Karen’s Place

This has been such a busy few weeks. Whew! I don’t even think I can put it all into words. I’m sure this blog will be scattered all over the board, but hey what else is new, right?

Let’s start with something that will probably come as a complete shock to my family unless my sister spilled the beans, which I doubt. I’ve been seeing someone for the past few months. I’m talking about it now, because It’s about to end. I think this is the first time I’ve ever been in well, whatever this has been that hasn’t ended by either my choice or his. I’ll explain a little.

I met this really great man. After meeting him I found out he was in the army stationed at the army base not far from my house. This was just prior to my trip to Virginia and North Carolina. We decided we wanted to go out and get to know one another better, but I was leaving for my trip in five days and he was leaving for Iraq in the same amount of time. His current job was to travel back and forth for short time periods and do evaluations. He’d be gone for six weeks, oh-but he’d have email that he may or may not have time to checkJ. Between our schedules there was one day we mutually had available. I honestly believe it was one of the best dates I’ve had in my entire life, and trust me I’ve been dating so long I’m exhausted (as paraphrased from Charlotte in Sex and the City)! We had a couple brief phone conversations after while I was out of town then he was gone, and gone and gone. I was left with all my stupid chick insecurities as to whether or not he would remember me, was I emailing him too often? Blah, blah, blah…He FINALLY came home and sure enough he called…to tell me 1) In five days the Army would be sending him to Texas for 10 days. And 2) at the end of May he would be transferred to Ft. Bragg permanently…

What to do?? We had another wonderful date during the one weekend he was home between trips. Was this a mistake, knowing he was only here a short time? I had friends whispering in my ear to make sure I was still working on my “plan B”-meaning keep my options open. Well, right or wrong the decision I’ve made is to spend as much time with him as possible while he’s here. I can’t help it, I like the guy. When he came home from his Texas trip he had even more information. In December he is being deployed for a year to Afghanistan for his third tour. Now am I really being an idiot for not cutting all ties with him knowing any kind of future with him is out of the question at least for the next year and a half? My heart says no. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t love him. I haven’t known him long enough to make that kind of proclamation. I do care about him, I will worry about him and I will miss him-a lot. I hope he will miss me too. Then in 18 months…who knows.

This is the final weekend I have with him. Tuesday he’ll leave to collect his two little girls from his ex-wife and bring them here for a week or so while he’s on leave. I’ll be doing some family portraits for him, something for him to take with him over seas. After that, he’ll be gone.

Oh, but he wants me take his fish! Ugh! His fish??? Oh Lordy! I can’t keep a plant alive, let alone fish! Aunt Nancy, if you’re reading this, do you feel like fostering some fish? I know I’m not asking my brother and sister in-law. How many Bobby the fish have come and gone through that house??? Just sayin’! So yeah, I’ll probably end up with some fish. I don’t know anything about them so don’t ask. I’m not even sure he does. All I know is that they are fresh water, tiny and silver. In fact when I first saw them I accused him of keeping minnows in his fish tank. Ha!

So there you have it. My secret life out in the open. I’ll be sad for a while, yes. But in the long run I know I won’t have regretted one minute of these past few months.

Now, on to work-

The past two weeks I’ve been working ½ days at both my old job and my new job. Last week it was a disaster. This week was much better. Last week I had a meeting with my new department to go over what my responsibilities would be. All of a sudden almost every person in that department pipes up with the fact that they do their job all by themselves and that MY job should be to back them up. WTF? I keep my composure and sit there quietly and let them continue to bounce ideas around, after all I am the new person here. The new boss is still brainstorming, but all be damned the meeting ended with this crew actually wanting me to not only be each and every one of their back-ups, but they also want me to do all the crap work in this department. Not only no, but uhm..hell no!

I left that meeting so discouraged. I went straight into my current manager’s office, she saw I was upset and asked what was wrong. I told her I thought I had buyer’s remorse. She asked what I had bought. I said, I new job! She laughed and asked if I wanted to come back. I told her I couldn’t she’d already replaced me. She gave this little smile and said never say never…It seems she and my director are cooking up something. My suspicions were confirmed yesterday when my director sat himself down at my desk yesterday for no apparent reason except to small talk. He was giving me the sad puppy dog eyes he’d been flashing through this whole transition process. I told him he had six months to work something up. He said six months, huh? What’s that? November? December? I said yes-but you better make it good they’re going to be really mad at me if I leave them just to take my old job back…He just nodded his head. I’m curious what exactly may be going on in those two’s heads.

So there you have my work life. I start my new job full time on Monday. I realize I do need to learn all jobs in the department, however I was recruited for this position and in my interview it was explained to me specifically why I was wanted. The duties outlined in that meeting were not it. I’ll have to keep an open mind and see where this goes.

Have a great weekend everyone-