I'm in the home stretch my fifth week of employment and, to be honest, I'm still trying to adjust to my new lifestyle. I wouldn't characterize the adjustment as being difficult, as those who know me best might suggest; just merely ... well ... an adjustment. I was a lot busier than I expected in the couple of weeks leading up to my start date and I started falling behind in the things I wanted to do. Starting work has only delayed the process of catching up with myself. So that explains the silence around here, but then again you're used to that by now.

So this weekend is Memorial Day weekend - my first "day off" from work on Monday - and it coudn't have come at a better time. This is the first week that I've actually been too busy to leave whenever I felt like so I've been quite exhausted. In fact, this afternoon I took a nap and when the alarm went off, I looked up at the clock and panicked when I saw 6:39, thinking there's no way I'd make it to work by 7:30. Fortunately, it was still "this evening" and I still had a little over 12 hours before I had to be at work. But I'm hoping this weekend will help slow things down a bit, perhaps get some muchos needed rest and relaxation time in, definitely get caught up on some TV and reading. Until then, I hope things are going well in your neck of the woods.

7. The U.S. Open will use blue tennis courts instead of green this year in an attempt to make balls easier to see for players and TV viewers. Here's a question: Why don't they just change the color of the balls?
Source: CNN/Sports Illustrated

It's always better when you can have other people write your material for you. I'm gonna start writing more soon, I promise!

At it's worst, Monday meant waking up around 6:30 or 7 in order to make it to class, which started 25 minutes before it's scheduled time because the professor said so. That was worse than waking up to head for good ole Raleigh Community Hospital for work freshman year because the class was boring and the professor was a member of the old school, pompous know it all fraternity which I've gathered from his example apparently had a strong presence in the early 1800's at Cornell. At it's very best, Monday meant waking up whenever it felt right, stepping outside to enjoy the day with all the time in the world and, with any luck, seeing a few beautiful smiles.

Well, there's a new Monday in town, and it's not quite all the rage. To prepare for the first new Monday of my life, I departed for sleep sometime before or slightly after 1 a.m., woke up at 3:11 a.m. and set out for work promptly at 3:36 a.m., almost wondering why I had a full suit on instead of pajamas. Yes, the new Monday means getting to work at 4 a.m. and, if all goes well, getting off at noon. There are plenty who have it worse, some who have it better, but quite frankly it's not about better or worse, it's about adjustment. I'm adjusting to the new Monday, so if you happen to pass by me on a Monday, forgive me for being cranky. I probably just really need a nap.

There's nothing like getting your first major daily responsibility and screwing it up ever so slightly on the first day. If there was ever a case to be made for getting into the habit of proofing your work (rather than breaking your own perfectionist habit for the sake of no longer being a perfectionist), then it's somewhere in my recent report printing experience. The only job I had in compiling this report was to eliminate unwanted rows of data, and even though I had to write somewhat involved macro, it was a pretty easy task and pretty easy to double check. Unfortunately for me, "easiest" (which is also a synonym for "likeliest" in my case) meant skimming over a few lines of the report and giving it my own personal okay before handing it off to the top three suits in the office, who we affectionately but not publicly call the Three Musketeers. Guess I won't be asking for a raise anytime soon.