I’ve had a number of good conversations with people over these first days on the job. Each day I come home relatively exhausted but grateful for the day. The challenge with living so far from where I work and having a dog at home is that I can’t hang out late at the office or dawdle at all lest I get home even later. In fairness to Honor I need to get home as soon as I can so I can let her out to relieve herself. After 11 plus hours cooped up on the house, she needs to get outside not just to take care of her business, but to get a little energy worked out. I need to give her more time to run around and I wish our yard was fenced. Our house is on a lot at the corner of two relatively busy streets. I am not sure I can trust her off the leash to run around without running out into the street. Perhaps this weekend I’ll work with her using the long training leash I have. This should give her room to run around but also means I can yank her back if I need to. If I can train her to understand the boundaries of the yard I hope I can eventually let her off the leash and know she’ll say put.
The blogs for the past few days I’ve been talking about the long commute I’ve experienced the first two days of work. The ride in to work has been easy–45 minutes of decent traffic flow. The more challenging ride has occurred during the drive home. On Monday I was one hour and 45 minutes and yesterday wasn’t too much better (I took a different route.) Today I had purposed to try yet another route when I decided not to and to go back to the first route (the reverse of the one I take in in the morning) even though it had taken me nearly two hours to get home. Tonight I was pleasantly surprised to arrive home in under an hour. I have determined that I am going to “make friends” with the commute–I will listen to my audiobooks, perhaps learn to speak a language or two during the hours of my life I’m likely to be spending behind the wheel. I plan to make the best of the commute as I can because the alternative modes of transportation are nearly as slow. My sister who helped me find the house I’m now living in has been extremely apologetic, taking it on as a personal mission to help me find as easy a commute as possible. I had to tell her yesterday that it was my decision to live so far from work because of my desire to live close to my sisters; she can’t take responsibility for my decision and its impact on how I get home each night.
The truth is, I am really coming to like my little house and my neighborhood. I am happy to make friends with the commute because living here allows me some breathing space and also allows me the opportunity to spend time with my sisters. This evening I made contact with my oldest sister whom I haven’t seen since Christmas last year. We made tentative plans to hang out on Saturday. I am excited and looking forward to it. I am three days in to my new work life. I am still getting into the routine of going to work every day and working full days–it’s been many months since I did that, so I find myself wiped out at the end of the day. But it’s a good kind of wiped out and I know as I get into this new rhythm I’ll find my feet and get more comfortable with it. I am grateful to be exactly where I am and while there are some challenges with getting from point A to point B, I at least plan on making the trip fun.
Have I said lately how grateful I am for those readers of this blog who spend a little time with me each day pondering some small thought about navigating life’s challenges with a grateful heart? I am grateful and gratified that you make the time to read these thoughts. I hope you spend time contemplating the things you’re grateful for in your life and you are perhaps inspired to do some of your own writing on the matter. Thank you for being here with me on this journey and for inviting me into yours. Travel well.
