One Month In
Nov. 5th, 2010 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
polychrome_penI can't believe that it's been over a month since I started my new job.
It has definitely been a time of adjustment. I've never worked ten hour days before, and that is definitely an experience! Around the four or five my brain really tends to shut down, and then I realize that there are still three or four more hours until I go home. Then once you get home all you really feel like doing is vegging out with something to watch and turning in after a few hours. You really don't feel like cooking and cleaning up, so I'm trying to do more cooking on the weekends. And buying pre-made things at Trader Joe's. XD
The work itself is interesting, and yet kind of boring at the same time. I input lots of orders (boring) but also get to chat with lots of nurses and docs (interesting). However, the chatting can be really distracting from order entry, which has led to a couple of mistakes. Thank God everything has been caught (and I catch mistakes from my coworkers too, so we all have to look out for it). Today I got to work the "clinical" shift, which looks at lots of different things (like appropriate antibiotic therapy, blood thinners, adjusting doses for kidney function, etc.) and starts at 6:30 am. I haven't gotten up at 5 am for AGES; I'd forgotten just how dark it is that time of the morning! XD
Over the last month I went home twice - once because I randomly had four days off, and then again last weekend for my birthday. I briefly thought about going home again this weekend because I got out at 5 pm (instead of the usual 7:30) but had to push that thought away. I want to go to church tomorrow (and relax as well and catch up on my sleep, which is hard when I feel like I'm driving all the time). I have four days off at Thanksgiving to look forward to as well, which should keep me going. XD
I know I shouldn't expect to have instant friends or anything so soon after moving here...but there are time it gets kind of lonely. I've honed my standoffish personality for years too, which isn't helping anything. It's definitely going to be hard for me to stop looking for ways out of getting together with people. But I've got to do it (for my own mental health, if nothing else!) I would normally look for a class at the local JC to take, but with a variable work schedule, it'll be hard to make a commitment like that. Perhaps I should speak to my colleague who makes the schedule and consider something that starts next semester?
Speaking of school...who ever thought I would miss it? Not all of it by any means, but what I wouldn't give some days to sit in a lecture hall with my laptop and get out at noon. (Of course, my brain is filtering out all the time after noon where I was buried in work!)
Maybe I'm just disappointed in "adult life" so far? One thing I really appreciated about school is that there was always something you were working toward in order to better yourself. There were defined goals. I miss the sense of accomplishment that followed each of the semesters after handing in papers and finishing exams. Right now I feel a bit amorphous and free-floating.
Anyway, all of this plus NaNoWriMo has gotten me in a semi-creative mood, and I dug out my unfinished Jewel Riders fic. It's my goal over the month of November to write 10,000 words on it. I know it's only one-fifth of the word count for NaNo, but I felt it was the most doable goal given my current state of tiredness. For instance, I didn't work on it all week, but plan on adding about 2500 words to it this weekend. We'll see!
Anyway, I'm bugging out for now, but I hope to be back in a few days with a special deboxing edition! :)
It has definitely been a time of adjustment. I've never worked ten hour days before, and that is definitely an experience! Around the four or five my brain really tends to shut down, and then I realize that there are still three or four more hours until I go home. Then once you get home all you really feel like doing is vegging out with something to watch and turning in after a few hours. You really don't feel like cooking and cleaning up, so I'm trying to do more cooking on the weekends. And buying pre-made things at Trader Joe's. XD
The work itself is interesting, and yet kind of boring at the same time. I input lots of orders (boring) but also get to chat with lots of nurses and docs (interesting). However, the chatting can be really distracting from order entry, which has led to a couple of mistakes. Thank God everything has been caught (and I catch mistakes from my coworkers too, so we all have to look out for it). Today I got to work the "clinical" shift, which looks at lots of different things (like appropriate antibiotic therapy, blood thinners, adjusting doses for kidney function, etc.) and starts at 6:30 am. I haven't gotten up at 5 am for AGES; I'd forgotten just how dark it is that time of the morning! XD
Over the last month I went home twice - once because I randomly had four days off, and then again last weekend for my birthday. I briefly thought about going home again this weekend because I got out at 5 pm (instead of the usual 7:30) but had to push that thought away. I want to go to church tomorrow (and relax as well and catch up on my sleep, which is hard when I feel like I'm driving all the time). I have four days off at Thanksgiving to look forward to as well, which should keep me going. XD
I know I shouldn't expect to have instant friends or anything so soon after moving here...but there are time it gets kind of lonely. I've honed my standoffish personality for years too, which isn't helping anything. It's definitely going to be hard for me to stop looking for ways out of getting together with people. But I've got to do it (for my own mental health, if nothing else!) I would normally look for a class at the local JC to take, but with a variable work schedule, it'll be hard to make a commitment like that. Perhaps I should speak to my colleague who makes the schedule and consider something that starts next semester?
Speaking of school...who ever thought I would miss it? Not all of it by any means, but what I wouldn't give some days to sit in a lecture hall with my laptop and get out at noon. (Of course, my brain is filtering out all the time after noon where I was buried in work!)
Maybe I'm just disappointed in "adult life" so far? One thing I really appreciated about school is that there was always something you were working toward in order to better yourself. There were defined goals. I miss the sense of accomplishment that followed each of the semesters after handing in papers and finishing exams. Right now I feel a bit amorphous and free-floating.
Anyway, all of this plus NaNoWriMo has gotten me in a semi-creative mood, and I dug out my unfinished Jewel Riders fic. It's my goal over the month of November to write 10,000 words on it. I know it's only one-fifth of the word count for NaNo, but I felt it was the most doable goal given my current state of tiredness. For instance, I didn't work on it all week, but plan on adding about 2500 words to it this weekend. We'll see!
Anyway, I'm bugging out for now, but I hope to be back in a few days with a special deboxing edition! :)
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no subject
Date: 2010-11-06 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-06 04:59 am (UTC)My Jewel Riders fic is called "Heart Stone: A Tale of Tamara" and details how Tamara came to be the Heart Stone rider. The first three chapters are up on Fanfiction.net (under my same username as here). The fourth chapter has been stuck in limbo for about six months (due to my graduation/studying for board exams/job hunting/moving).
I would love it if you could read it and tell me what you think!
no subject
Date: 2010-11-06 08:16 pm (UTC)I wasn't wild about the first chapter but by the end of the third, I'm definitely intrigued and would love to see more about it. There were several parts of the third chapter that I was giggling at. As you write more this is one story I will definitely be following.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-06 11:51 am (UTC)It's kind of frustrating for everything to be so nebulous. I've heard that our generation, in the workforce, is a group who's always hungry for feedback, and I can easily believe that, because we constantly want to know how to squeeze the maximum gain out of our effort - an attitude gained by enough years in school and trying to balance that with personal interests. You've got extracurricular activities that can improve your work-related performance and knowledge, but that also runs into conflict with discovering and pursuing new venues, as well as the upkeep of other favorite hobbies that don't really cross over with your professional or educational development. And you have to decide what mix of them you want to make, without really knowing what will make the best combination between self-satisfaction, happiness, and the worthwhile endeavor of learning.
So...uh...good luck with that. Let me know if you figure it out.