Treading Water

I�m sick. I caught a cold just in time to start working again for the first time in eight years. Luckily, I only work three days a week, but for two of those days, I work ten hours. I�m gone twelve hours when you include the time it takes me to get home and back and miscellaneous time suckers that make a work day a little longer than ten hours, like arriving twenty minutes early yesterday because traffic wasn�t nearly as bad as last time.

Work isn�t bad, but it�s overwhelming. It would be overwhelming whether I was starting back to work or whether I was switching jobs. There�s a lot to learn and remember. I went to orientation on Monday, which was boring, easy, and absolutely no indication of how crazy my job could be. I�m working for a very busy, respected physical therapist. She gets swamped a lot, which means I get swamped a lot. Yesterday was supposedly busier than usual, but when I got a glimpse of next week�s schedule, it doesn�t look like any of the other days are going to be any slower. She gets lots of walk-ins sent from the surgeons office across the hall too, so the schedule doesn�t even show the true potential. Maybe it will be better once I get the hang of what I�m doing, since I won�t be trying to learn a million things and do a job too. I sure hope so.

I�m sure it would be better if I didn�t start getting sick on Monday. Tuesday, Booie was sent home from school with pinkeye, so on my very first day at the real job yesterday, Booie couldn�t go to school. John had to make arrangements to stay home, just like on Monday when the kids were off from school for parent/teacher conferences. Booie getting pinkeye also meant all the work I did getting ready to teach her Brownie troop how to quilt was for naught. I couldn�t take pinkeye girl to a Brownie meeting, so I slaved my butt off only to have it postponed. On top of the pinkeye, she has a cold too, which she shared with me. I think all this stress is what really made me sick, otherwise I think I would have been able to fight it off. I didn�t feel horrible until today. Now I�m hoping I can feel decent enough to work tomorrow where I not only have to do my usual job, but I have to fill in for the receptionist too. At least it�s only a five hour day.

I bet none of this makes sense at all. My head hurts. My sinuses feel like they are about to explode. I think I could sleep the rest of the day and still sleep all night. I�m not thinking very well. I sure hope that�s why I am entertaining the notion that I made a huge mistake.