A whirlwind week...

...but a good one.

I really did feel like the new kid in school on Monday, and had to laugh when I was shown my new office. I've never had an office. Ever. I've always worked in a room where we each claimed our own spots during our shifts, and some were assigned, but the workstations there are shared.

I can actually leave things on my desk now, when I go home for the day.

I HAVE my own desk now.

I will not find foreign, rotting foodstuffs on the keyboard when I come in in the morning.

I can (omigod!) put up pictures, if I want.

Some people I dealt with frequently in my old job sent me a gorgeous orchid to brighten up my new space, and it made me so happy. A living thing! On MY desk! In MY office!

And from my office, I can see out the floor-to-ceiling windows that run along the side of the larger room outside the office (there's even a long deck out there, with a nice view)... and see the world outside! And I can also see my old office building. I told you my old and new employers are about a block apart, right?

I even saw my former boss when I was out foraging for lunch on Friday. He was a block away, and I didn't feel like shouting to get his attention, but I cracked up.

That's another thing -- lunch. I can go out to lunch now. When other people go out to lunch. I could have gone out to lunch at my old job, but who eats lunch at 10 a.m.? Not to mention, finances have been really tight, so I have been in the habit of bringing my lunch to work every day.

I've even found a place with very cheap sushi. It was yummy, too.

I got to have lunch last week with the delightful Misses Cheese and Angela (and young Luke, natch) at the place Miss Cheese and I have now dubbed The Taint, because it's right in between both workplaces. It's making the transition a little easier, knowing that I CAN see my pals, even if it's not every day.

Everyone at my new place of employment has been tremendously welcoming and helpful, so the honeymoon is off to a good start. They're a smart and talented bunch. It would appear that I've already managed to intimidate one of my new co-workers, and that is surreal...because, as we all know, I am a major dork.

But a dork with some skills. And I know what I do well.

I have a bunch of administrative stuff to learn, and it's challenging because my boss -- let's call him D -- has only been there for a few months himself, and my predecessor left about a month into his tenure, so even D doesn't know a lot of these things. Fortunately, my predecessor kept very detailed files on everything, so it's just a matter of digging for the info. And all that detailed filing is providing for some interesting reading...

It's weird not being such a slave to the clock. It's weird walking in the door and NOT facing a deadline a half-hour later. It's weird handling what I've been doing all these years in a completely different manner. It's weird answering the phone and trying to remember to say the correct company name. (I haven't screwed that up yet, but I will...)

But so far, the weird is good.