I clearly left my motivation at home.
Can it be lunchtime yet so we can go out to eat and not really do anything that looks like real work?

I think I’ll go pee rather than work.

The End of the Week.

Yay for FRIDAY! I think I shall grow ever more excited about Fridays as I now work 5 – 8 hour days instead of 4 – 10 hour days. I do miss having an extra day to dick around but I am adjusting – slowly to working like a real grown up person. The hardest part so far has been dealing with commuting in rush hour traffic times. I am used to driving at off peak times less than ten miles to get to work. So, my average time to get to work was about 10 minutes. On a good day if I hurried, I could make it in about 7 minutes. Now, I leave the house about 0745 to get to work around 0830 (about 20 miles to drive and on three highways) and when I leave at night I leave about 1730 and get home around 1815. I suppose it is “only” forty-five minutes. But, each way, that adds up to 1.5 hours added onto my 9 hour shift at work (I get an hour or so for lunch, unpaid but still I’m thinking that will become gym time for me!).

Here at work, I’ve learned two different tests so far and I will hopefully learn another this afternoon. I’m not sure how long until I actually am allowed to do the tests on my own. I’m just taking it slow in terms of testing though. I have been doing lots of reading for the R&D side of things though. Having to get caught up with an in-process project as well as to re-educate my brain in how to read a science paper – both are very time consuming (and I think that sentance has a very poor grammatical structure).

Mr. Dog is adjusting. Sort of. He only really had two days of the true schedule – that is, I and my husband both leaving him alone from about 0745 until about 1800. He was mostly just terribly hyper on those two days – even with going to the dog park in the morning for about an hour. We are also going to the dog park in the evenings as well as trying to squeeze in some training and play time in the backyard. He’s spoilt – and we all know it. Good thing he’s cute. Luckily, hubby has been off since Tuesday - what with Shochugeiko (I’m sure I haven’t spelled it right and he’ll probably correct me at some point in time) and his parents flying in.

Ah well, back to the trenches of paper warefare.

Huzzah for the impending long weekend though!

Day #2

Better than Day #1 as there was no extended reading of the QA/QC manual or the Safety Manual.

There was a staff meeting. Then there was an R/D meeting. Went out to lunch with a potential new work friend. Made some reagents. Read a lot of papers.

Tomorrow should be real training on real tests (hopefully).

Thursday is more meetings!

But, I get covered parking!

It’s Sushi Friday!

I like sushi. And hopefully I will continue to spell it right.

Also, I’m taking advantage of my last day of four day weeks and dyeing my hair.

I am growing far too excited about Monday.
I fear I may not be able to sleep on Sunday night.

Last day at work!

Playing Kingdom of Loathing because I don’t want to work.

Stupid question, but, er, how do you use the broiler in an electric oven?

Who knew?
I’m actually impressed by some people in Congress.
How much you want to bet they end up cheating?
They need to learn to shop the clearance bins for old meat and to use the day old bread stores.

I suppose I should have specified.
The previous post was seven more WORK days. Not seven more real days.
Sadly, I still have 2 more days to go.
Not that I’ve been working my full 10 hour shifts. I’ve mostly been flaking off around midnight and coming home early.

This will be a busy weekend!
We have Woofstock on Saturday. We’ll try to get there as early as possible to avoid the heat (we’re already in three digits out here in the summer lands). I have a volunteer meeting for New Hope Cattle Dog Rescue on Sunday afternoon (four hours!). That will be nice though, I should start working on the newsletter sometime soon. I’m hoping they have some sort of prearranged format or something…otherwise, I will be learning how to format a newsletter from scratch. Good thing I’m a smart cookie, eh? I also will be cleaning and prepping for the guests that are coming the following weekend. My in laws will be here Thursday after next, followed by my husbands’ friends and then my sister in law. So, the house needs to be dusted and defurred and I need to do some shopping to make sure I have everything prepped for my first week at a new job.

I think I will buy myself a new notebook for work. I already bought a new alarm clock that has two separate alarms in it – pretty nifty, eh?

Also still trying to hammer out a schedule that allows Mr Dog to get his full amount of exercise, attention, training and lovin’s for the day. I do not want to neglect Indiana – I worry about the cats a bit, but they’re pretty freakin’ willing to get attention as they so desire it. Mostly by sleeping on my face or licking tender portions of my anatomy to get attention….

Seven more days!

Thanks everyone for your comments – it’s wonderful to hear from everyone and it’s also wonderful to be looking forward to a first shift job!

What’s next?
I’ll be switching companies to a smaller company that doesn’t test donor blood. I’ll be working heavily on the R&D end, though I will be cross-trained and will learn all the automated testing they do (like for cholesterol levels and the like) but most of my work will be in optimizing other test methods as well as eventually (if funding comes through) in creating my OWN test methods.

Sounds exciting, no?

I’m trying to not get too excited and to, at the same time, not be too sad. As much as I hate working third shift or second shift, I’ve made some good friends and some good contacts at my old job and leaving my first REAL job is going to be hard. I’m pulling out roots when I go, and I know it’s only going to hurt more when I actually don’t go back anymore.

But I must further my career and re-awaken my brain. I need to learn!

Plus, I’ll get to see my husband more and hopefully we’ll be able to get Mr. Dog into Agility classes sooner!

My official last day at work – May 18th!