Busy bees and busted knees
It’s the end of my first month at the new job. I’ve been going through orientation for the last month at the main hospital.
I spent two weeks on days and two on nights. This week will be days as well. In a sleep lab, there are things to do 24/7 and I wanted to be familiar with how they run both sides of their operation before I head to small town Paola, KS to start up a new lab.
I’ll be the only technician there initially, working three days of the week (Mon, Tues and Wed… how posh is that). Starting up a new lab takes more forthought than I actually have talent for, but my new colleagues are on the ball.
In the midst of prepping for a new lab, learning a new job, and meeting all my new colleagues, including hospital staff and doctors, I’ve been jumping all over the place in the off hours as well.
I just got back from Omaha, NE to pick up some furniture from my girlfriend Kerry’s parents, as well as to meet a newly adopted little boy her sister just received. He’s quite handsome and there was an endless list of family stopping by every day we were there. I don’t even have a baby and I’m exhausted.
A fair portion of the family has conservative views (in the Midwest?) Kerry’s dad, Doug, seems to enjoy trying to pin me down as some sort of ultra-liberal. Maybe you all have dealt with this question at some time as well. “How do you think Bush is handling the war?”
I loathe that question and I’m not about to indulge in my answer here just yet. I did get a kick out of this response when he found out I was registered independent for voting. “Independents are just liberals who can’t make up their minds.” (To which I replied, “So there are no independently thinking Republicans?”
But that’s just part of the business. Last week, I went canoeing in southern Missouri with one of our couple friends, Dennis and Ann. That was a relaxing blast, for which time slowed down a bit. Kerry had never canoed, but she handled it like a champ. Anyone who goes canoeing with their girlfriend knows communication can be tense, but we seemed to manage along like there was nothing to it. I think it was by the middle of the second day Kerry said something like ‘I think I’m ready for a more difficult river, don’t you?’.
That made me smile a little bit because I had the same reaction my first time as well. After several trips, I’m more interested in picking areas with just beautiful scenery and natural touring than I am difficulty level, but I know that’s also part of the appeal to her as well. I have no doubt we’ll be canoeing again next summer, if not more than once.
I was going to go down to the lake of the Ozarks for Labor Day, but instead, I’ve decided to do some work around the house. I can promise you some comedic posts in the near future, because, frankly, I suck at house work. It’s not for lack of trying, I just have never been super handy.
Mom would argue.
When her and Dad first separated, she moved into an apartment with a small box of tools. If something was broke, it was somehow my job to fix it. In my memory, I did fairly well. But none of it was house renovation stuffs. Just odds and ends repairs. I’m good and mechanics and computers, but carpentry, plumbing and general repairs I get a little clumsy at.
The weekend after Labor Day, I’ll be heading down to Arizona to help sort out some of my great Aunt’s things and U-Haul a great deal of boxes back to KC. I’ll be hauling back a car as well, for which I plan to use while I sell my Blazer (cause I hate that beast) and prepare to by something less Saudi friendly. Given I’m still catching up from a lower income situation, I’ll probably be looking at cars in the price range and feature set range of a Civic.
The weekend after that I fly out to St. Louis (it was cheaper than driving from KC.. cost about 90 bucks round trip) for a sleep seminar and general festivities. We may or may not go to Six Flags while we are there, but I’m pretty sure we go to the Budweiser plant for the tour. God bless free beer. I’ll take a hokey picture of the Arch and stick that up here as well.
College had a way of making life feel fast and oriented around semesters. I didn’t really plan to have this busy a schedule fresh out, but you take these things as they come. I’ve always been good about the flow. My only concern is how fast this all seems to happen. From age 2 to age 12 seemed like forever. Age 12 to 15 was just a little bit faster. 15 to 18 was barely noticeable, but memorable and spaced. Age 18 to now (26) seems faster than anything I’ve ever expereinced prior.
I’m not noting anything new here, just experiencing it. Any tips to slow life down are much appreciated. Oddly enough, blogging has a way of doing that. When you have to take note of it all, it seems to slow things down a bit.
At least, for the moment.
Quickest way to slow things down (I love oxymorons), is to visit childhood past times. playing in a creek, riding a bike (for fun), strumming on a guitar, listening to some CDs as you lay in bed and stare at the ceiling. Anything you used to do pre-18 is satisfying.
Something about reminding yourself you can still be a kid really takes the rush of life off your back.
People at work consider me the special kid because all day I toy with gadgets and joke around with my peers. I crack jokes with customers and “razz” fellow employees when they get too swept up in their work. In my line of service it’s easy to take things personal, especially when it’s a direct poke at your intelligence from the “others,” but I’ve found the best way to deal with it is just let it go and focus more on the new dartboard you just made out of your cubicle wall.
Some people say I’m easily entertained, or easily amused… I think it has more to do with being content.
But you know, there are still times you get rushed, but like I said… revisiting some fun childhood pasttimes seems to do the trick. For me, anything involving just me and nature works… building something or taking time out to play guitar or video games… spend a late evening drinking soda, eating pizza, and conquering a computer game. There’s plenty of time you spend already being an adult, quit trying to grow up so fast… Hate to remind you that you’re already old.
