The new job.

The past four days went a little something like this:

5:45 am - Wake up, shower, eat, pack lunch, iron clothing, read internet news
7:30 - Leave place, walk to subway
8:10-8:20 - Arrive at work, plug in laptop, put lunch in fridge
12:00 - Eat lunch at boardroom table with two co-workers
12:20-12:30 - Back to desk
5:15-5:45 - Leave work, walk to bus
6:00-6:30 - Arrive at home, make dinner, eat dinner
7:30 - TWO HOURS OF TIME ALONE (email, laundry, phone, chores)
9:30 - Go to bed exhausted

This is going to take some adjusting. I am tired. I somehow was under the impression that after finishing school I would have tons of free time in the evenings. Not so much. I have a whole list of things I want to do, things I want to learn, a reading list 30 books long, a piano keyboard that is collecting dust, my lonely guitar.

Working full time last summer I was 7:30-3:30 (8 hrs), walked to work, and had the whole night to myself. It really made a difference.

For whatever reason this new job has me scheduled for 9 hour days (without the 1 hour lunch I assumed was included in that), and involves some commuting.

I am happy to have a job, and a paycheck, and benefits, especially in this tough economic time, don't get me wrong. I am just not used to giving up my entire day like this.

The nine hours I am at work have been ok so far. Less exciting than I had hoped.

Positive things:
- Friendly bosses
- I work with two other ladies, one a GCM grad, both are great
- Company laptop that I take home every day
- Nice desk, attractive office space
- Company has many large, interesting accounts to work on

Meh things:
- No standard way of doing things/scheduling things/organizing things
- Mundane and time-consuming tasks that other people don't want to do are "good learning experiences" for me (2 hours of data entry, checking how many pages are in 30 different indesign files and making a list, making mailing labels for 2 hours) Typical new-person right of passage stuff.
- Docket/estimate/invoice software full of bugs, constantly logs out, not all features work, IT guy has been too busy to fix these problems for months
- While office space is attractive, it is very cluttered. I don't know where everything goes yet and thus can't clean up. I am itching to move things and clear the workspace, but must wait.

We'll see how things progress in the weeks to come.

It is 10:30 now. I am going to pay for this in the morning.