Working is.....sort of.....relaxing.

I went to a real office this week and worked at a real job.  For those of you that don't know me....or didn't know me before Georgia.....let me fill you in on a little background information on me...before Rainman and kids.

Back before Georgia and before 6 kids, I had jobs.  Real jobs.  (usually more than one at a time) When I first got out of college, I was a receptionist, then a medical transcriptionist, and then moved into the administrative secretary world....I eventually worked my way up to become the executive secretary to the Vice President of the company.  I had sort of stumbled into a job I was really good at, even though I hated phones.

Then, I started having babies and wanted to stay home.  So, I transitioned out of my full time job (although they had me back whenever my replacement had surgeries or extended vacations) and into temp work where I could schedule my days around Rainman's schedule.

After I got tired of temp work, and it got too complicated with nursing babies and things, I worked for an off site secretarial company.  What is an off site secretary you say?  Well, it is basically like a virtual secretary.  You just let them know when you need stuff....fax or e-mail them your notes and scribbles and they create whatever documents you need and send it back to you.  I did a lot of work for a commercial real estate broker.   In addition to that job, I was a Recording Secretary at various meetings around the Twin Cities area....board meetings, council meetings, and planning commission meetings.

But, fast forward to our move to Georgia 6 years ago....I was mentally and physically wiped out with the whole thing...and I had a 2 week old baby....so,  Rainman and I talked about me trying to just be a stay at home, home schooling mom.

It has been wonderful.  Rainman and I never had to do the tag team swap of the kids things at any city hall buildings.  I didn't have to stay up half the night working to meet the deadline for the offsite work I took in.  We missed the money, but not much else.

In the last year or so, I have taken on a little side work creating flow charts and a few other documents for a friend of mine who is a consultant.  Then she called me last week and said that a company she was working for had a project  and staff was scrambling to figure out a way to get it done.  She asked if I was interested in a temp job and if I would be able to arrange kid schedules to make it happen.

I did.  It even worked out so I could carpool with her!

So, I went to work.  At a real office.   For the first time years.

This office was not like the offices I remember.  It was more  like a t.v show office.  Fun stuff scattered around.  Movie posters and pictures of stars with their product on every wall.  They even have an employee that gets around the office on an actual scooter.  The only thing missing to really make it a t.v. show was a Nerf basketball net and ridiculously good looking people.

Anyway, I met the people that I would be working with.  They showed me what they wanted done.  I sat down and did it.

Here is where I came to an epiphany of sorts.  I was working in a new place, with a hard deadline looming, with sensitive information, doing something new that I hadn't done before....and.....it was relaxing.

There, I said it.

Working outside of the home was sort of relaxing.

Working at a desk with Christmas music piped in, computer screen in front of me, cubicle walls all around, and I was still relaxed.

I realize that this office is not a normal office...or at least what a normal office was back when I was working.  It had 2 Keurig coffee makers...with tons of drink choices for us.  They even had a snack cupboard that we could just help ourselves to. And, they had good snacks too, peanuts, goldfish, granola bars, apple sauce.

It was relaxing.  Not quite like a spa day kind of relaxing, but sort of calming and soothing kind of relaxing.

It felt good to do some real, tangible work...that stayed done, you know?  It felt good to know that I was doing a good job (pretty sure they thought that too).  It just felt good.  I felt good.

Now, I know it would be different, if I had to do it everyday.  If I had to commute by myself.  If I couldn't have scheduled the work on Rainman's day off, so could I leave the kids home with no worries.

But, in a weird way, it really felt sort of vacation-y....like I was sneaking off for a girls' day....just without the pedicure.

I will say that there was a down side to this relaxing day at the office.  When I got home, everything seemed much louder and more chaotic.  My tolerance level had shifted.  It was like in a span of 8 hours my idea of "normal" had changed.

Don't worry everything is back to my normal now.

I will keep you posted on whether they ask me back, or if I wasn't doing as good of a job as I thought!