Or maybe I should say, "Frustration leads to fantasy"? Giant leaps of fancy, cross-country flights of it.
I visited Boston this weekend, and found myself outside the front door of Beacon Press, quite unexpectedly. My friend Nancy and I were doing a walking tour, and took a wrong turn. We did that quite a lot, actually, which gave me an even better picture of the city than I would have had sticking to the path. (More on that later...).
I almost walked in and applied for a job.
Wouldn't have led anywhere, of course, but it was a thought borne of frustration and the challenges of my current job. A thought only aggrevated when I got home and found an email notice that the Boston office of Avon had a job just perfect for me.
Or maybe not.
I think instead I need to focus on the true source of frustration; my writing. My day job can certainly hold its share of challenges, but this is true of any job, at any corporation. Business is business. Instead, I think I'm chomping at the bit because I'm still not writing as much as I should. Not here, not on the books. So I need to focus a little better and get back into my normal routine.
Of course, that routine disruption isn't helped by the fact that I placed a personal ad this weekend. Online.
Hey, what's life without a few adventures and missed turns....?
Yep, I pretty much quit blogging. And much of anything else during the month of March. I just focused on finding my feet again. And, as usual, an untended blog is subject to much spam. So I spent some time over the last couple of days clearing drugs and porn off the blog and closing comments on most of the entries. As always, comments on past entries can be sent via email or posted on current days.
Spring is not a good time for this household. Rachel and I are both highly allergic to blooming trees and flowers, so the season, as gorgeous as it is, is one of misery for us, health-wise. It started early here in Tennessee, and although it's only late March, most of the early flowers (daffodils, etc) are gone from my yard and the Bradford pears are about half-green.
Rachel was on spring break last week, and a sniffly, draining mess, so I was glad she was home. The change trashed our routine, then I hopped off to New Hampshire, for a breath of cooler, still nitrogen-fresh, air. I returned to 85 degrees and started sneezing before I got out of the airport. Drugs to combat this make me cranky and tired.
On top of my health whining, work has been in an upheaval. On 3/9, my boss left the company, and we spent about 10 days bringing the new supervisor up to speed. So not much productive work was completed, leading to grouchy colleagues and a touch more pressure.
This is why I stopped blogging. I hate, hate, HATE whining, and that's all I felt like doing. As you can see from above! :) I needed to wait until I had some perspective.
Airplane flights will do that for you. I listened to the crowds around me, to their woes and triumphs. I wrote a lot on CLUES, and discovered that my Dana is quite the conversation starter. I spent a day exploring Boston, from Roxbury to Faneuil Hall, and visited some awesome community libraries in New Hampshire.
The trip was both a withdrawal and a moving forward. Perspective. We'll see where it goes from here.
Sorry for the outage. Tough week. Changes all around. At work. At home. On the website. Still tweaking the website, but if you get a chance let me know what you think.
I'm heartsick to the core about some things at work, but have to go on. I can only hope that in the long run, it works out well for everyone. Tonight I'm going for the lavender and hot water.