I have a new job!!  

(The image is Katherine Hepburn from the movie Desk Set)

I started training on October 17th and this past week was the first on my own, without the woman I was replacing being there to help.  It went well, and I can see myself thriving in this fast-paced and dynamic place.  I’m sure I’ll talk about it more later.

Because my commute is now an hour (train, walk, subway, walk) each way,* starting very early in the morning, and because the days have been non-stop busy, I’ve been extremely tired when I have returned home each night.  My husband has been wonderful.  He made sure dinner was prepared and ready each night, knowing that I would be rushed to think-up and make something.  Sometimes I just don’t deserve him.  Because of this mental exhaustion, I have come home to eat, have a drink and sit down to something mindless – either TV, or folding clothes, or the like – I have not been able to handle anything else.  I would love to read and study some more, or to write here, but I have not been up to the task.

The other reason for my being away from here, and for being so tired, can be summed-up in 3 words:

OCTOBER IN SALEM

Every weekend we had something planned or someplace to go.  I had volunteered at the tourist Information Booth for 3 shifts** – a schedule I made while still unemployed.  This limited our ‘downtime’ as well.

As if the universe knew I would not have my days free anymore, all were booked from the end of September through my start date.  Here are a few highlights:

• My husband’s birthday is the end of September, and we always go at least once to King Richard’s Faire.  We’ve made some friends with the people that work there, and they always remember us.
• I had family visit for a few days to do some Ancestry.com research – this was unexpected, but a lot of fun and very informative!
• I had 1 phone interview and 5 in-person interviews (2 in Salem, 3 in Cambridge)
• My Goddaughter got married!  We drove the 4 hours in the rain to the Cape, and had a lovely (drier) drive back the next morning, with stops at the beach (a hurricane was passing by off the coast), and a little French bistro in Hyannis.

  

•  I drove down to the South Shore to the graves of my paternal grandparents, maternal grandparents, and my Dad (3 different cemeteries in 3 different towns).  I washed the stones with a soft brush and water, cleaning off the lichen and dirt, swept away the leaves, had a chat with each of them and left some gifts (flower basket, a crystal, some rosemary, and some scotch).  For my Dad, I also brought a spade’s worth of dirt from his garden at home and mixed it in.
• After visiting the graves, I drove further down to visit my Mom in the Memory Care unit of her Assisted Living apartment.  I had brought my laptop with me, and pulled-up all of the pictures from the wedding, and the freshly cleaned gravesites.  I had also printed a few pictures from the past month and had used my label maker to label each picture with the people’s names.  I brought the label maker with me and, while we were talking, I labelled the photos she had set-up next to the TV as well.  We had a great visit, and while it tears a little bit of my heart every time I notice how much more the Alzheimer’s has taken from her, I try to keep her happy and present.  I can cry in the car on the way home. We had a lot of laughs together and I could see how happy she was in those moments.  I only wish she could remember them when she is down.
• I created a sewing pattern from our Harry Potter robes, and made myself a new robe out of this gorgeous green tweed flannel I got on sale.
• I also made my outfit for the Info booth.  Here it is in its debut waiting for the Haunted Happenings Parade (I also have orange striped socks – they went better with the Info Booth vest I had to wear).  It was my first attempt at designing and making a hat, so I was very proud of it.  I received many compliments on both the hat and the tartan accents (I also made them)!
  

  

So this has been a very busy, but productive time.  This was supposed to just be a short note of why I’ve been quiet, but, like everything else, it took on a life of its own.

The Election has me crazy – I will likely never write about that here.  Let’s just hope that the right decision is made on Tuesday.

Be good to each other.
Happy New Year, Witches!

*I have been thrilled to have this uninterrupted time in the morning and afternoon on the train.  In the morning, I can sip my coffee and read a book or listen to a podcast, and ease into the day.  In the afternoon, I can shut-off from work and do the same thing, calming me down to arrive home without any stress or pressure from the day.  In my old job, I was driving both directions, which allowed me to listen to audio books or sing along to music, but there was still the stress of driving, traffic, weather, etc, so if I left work in a state of agitation, it lingered and came home with me.  Now, on the train, I can disconnect work from the rest of my life.

**It was a wonderful experience that I wish I had had the energy to report on at the time. Hopefully next year, I will be more diligent in sharing those experiences here as they happen.