Six months minus a week. I kept track. That may be one of the many signs how crazy the dog show company job was making me: I marked off each week when my paycheck got deposited, and kept doing so as the week numbers got higher -- 9, 10, 11 -- and the job got weirder and more difficult. I never said much positive about the dog show job once I was doing it beyond "It's -- a strange job." It was, but at least at the start I was interested and being treated better. That was last May. But the signs were there by June that -- um -- maybe that was a TERRIBLE fit, job-wise.
And that was all of May, all of June, all of July (including our 106-degree heat wave), all of August, all of September, and three weeks of October. This job: All of November (started Mon day, Nov. 2nd), December, January, February, March and most of April.
This past six months has felt FAR LESS LONG than the previous six months. At the dog show company, I was bored, I was being treated badly by one particular co-worker, and I had trouble getting away from it for personal time. I barely had any time off. This past six months, my time so far at Hoffman, I have had time off. Time with family, time with friends, time with myself. Actual trips, even: Eugene, Seattle (twice), Multnomah Falls, those come right to mind. Good trips. The bad does include that my trip to Spokane happened due to a genuine tragedy, but good can happen alongside bad, we've all run into that. My family needed that time together. My family did well with that time together.
With all the stress of this job, the high profile of it, the need to perform especially well because you're representing a company that does a large, important job, I'm doing it. I'm glad to do it. And I'm doing better at doing what I need for myself, too. Helps that I have more money now -- oh, by the way, the dog show company job? My worst pay in 10 years. This job: MUCH better -- and can do more with it.
So I've been up to more. Makes the time go by faster. And, mostly, better.
Take care of yourselves.