Yesterday was the weirdest day. First of all, my alarm was nonexistent at 5 am. It never woke me up, and my biological clock woke me up about 45 minutes past my usual waking time. So, from minute one of rising, I was in a state of panic frenzy, rushing like a crazy lunatic. I finally made it to work, everything seemed to be fine, when I realized that I am still a pre-menopausal woman and suddenly had cramps that would kill a large horse.
Fast forward to end-of-day. Because I do an 80-mile round trip to work every day, I try to get up with the roosters and get there early. Then, I feel OK with leaving by 4:30 or 5. Yesterday, I did just that, thinking I'd be home in time to hang with the stepson on our scheduled Wednesday night together. I got on the highway to realize that, SH*T, a semi had somehow lodged itself under a bridge or overpass or God only knows, so traffic was at a standstill. Thirty whole minutes later, I had driven one mile and made it to the next exit. People were irritated and driving like morons at this point. After I turned off the exit, I noticed a wreck that happened right behind me. I missed it by seconds. Then, I traveled about 3 more miles, came to a stop light and saw that it was clearly a shade of yellow. I slow to stop, while the crazy bastard next to me decided to gun it and subsequently flew through the dangerously then-pinkish light. He did, and I thought, "wow...this idiot's going to slam into someone." Which, in fact, he did. Right there. About 10 feet in front of me. Slammed into a woman that was trying to make a left turn. It's as if it was all in slow motion in a 3-D movie.
So, I wait to see if people are OK. Once I saw that everyone was up, moving, and yelling obscenities at one another with no protruding bones or bloodshed, I thought, "get me the hell OUT of here," and I drove around them. Perhaps it wasn't the nicest and most helpful thing I could've done, but at that point, I felt as though I had entered the Twilight Zone and wanted desperately to just get home. With all my parts intact.
After 2.5 hours just to get home last night, you can imagine my elation when I saw that I will be allowed to telecommute a few times a week starting next week. My collective bosses - I have two that "share" me - left the approval on my chair. This allows me to transition into how much I friggin' LOVE MY JOB. I love my job, people. I do. It rocks. I have an office with my name on the door, which would be enough for someone like me, really. After contracting for 14 years, I'm used to the corner supply closet the size of the backseat of my car as my office. I'm used to being the red-headed stepchild, of sorts. I tend to be more grateful than your average permanent employee-type who has had a 401K and this really neat thing called Vacation time for their whole career. I'm the nomad who has landed. And, after years of either crappy or nonexistent bosses, I now have two down-to-earth, respectful, appreciative, fantastic bosses. Both men, thank God...and nice, down-to-earth, normal, family-type, good-guy men. And, even though it's a gazillion miles away from my house, I love to come to work every day. This is huge. I would guess that my father has probably just fallen over in his chair upon reading this paragraph.
I get to dodge communications bullets and catch speeding ones in my mouth on a daily basis. Some hate the chaos, but I thrive in it, and so it's been a joy to be able to write a video script one hour, while editing a brochure the next and then driving to another state to actively serve as project manager on another project. I have not been bored since Day 1. I've been super-crazy-girl-busy, and I've loved every single minute of it. For once in my adult life, I don't just like my job. I friggin' LOVE my job. So there you go.
From the madness of yesterday comes the appreciation of today. That's what life is all about, right? Perspective. The kind that can change on a dime.
Carpe diem, indeed.
