were killing me at work but…

2) I got my very own office with a window offering tons of natural light and I can see again!  And my mom gave me a plant. Here is a picture of the view out of the window.

3) My commute is always less than 30 minutes and very pretty.  And during this commute I hear the traffic reports for my old commute to San Ramon and I rejoice a little more.   

4) I get paid

5) I get to listen to lots of podcasts and sermons, so I’m up on all sorts of things.  Maybe I’ll move to books on tape or whatever we call them these days.  Recommendations?

6) I can wear jeans everyday, or not.  No one cares.  Side note- I found 3 pairs of jeans last weekend for $2.50.

7) I have flexible hours.

8) It’s drama-free. I was talking to someone from my job in NM yesterday and am really glad to not be there.

9) My bosses have great wives.

10) It’s very clearly God’s provision and gives me hours of stand up material.

In one of my podcasts (NPR’s How To Do Everything) someone called in to ask how to make small talk with children.  A 10-year-old consultant said that she thought a good question is, “is there anything important happening with you?” Because that opens it up from birthdays to really anything that important to the individual (like the junk this email was filled with). 

Anyways, anything important happening with you?