What the doctor ordered

I just spent the past few minutes taking my boss' advice and enjoying a few minutes outside. I could not imagine a more beautiful day! The sun is shining, the sky is a deep Carolina blue, and the cold seems to be gone for good (one can only hope here in North Carolina).

I even took my iPad with me and did a little writing for my writing class. (As a side note, I used to say that I'd love to have an iPad, but just don't really have a real need for it. I was wrong. Everyone needs and iPad.) As a homework assignment, we're supposed to write about our favorite place. I couldn't help but think of a beautiful, warm beach and that made being outside on a day like today even more enjoyable.

So yes, I have started a new job. I'm in my second week at a psychiatry office here in Raleigh. I'm heading up things in the office, taking care of scheduling and updating files and filing insurance, all the fun kind of stuff. It definitely is a change of pace from working at the news station, but a welcome one for me. I'm doing the whole 9-5 thing, which I've basically never done. This is literally the first time since Jarrod and I have been together that we've been on the same schedule, other than our college schedules.

I've decided the most difficult part of being on this schedule is the whole getting home and immediately having to dive into dinner preps. Especially since I've been on this new diet that requires a bit more legwork than I'm accustomed to. But at the same time, I consider that a rather small issue when compared to having to go to bed at 7:30pm when it's still light out until after 8:00.

I love being able to sleep in in the morning and get ready in the light! (I actually went into work at the station one time wearing one brown and one black Rainbow because I'd been getting ready in the dark.) I have time to make myself breakfast in the morning and now that I'm getting used to it all, I want to take a couple of days a week to get up early and do some exercising... both physical and mental.

I've also really enjoying working here at the doctor's office. The people are really nice and I've been enjoying getting to know the patients.  I get to pretty much run things the way I want and have a nice combination of time to myself and interacting with others. I'm getting into the swing of things now and liking the laid back nature of the position. But there are things I do miss from the station, such as the fact that there's never anything "breaking" around here. At least not for my position. But that's OK. For now, I'm just going to enjoy being able to relax a little more, not feeling so much pressure, and sticking to a normal routine. I'm also going to enjoy my first normal holiday coming up in just a few weeks here (ah, the finer things in life!)

My work here is done.

I've been hinting around for a few weeks now on some big changes coming for me, and today, I finally feel like I'm at the point where I can talk about it.

Today is my last day at NBC-17. I've been there for 2 1/2 years and just realized that it's time for me to move on. The hours and stress of the job have been difficult for me and I'm looking forward to doing something a little more low-key. But I will definitely miss the wonderful people there. I'll look forward to catching them on the air in the future. I'll also miss getting off of work at 12:30... and going into "breaking news" mode... and hurricane coverage. But I won't miss getting up at 3 a.m. Or snow coverage.

So what will I be doing now, you ask? Well, that's still a little up in the air. I haven't found anything yet that I really want to do, so I figure I'll do something that'll get us by for the time being until I can find something better. The difficult part about this is that I'm not really sure what I want to do. But I guess I'll have a chance to figure that out.

Jarrod and I are taking a big leap of faith here, but we really do feel that it's the right thing to do. I know the weeks and months ahead may be difficult, but we're believing that we'll get through just fine. I'm looking forward to having some more time since I won't be having to go to bed at 8:00 and having some more energy.

But I'm excited about the future. I feel like I'm finally taking some steps in the right direction. I'm just hoping and praying that I'll be open to whatever's next for me. Here's to taking chances!

Back in the groove

We're back at that point again... the real start of the year when everything starts to get back to normal. We've had 6 weeks of holidays and events and vacations and now it's time to get back to life as usual. It's back to work and back to school and no holidays in sight... unless you work for a bank. We have renewed vacation and sick days, but who wants to use those in the first weeks of the year?

I can't say that I'm entirely upset about this time of year. In news, things get really slow over the holiday season, but start to pick up once everyone gets back to their normal lives. Here, it's always better to stay busy. And it's frustrating when you have a good story idea, but you can't make it happen because the people you need to speak with are on holiday. Yes, I'm glad to be back to the normal day-to-day.

Shift work

I feel all upside-down and backwards today. I'm working the nightshift, which means starting work at 2:30 in the afternoon and leaving around 11:30 tonight. I haven't done this shift in I believe over a year, so it'll be an adjustment today.

But it's been nice, too. Because I didn't have to go in early this morning, I had the opportunity to have dinner with Jarrod and my lovely cousin last night while she waited for her daughter's dance class to finish. And this morning, Jarrod and I had breakfast together before he went to work and then I cleaned up the house. It's so much easier to get things done before work, rather than after. That's always been an issue with the early morning shift. By the time I get home in the afternoon, I'm so tired that running errands and cleaning the house or going for a run sound absolutely dreadful. So I'm thankful that I was able to get some of those things out of the way today.

But now, I have to head out to work in about an hour or so, and I know it's going to be a long night. The nightshift is always interesting. It's heavy with activity the moment you walk in the door because you're having to get your nightside reporter teams assigned and out the door quickly and having to get caught up on everything going on, plus, you've got the shows coming up within 3 hours of you arriving. Then it slows down for a little while since it's after 5 and you can't make too many official calls and you're mostly dealing with spot news of the day.

The hardest part is definitely going to be the turnaround. So I'll get home around midnight tonight and I'll try to get to bed as soon as I can, but it's always hard to jump right into bed the moment you get home, no matter how late it is. Then, tomorrow, I'm just going to try to get in as early as I can, since how early I get in is directly related to how early I can leave. Also, I've taken Friday off, so it's my weekend after tomorrow. And since Jarrod is leaving for a week on Friday (I'll get into that later) tomorrow night is going to be my last chance to hang out with him before that, even though he'll probably spend most of the evening getting ready and not even home.

Well, it's getting a little late and I should probably go make some lunch before heading off to work. Hoping for a successful nightside shift.

This schedule is cutting into my blogging time

So I'm a week into my "normal person" schedule and still have another week yet. And I'm not gonna lie... it's been a little difficult getting used to it. As I'm sure everyone is aware, my usual 4am start time is not ideal. But now that I'm used to it, I have a bit of a hard time getting off of it.

Even though I'm starting 3 hours later than usual, by the time noon hits, I still get that automatic feeling that it's time to go home, making those final hours incredibly long. But the real difficult part is having so much less time in the afternoon. Usually I have plenty of time to run my errands, get home, watch a little TV or even take a tap, do some cleaning and have dinner on the table by the time Jarrod gets home. When I'm on this schedule, I feel that I'm so rushed for time. I had to run to the store today, and by the time I was done, I had about half an hour before Jarrod would be home. I tried to get in a quick nap (because another difficult part of switching schedules is being extra tired merely because your normal routine is mixed up) but hardly drifted off before he was home.

So needless to say, my blogging time has taken a hit! I should actually be getting ready for bed now to try and make up some sleep, but I figured I'd rather make the time for writing now. But don't get me wrong. I'd much rather have a normal schedule than the super early morning one I'm on now, but when I do finally get to do that, I am going to miss some of the freedom allowed with going into work so early. So for now, I'll try to appreciate this time that I have where I get to drive into work when the sun is actually up.