Casual Fridays 7/10/15

Happy Saturday! That means it is time for the latest installment of Casual Fridays (Saturday morning edition), my weekly chat post – no structure, no rules, no prompts, anything goes.  And please also check out Casual Fridays over at Helen’s blog, Good Woman.

Let’s get random…

This Friday-post-on-Saturday may become a thing. Stay tuned.

What a week. I scratched and clawed my way through the last five days, a little beat up and bruised. I haven’t been so glad for Friday in a long time, welcomed it like a long-lost friend with a great big bear hug. You know that feeling of elation when you feel hopeless and lost and then you see the light, a beacon calling you home? That was me yesterday at 5:30 pm.

So, my first week at the new job is over. Thank the heavens and stars and the Force and God and all of the rest of the dieties. To say that it has been a stressful week is a gross understatement. It was physically and emotionally draining. #overwhelmed. My first two days were fraught with complications. Nothing about my transfer went right. Well, one thing went right. My parking transfer went smoothly. So, yes, the highlight of the first two days was that I was able to swipe in/out and didn’t get trapped in a parking garage. It was all downhill from there.

Getting my computer access to programs vital to my work was nothing short of a nightmare. I spent an obscene amount of time on hold with IT. When you work for a large university and you are on a first name basis with the IT guys, you know you have problems. Ed and Adam are my new besties. Ed got to the point where he would answer my call and say “hey girl!,” his smile evident in his voice. Fortunately the major computer issues were solved on Wednesday. I missed my besties after that.

My new job is incredibly busy. Since I am the only genetic specialist in my very large department/division, my phone rings constantly. I have a lot of patient calls to make and also patients to see in my office. There were several snafu’s this week, complicated problems that were dropped in my lap because of misinformation or poor scheduling practices in the department. I am proud to say that 1) I handled them and 2) I handled them with grace. Mostly. I came home exhausted every night and fell into bed in a useless heap but I made it through. I survived. Things will get better. Things will settle. I am meeting with my office manager next week. There is much education and organization to be done but I am up for the challenge.

In other news, we have seen a ridiculous amount of rain this week. I have also been besties with my umbrella.

We have also been dealing with the sickies this week at home. My younger daughter has had a bad allergy flare up. So we switched from maintenance medication protocol to all-hands-on-deck medication protocol in a war against the mucus. My older daughter had some kind of virus that resulted in two days of fever and general yuckiness. By week’s end, both were feeling better. Add Walgreens to my list of besties.

I still turned words, stories, plots, characters, etc. in my head during my commute time (which was really the only quiet time I had all week). But sadly, I got no actual words to paper or computer screen this week. I was just too exhausted. While this makes me sad, I am trying not to feel hopeless. My challenge is to figure out how to make it work, how to carve out the time, how to find the balance. I mentioned I love challenges, right?

We have a busy weekend ahead so it’s time for me to get to it. Have a great weekend and upcoming week, everyone!