Comment by alphapyro — August 29, 2005 @ 15:40
Oh yes, and Tetrinet2.com
If ever you feel like kicking ass (and the server happens to be up) at tetris.
After a couple days you’ll have faint dreams of building tetrises and combinations, but it’ll pass soon enough and you’ll just be a good player.
Comment by alphapyro — August 29, 2005 @ 15:44
My advice for slowing things down is to just do “slow” things. Spend a day at home without doing anything productive. Avoid the computer and just chill out, enjoying the shade, the sun, or anything in between. Non-productivity is profoundly enjoyable.
It sounds like you’ve been as busy as I have. Just finished up with the move and have been getting back into the groove of school, which is a chore and a pleasure simultaneously. Good luck with it all!
Comment by Jesse — August 30, 2005 @ 08:41
Taking a cold shower will help. Afterwards, drink some whiskey.
Comment by Dem0critus — August 30, 2005 @ 10:44
Listen to women* complain about stuff. Because you know they don’t actually want you to fix it, they just want to complain; but they still want all your attention, no matter how small a fraction it takes to be vented at. After about an hour, it’ll feel like an eternity. And they’ll just keep going.
*stereotypical women, that is. I know not all of them fit the stereotype.
Comment by Adkenar — August 30, 2005 @ 15:58
Can I drink some whiskey during the cold shower?
I’m semi-glad not to be enduring a new semester of school. Life, as a proper adult, should begin before 30, I’ve decided. Not that you aren’t an adult while you are in school, but students are a different fold of life all together.
One I’m very glad to have participated, sweated and stressed over. All in the same hand, it’s my time now. I’ve taken in other peoples’ marks in life and I’d like to start making more of my own.
School for too long starts to feel like meditation that’s gone on for too many hours (days?). With all that absorbed energy and knowledge, I should be able to open my eyes and make something of it.
Maybe a life rule? When it becomes comfortable, routine and normal, evaluate the need for change, maintain what is undeniabely good for you and recognize fear as a challenge, not a warning.
Comment by JT — August 30, 2005 @ 20:29
Whiskey in the shower??
Brilliant!!!
Comment by Dem0critus — September 3, 2005 @ 11:03
Another way to slow things down: wear sandals (particularly flip-flops). It’s hard to move quickly in them, and they just seem to have that relaxing sort of effect.
Comment by Adkenar — September 5, 2005 @ 09:11
I find that either being really bored (ex: waiting during a layover at the airport), dreading something (ex: waiting for your plane to take off) or terrified out of your mind (being on a one hour flight in a small plane when the pilot is flying like a drunken sailor) works quite well if you want to get life to go really, really slowly.
Having fun generally speeds things up, unfortunately – unless it’s a really mellow kind of fun where you’re hanging out at a lake for a few days with several good books and a Scrabble board.
Comment by Jess — September 6, 2005 @ 09:54
Yeah, playing drunken scrabble is also surprisingly fun. Your loss of functionality makes it very much more challenging.
Comment by Dem0critus — September 10, 2005 @ 07:57
Slowing life down as a 52 y/o who still thinks as if he is in his twenties and thinks he still has 75% of his life to go and in reality only maybe 30% to go is becoming a complex competing process.
I have many things yet to do. Things I want to do. This year I have had a lot to deal with and it ain’t over…both the year and things to deal with. But I have made time, if not only for a moment, been able to step off the chaotic frantic path to slow down and take stock of things.
On a partly cloudy somewhat cool day look up to the sky…you have to be outdoors to do this. When was the last time you were walking out to your car for you next meeting or appointment or going to work and looked up from the ground before your feet and noticed the rest of the world?
Whiskey in the shower sounds good but I probably would need to have one of those little stools in there with me. I have made me a huge high ball and sat in a hot tube with candles and music and cigars a blazing. Last time I did that was a couple years ago or longer.
Some evenings I have had some beers and fired up the DJ system and played my music much to the chagrin of some who come home early or my neighbor who called the cops years ago. But hey, as the beer flows the hearing goes, what can I say?
In a pinch and in a time when I really can’t take the time and in the midst of realities I’m in, I do find it helpful to think of what it might be like when this is past and I can do some of the things I will do after and am looking forward to doing. Play at the lake, “Overhaulin” my boat”, fixing up my house finally – the way I have envisioned it all these years and being free of the junk I have collected or held onto.
Don’t wait for life to slow down on its own because it won’t and the crap will pile up. Do what you have to and reward yourself somehow afterward, you will enjoy it more. I had a mini vacation last night when I treated me to a strawberry sundae. I savored each bite with focus on the pleasure they gave me all the way to the bottom of the glass. I sat back in my seat, eyes closed. Then opened my eyes and went back to the hospital to sit with Mom and Dad wondering if I will ever get down to AZ to finish up there. The little escape was refreshing if only for the moment.
Comment by Boaterbob — September 18, 2005 @ 06:28