Still Kickin'

Wow. I don't know when the last time I went this long without posting was - but it's certainly been a while.

Why, you may ask, has it been nine long days since the last post? Glad you asked - here's the deal.

First, I have in the past composed the vast majority of all of my posts sometime between 11:00PM and 4:30AM. Because in the past, I have spent that time period awake most nights. I haven't talked about it much here, because I don't see this as a place to complain or whine. However, the truth is, sleep is something I've struggled with just about my whole life. Even in elementary school. So now, being 25 years old, it seems that someone has finally hit on something that actually helps. It is a medication, but not a traditional "sleep medicine." Instead of knocking me out (like my old friend, Ambien), it addresses the root problem. Addressing this has meant that I sleep like "normal people" do. So the past week, I've been going to bed by about 11:00 at the latest. And sleeping. Oh what a blessing sleep is! I can't remember the last time I woke up five out of eight mornings feeling refreshed and outright good.

You might be wondering why I can't post during the day then? My answer brings me to number two.

I got a job. A good job. Full time. Pay is pretty decent. My husband is working there too. We started the same day, and we're in the same training class. We're aware that working with one's spouse can present unique challenges and even be downright difficult. We do have one up on some other couples who work together - we actually spent the nine months prior to our wedding working together, too. Anyway, I am getting off track.

This new job is with a large, stable company. It is a call center job. I'll be taking calls from business customers, and working to resolve any issues they may be haviing with the services provided by this company. That part of the job does not thrill me. I'll do it, though, and I will do it very well.

So, since the job itself doesn't thrill me, why on earth did I choose this company? Well, for one, they were willing to hire me. They actually take the time to read each application. They base their decisions more on experience and the loooong interview process, rather than vetoing everyone who may not appear on the surface to have the right education or job experience. But other than that (since there were a couple other offers made to me the same week I accepted this position), what's so great? Well... the pay is $3.00 higher than the average starting wage in our area. Once we're done with training (mid April), we have the opportunity to earn some serious bonuses for merely doing our job. Not even doing it really well - just showing up on time and not treating the customers like dirt. On top of that, we do have sales commission that we can make and some significant monetary compensation for going "above and beyond" with issue resolution. The health benefits are pretty great - above average for our area. They offer real live fertility coverage - all we pay is the standard copay. That's almost unheard of in this fantastic state I live in. Really, I do live in a fantastic state. With terrible fertility coverage. An outstanding dental program, and vision. Adoption assistance. And way more that I am too lazy to write about.

But the real kicker here? I have already started the process of getting a promotion. Total estimated time in my position before that? Six months. Yep, this company definitely offers advancement opportunities. I'm working on a daunting special project this afternoon, in fact. I want to have it done within the next four weeks... so we'll see how it goes. It's not required, not even for the promotion, but it would go a long ways toward giving me favor. So I'm quite excited about the whole opportunity.

Okay. On to thing three.

The reason this job prevents me from posting? Well... we leave our house between 7:00 and 7:15 AM, each morning. On Monday night, we got home at 6:00, because we had to stop off in another town to drop something off. This will continue to happen on Monday nights for an indefinite period. On Tuesday night, we got home at about 6:45, because we had an appointment we had to go to. This will also continue to happen for an indefinite period. Wednesday night, we got home at 11:15 PM, because we had church. Thursday night, we got home at 9:30, because we had choir. Last night was a normal night. We got home at a decent time of 5:30. So you see, I've gone from being a home maker to a never-home-woman. Throws one for a loop, ya know.

So yeah. Those are my reasons. Excuses. Whatever you'd like to call them. And now, I am off to work on that project I mentioned. Or perhaps, on my Not Me Monday post. Or even on some other randomly scheduled posts.