My first week at work was wonderful. I love my new job, and the people I now work with. There is so much that needs to fine tuning, and everyone wants to talk to me; get my take on things, and then they tell me how wonderful I am. My ego is going on a total trip. I am trying to keep it in check. Joking aside, I am humbled at how much they appreciate me. In addition, they are dog friendly offices. Every day in this past week there has been a dog in the office. Friday was the best, three “puppies” in the office, all adorable and all played together at one point or another. I keep reminding myself that I am the “boss” so I need to remember to delegate.
Most of my week was meetings, with ops groups, sales, HR, my boss as well as IT to review current system improvements and review my wants and needs for process improvement and implementation. Meetings start at the assigned time and finish at the advertised time. I love this new job. Did I mention the puppies! Nothing like puppies to help you through the day.
Two weeks I found out that the Swedish cover band of ABBA is coming back to the Hollywood Bowl. I was just about ready to buy tickets without anyone to go with me, but decided to make a post in Facebook about the concert and to see if anyone wanted to go. Our neighbor asked me if I got tickets yet, and I told him no. Later that day, after I was home from work, he and his husband came over. I thought they were going to talk to us about the toothless wonder cat we share, but no. Moses bought two tickets to the concert and gave them to his husband Bob and me for Bob’s birthday. Turns out Bob also loves ABBA, and now we get to go together as part of Bob’s birthday present. I get to be Bob’s flamboyant date!
Today was the June Fundraiser event for the Cancer Support Community. We went to this last year too, and had won a few items from silent auction, mostly due to Robert taking care of bidding on items and following up on the bids making sure he was the successful bidder on the items he really wanted. This year it was I doing the bidding. We discovered that drinking wine and silent auction do not go well together…. I forgot I bid on a paddle-boarding rental for four. Seems I was the successful bidder on that as well as several items that surprised Robert. We had a good laugh over all the things I bid on and won.
Now I get to learn how to paddle board. As well as take three others with me. Jordon, Kelly and Heather have already volunteered to go with me since Robert will not. He says there are sharks out there waiting to eat him. Now we just need to find a date when we can all go.
Robert and I both ran into people we were hoping to see, and we enjoyed catching up with all of them. Cancer Support Community is really that, a community where you are able to connect with others who are experiencing and understand the same things we are going through. When I finished cancer treatment and went through my depression, not only did I have my support group there to help me, but I also had the resource of counseling. I heard a TED Radio Hour podcast that touched on moving forward. There is no moving on; you do not leave behind your grief, your fear, your inner aches and anxiety. You learn how to move forward and keep moving forward. You can find the podcast here if you want to hear it. I found it made me remember how lost and adrift I felt, and how I am centered once again; but I still live with everything that plagued me before. I did not find a “new normal”, or start living my life again; start over or move on; I just started taking steps to move forward. Big difference. However, I still cling to my support group like a security blanket. They remind me how far I have come, and support me in my journey forward. I hope I am able to provide them with the same sense of belonging, understanding and love they provide me.
I am sure they will all laugh with me when I tell them about paddle boarding!
Life is moving forward