M. Giant's
Velcrometer
Throwing stuff at the internet to see what sticks


Saturday, May 19, 2007  

Big Change

So yes, as I mentioned in my last entry, I am going to be changing jobs in a few weeks. It was time to move on. As it turns out, the thing I've been doing as a day job for the past two and a half years -- that I pretty much fell into just to nail down a steady paycheck at about the time we found out M. Small was coming -- is kind of a lucrative thing to be doing right now. Nobody's more surprised than me. Well, except my soon-to-be-ex-employer. They're kind of surprised too.

I won't be working downtown any more, which means that Trash and I won't be carpooling. She mentioned to me that she seems to keep chasing me. When I'd been working in Bloomington for a while, she got a job in Edina, and we carpooled south until I got hired at the radio show in St. Paul. She never rode with me in the time I worked there, but then after I started working in downtown Minneapolis, she started doing the same about a year and a half later. Now we'll be driving separately again, at least until she follows me to Eden Prairie.

On the one hand, it’ll be nice in terms of dropping off M. Small at day care and picking him up. Our day care center is one lady, which means there's no early drop-off or late pick-up. So if one of us ever has to stay late at work some evening, well, too bad. Catch a bus, sucker. That won't be the case any more. In fact, on many days, one of us can drop him off and the other one of us can pick him up, just like any number of normal couples with kids. That added flexibility will be an improvement. On the other hand, could we have picked a worse time in human history to start using twice as much gas?

I'll also be giving up my lease in the downtown parking ramp. I've always kind of envied the people in ramps who could drive up to the gate, wave a card out their window at a little reader, and be on their way. For a couple of years, I was one of them. It was especially nice when we went downtown for some evening or weekend event and we knew exactly where we were going to park. But since we don't really do that all that often, it's not worth keeping the lease. Trash was going to continue parking there alone , but then she did some research and found out that only a block or two further away from her building, there's another ramp that costs less per day than the monthly lease does. Also she hates our current ramp very, very much. It's run down and deteriorating, and even though there's always a guy there working on scraping paint or patching concrete, he's only one guy. He can't possibly keep up with all the entropy going on inside an aging, seven-level parking garage. And on the not-infrequent days when the card dispenser is broken and he has to stand next to it all morning handing out cards to drivers as they pull in, there isn't even one guy.

I was able to time things so that I'll have a few days between jobs. I was kind of hoping to synchronize the transition with the 24 season finale two-fer, but it ended up being a week later .Which is fine; this way I can concentrate on my book during that time, the manuscript of which is due in [gulp] three and a half months. Think I can finish it in a week?

Well, at least I'll have some extra time due to the fact that I won't be recapping this summer. Oh, wait, yes, I totally will, because I took on a new show that I can't tell you about yet. In fact I've said too much already.

There are things I'll miss about my current day job. I'm a creature of routine, naturally resistant to change, and this is the biggest one in my life since the Munchkin came along. I'll miss being a five-minute walk from literally scores of restaurants, even though I only ever ate at a few of them more than once. I'll miss the few minutes a day I spend in the downtown "scene," and not trapped in a cubicle 24 floors above it. I'll even kind of miss working on the 24th floor. I'll miss commuting with my wife. I'll miss people I work with.

There are lots of things I won't miss, and I'm not going to go into them here for obvious reasons (it would be kind of humiliating to get Dooced on my last week).

But there are things I'll like about my new job. Things I don't know about yet, and things I do. I hope to tell you about those soon.

* * *

Speaking of changing jobs, check out AB Chao's new gig. And speaking of arriving Munchkins, Omar's got news. Beyond awesome.

posted by M. Giant 7:07 AM 3 comments

3 Comments:

M. Unchkin? Is this bigger than M. Small but not yet M. Idsized?

By Anonymous Anonymous, at May 19, 2007 at 8:33 PM  

Tell us the truth: you're recapping the Geico Cavemen show, aren't you?

By Blogger Febrifuge, at May 21, 2007 at 1:14 PM  

Oooh, glad to hear Trash is switching to a different parking ramp. Based on your description here, the ramp y'all are currently using sounds an awful lot like the one downtown here that collapsed last year. During work hours. With cars on the ramp (one of those spiral go-round-and-round-'til-you're-dizzy ramps) at the time. Egads!

You're actually about to start recapping National Bingo Night, aren't you? That way the PTB would know that *someone* is watching it...

Best of luck with the new job and the manuscript!

By Blogger Heather, at May 21, 2007 at 1:27 PM  

Post a Comment


Listed on BlogShares www.blogwise.com
ads!
buy my books!
professional representation
Follow me on Twitter
donate!
ads
Pictures
notify
links
loot
mobile
other stuff i
wrote
about
archives