Good job so far

Today was the first day of the rest of my (work) life. What a platitude. I got up early, ate and read the paper before my walk, took the short route so I wouldn't run out of time, and got myself there about 10 minutes before 8:00. The door to the business office was locked, so I'm guessing I can ease up on that a little and maybe 5 minutes would be sufficient.

I was introduced to a gillion people, and I knew about half of them. I ended up being trained today by a distant cousin on my Mom's side of the family. My new boss said he was going to stop introducing me around and I could just introduce him around. I enjoyed the notoriety and the good wishes from everyone there.

I could tell immediately the atmosphere was a pleasant one. People were smiling and visiting and there was no blame-laying going on. People were working really hard (it's enrollment after all) but no one was yelling or stomping or nit-picking. Crazy management concept!

The day felt really long because it was an hour longer than I'm used to, but it never dragged because I was busy all day. I officially know how to do one thing (as long as it doesn't deviate from the norm -- then I'm lost). True to my anal-accountant nature, I found it interesting to input the data for the third-party vendors.

(News break: I just watched Michael Phelps break the world record in another event and get the gold. Phenom!)

Get this. When it was time to go home, the ladies in the office waited for one another so they could walk out together. As a person who came from, let's say, a very different atmosphere, I asked them if we all needed to wait and walk out at the same time for some reason. They laughed and said no. I said that it was very different from what I was used to. They kind of looked at me like, "Huh?" and I said that when I left my old job at the end of the day, the goal was to get away from everyone, not share a walk to the car with them. They laughed but I wasn't kidding.

Hope I'm not over sharing.

So when I came home for lunch, I had an extra 20 minutes because of the short commute. I hardly knew what to do with myself.

Tonight after R got home we picked up my awesome new bike and went for a ride after supper. It's the most beautiful shade of blue you ever saw. I am in love with it. I practiced shifting which is hard for me as the concept is beyond my brain's capacity to comprehend. To demonstrate the point, my very first car at age 18 was a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, golden yellow with a black vinyl roof. It was a gem and would now be worth a tidy sum. Only problem is it was a standard transmission and I could not for the life of me learn to operate it without stalling, rolling backwards, and struggling. It stressed me out so much to drive it I sold it after just a couple of months. The truth is I am incapable of doing independent things with my hands and feet at the same time.

Tonight R rode alongside of me on his one-speed bike and told me which gears I should be shifting to. I had it all backwards, so I was glad he was there to offer instruction. I'm kind of rough but I'm learning. Not bad for 50, eh?

Only problem I found today is that I got out of my regular routine for what we'll call "an extended bathroom visit." I'm feeling a little "irregular" but hope that schedule will resolve itself soon.

A sweet end to the day was when a friend called to see how my day went and wish me well. Another friend sent me an e-mail with good wishes. I am so lucky to have such great friends!