Category: work

Slacker

Lazybones

Laggard

Sluggard

Loafer

Shirker

So endeth the thesaurus list.

Today, I am a slacker (sluggard?).

Today, I join the great masses of the unemployed.

Ne’er do well.

Thankfully, my shirker ways will end in exactly one week when I begin my new job and a whole new adventure.

I spent nine and a half years toiling for my former employer, and it was with a heavy heart that I left on Friday.

But ultimately, though painful, it was the right decision.

Next Monday I start with a company that is consistently in the top ten “best places to work”. We’ll see in the coming months whether or not I agree with that assessment, eh?

But for today, I’m a layabout. And I like it. Maybe a little too much.

Going to Carlsbad in my mind

Yeah, I just said that. Okay, maybe not actually Carlsbad, but near Carlsbad.

For a while back in the day (also called “the college years”) my folks lived in Carlsbad. Meaning I spent holidays and summers there.

Have ya’ll been to Carlsbad? No, not the caverns, those aren’t actually in town. Actual Carlsbad. Where are my southeastern New Mexico people? You know what I’m talkin’ about.

Yeah. Carlsbad.

So with those dull days in mind, while my mom resided in fabulous downtown Carlsbad, she sought to find ways to get OUT of Carlsbad.

One of the places she took me, one hot summer day, was a location called Sitting Bull Falls. Yes, in the middle of the desert, a glorious oasis with an 130 foot waterfall.

Gorgeous!

What got me waxing about such a wonderful (cooooool) place?

Well, first, it’s been a hard day. Bleary eyed I scanned the Las Cruces Sun News and followed *this* link.

To my surprise, I found a nice write up about Sitting Bull Falls! Nestled deep in the Lincoln National Forest, it’s a beautiful and surprising destination in the, uh, middle of no-frickin’-where.

(When you are a NM kinda person, the corner of no-frickin’-where and BFE is a party destination!).

So on this bleary, sad, hard day, I went to Sitting Bull Falls in my mind.

I remembered a really good day. A break from the oppressive heat. Natural beauty. And relaxing. It was a nice mental vacation.

I sort of doubt I’ll ever be back that way again in person…so the best I can do is go to Sitting Bull Falls in my mind.

Ahhhh.

Photo Source

Something to look forward to

I believe in life it’s always important to have something you are looking forward to. Something that helps get your heinie out of bed in the morning so you can slog through another day.

A reason to prevail.

It can be just about anything. Heck, some folks are looking to the weekend. Others to seeing their kids at the end of the day. Everyday stuff is good, no doubt, but I’m talking the big stuff. The “ohmygoshIcanhardlywait” kind of stuff.

For me this year, it was about the wedding. Yeah, that was a doozy. A real big something to look forward to, and man did it deliver.

I remember walking on the beach with my fresh-out-of-the-package husband on the evening after our morning wedding, and I said to him “you know, we need to find something new to look forward to.”

He told me to shush up and enjoy our wedding day, and I did. Soon enough, though, he was saying it too, “we need a new something to look forward to.”

Well, we got one. Yup. Two weeks. Hawaii.

Bam! (said with all the Emeril flair I can muster)

I have never been and it’s almost like a fairy tale to this New Mexico kid to even think about going.

Sure, yeah, economic crisis, yipes, and all of that. But hey, I’m doing MY part for the economy.

The weather in the Bay Area is starting to turn decidedly frosty. The usually standoffish Feline has taken to cuddling *right* on up with her heat-producing humans. Blankets have come out of closets.

And in just two weeks, I’ll be where it’s 80 degrees and in an island state of mind.

Oh. Yeah.

And I’ll come back just in time to start my new job at a new company.

All that added up…not a terrible “something to look forward to.”

Stop the world and let me off

Lots of weirdity going on in the world. Lots of changes, flip outs, oddness.

Market up. Market down. New president in a month.

And I think I’m changing jobs soon. Whoa Nellie!

Funnily enough, there is some comfort in my reading the ABQjournal during these crazy times.

Guess what? The Saturday Balloon Fiesta’s mass ascension didn’t happen! Too windy!

Reeeeally? That almost never always happens!

Oh Fair New Mexico, granting me comfort during troubled times.

May your winds blow gustily over the middle Rio Grande Valley and may the annual scent of roasting green chiles waft my way.

How is *your* Monday shaping up?

Mine? Well let’s see.

The Dodgers advanced to the NLCS (round two of the playoffs). Brutal.

Woke up today to the news that the global markets are a mess. Again.

My own company’s stock took another major dive.

Our intracompany HR system laid an egg, and I cannot deliver performance reviews today (It would have been a little good news to my weary and battered team).

And my socially, environmentally and economically conscious mode of transportation failed me today. Early this morning CalTrain danced with a semi truck. Minor injuries only and it happened far away from me. But that meant as I arrived at the station this morning, I got the news, “trains delayed indefinitely”.

*sigh* Not an auspicious start to the week.

Guess “someone has a case of the Mondays!“