Make a change when life becomes stagnant (11/05/07)

I had been hearing typing in an empty room for several days now. I have recently begun a slightly different job and was on the second floor all by myself. I wasn't expecting a ghost but thought the sound might be an electrical problem or just the normal creaking of an old building.

After several days of this I realized that the typing was really a safety switch clicking on and off as I was lining up some paper to be cut.

That is only one of the changes I am getting used to as I begin my new duties. The most distracting thing is constantly being pulled this way and that by very nice but persistent customers and co-workers. It's like being nibbled to death by butterflies.

As I am writing this I have been interrupted at least once per paragraph so if my thoughts seem a bit disjointed please bear with me. Notice I did not say to bare with me. That would be a completely different type of distraction!

Learning a new job is both energizing and exhausting. For the last seven years I have spent most of the day sitting down. Now I have to get used to standing up more often. I no longer need any type of stair-stepping machine as there is a good bit of running up and down stairs involved. In fact, I see this as the perfect weight-loss opportunity as I have to go all the way downstairs to the other side of the building to get my morning dose of M&M's.

So far the new weight-loss plan isn't working.

Therefore I plan to get additional exercise tonight by helping my husband get the garage ready for new shingles. The old ones wore out. I won't be getting on the actual roof. I'm not the least bit afraid of heights. On the other hand, slipping and falling scare me to death. My contribution will be to pick up all the old shingles that missed the dumpster.

If we get that far, I will also haul the new shingles up to the roof. This will take the better part of a weekend as I can only manage a few at a time.

If I have any energy left at all, I have several paper sacks of tulips and daffodils to nestle into the ground before the really cold weather sets in.

As much as I hate to feel inept, I am enjoying the feeling of working my brain again at work. I have been stagnant for too long. Once I can do a job well it becomes less of a challenge and more of just a job. I'm hoping the change will bring some new life into my workday.

I will miss having my own computer as I will now have to share with my boss. I do get a phone so I guess that is a fair trade-off.

I have yet to move my tchotches to my new location as I am still doing my old job while I am learning the new one. I am also trying to figure out how I can persuade my boss to let me have a picture of my granddaughter on his (or our) screensaver.

These are all trivial things, to be sure. The point is that we all need to stretch our wings and grow, at least a little. If we don't then boredom sets in and inertia takes over.

Inertia can kill a soul. It isn't much fun to sit at home and watch the world go by. It isn't much fun to do the same job for what seems like eons just because it is familiar. Once the joy starts to go out of what you do then it is time to try something else.

Who knows, you may run into a typing ghost. And if you get really bored we have some shingling to do!

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