A new concept on work

     My boss at the new job surprised me today, the third day of working, when she seemed very concerned about how well things were going for me. I'm used to being thrown at a pile of work, and told to sort it out, so I was a little curious exactly what was going on. The coworker who was showing me some of the ropes I'll be working with waited until the boss left, and enlightened me. She said, "The boss just wants to make sure that you're settling in, because she's going on vacation in two weeks, and doesn't want people coming and going while she's gone. If you decide this isn't the job for you, she'd rather know now than when she's not here and has to struggle to find a way to cover what you do."

     This, honestly, blew my mind. My attitude towards work has always been such that, once you accept a job, you're there. You've decided. You're sticking with it. Unless things were grossly misrepresented to you (something that has only happened twice to me), you've accepted the position and have a decent idea of what it entails. More so because my current job involves... clerical work. Paperwork. Some phone calls. Filing. More filing. Learning codes. More filing. Get the idea? Not difficult or hard-to-learn work. It's day 3, and I feel like, if everyone else got sick tomorrow and couldn't come in, I could do a decent job holding down the fort with a minimum of "crap, what do I do next?" phone calls.

     So to me, the thought of just... giving up on a job after three days is totally foreign. I've worked jobs that I don't particularly care for, or that aren't my forte or goal in life, but I've only twice hit the point where I've given up on a job: the first time because I was flat-out lied to about the position I was being hired into (they gave the temp secretary the job I interviewed for, and stuck me at the front desk instead), and once because "weekends off" meant- to me- that I didn't work weekends at all, while to the boss, it apparently meant you go home Saturday morning and be at work Sunday night. So far, the only thing I've run into at this job that isn't what they told me is that everyone is super nice, and very patient with the new chick who knows absolutely nothing about medical billing. Truly, a fate worse than death.

Good news/ bad news

     One of my friends wrote me an entire three-page letter like this once. It's since become a pattern in my brain, because it lets me work through what's going on in my life, it doesn't matter if there are lots of random tangents, and whichever one you end up with more of, usually gives you an idea of how well things are going.

Good news: I got a job!

Bad news: It's part-time.

Good news: It fits in well with my school schedule!

Bad news: It doesn't actually pay all my bills.

Comparing yourself

     Have you ever noticed how some people tend to only compare themselves to the best of the best? You can look at something they do that looks fantastic, but when you say so, they just pass it off with a flip of their hand. Ever wonder why people do that? Here's why:

Okay, okay, there are also people out there who are fishing for compliments, playing the faux humility card, or just have low self-esteem, but... the people who honestly pass it off and move on to the next thing do it for motivation. Here's how people like that think:

Priorities

     I am often amazed at what other people think is important. It doesn't bother me that our views (obviously) conflict rather frequently- some people pay attention to news, fashion, computer gadgets, celebrities, etc, and as long as they are happy with their lives and do their best to be decent people, then whatever. But now and then, something smacks me upside the head at how drastically different people's priorities can be.

     When I was in high school, the parking lot was pretty much chock full of crappy, old, used cars. You knew who the rich people were because they would have a shiny new car, with a good paint job, new tires, maybe even the sticker still in the window if they were real vain show-offs. For the most part, though, kids got either what they could afford, or that old junker car that the parents didn't want anymore, so it got passed down to the new driver while the adults got a shiny new toy. Rust, dented bumpers, and the occasional car that qualified as a classic, though in need of repair, were common. Sometimes you even got the pleasure of learning how to team up and push-start a car, or help push a friend's jalopy around to the nearest gas station if the fuel meter didn't work right.

My first car was this, but in an institution-puke-green color.

Random sketches

   Occasionally, I do random sketches for friends when they're feeling down or annoyed. I appreciate it, because it lets me express art in a way that doesn't need to feel finished. I don't stress over it, or worry if this one line is off- just sketch, photograph, send via email or text, and scrap. I usually don't even know what is going to be drawn until the pen hits the paper, and something starts coming out. Here are two that have come up recently.

1) Tony.
   Tony got a start when my friend Shay needed inspiration to keep mopping the floor. I totally messed up the very first line of whatever I was trying to draw, and it ended up getting turned into Tony- the cheerful, upbeat, inspiring male cheerleader. Go figure.

2) Poor Saul.
     Poor Saul got started when both a friend and I were extremely frustrated at tasks we "had to" be doing. I grabbed an old piece of homework, turned it over, and draw this guy:

The line that accompanied him was "At least you're not stuck in a paper jail, playing a badly-drawn harmonica, with bubba waiting behind the scenes for the music to stop."

Hey, there's truth to that. It could be worse.