Saturday, June 9, 2012

Muddling through...

Well, it's been a little over a month with the new job. The more I learn about this organization as a whole, the more I know this is not an organization I want to work for long term. So, I'm coming up with a game plan and hope to be outta here after a year or so. When I took this job, I thought I'd done my homework so to speak. So, I'm more than a little disappointed at how bad it's turned out. You think you've learned from your mistakes, then you realize there are plenty of other mistakes to make. In this case, I simply didn't do enough research on the company. So, I add it to the lesson learned list and start making plan B.

To compound the problem, I still don't really care for the city, but I can manage until I can come up with a better place to live. For me, anyway. The city itself isn't bad, it's just not for me. Strangely, I've only ever lived in other place that that I didn't like. At least in the past, something was as least good. If the job was bad, I loved where I lived and if the city wasn't great, well, the job was okay. What I've learned from this move, is that there are things that I'm looking for in a city and a short trip for the interview didn't tell me enough. I'm not even sure a house hunting trip would have made a difference, but I'll definitely check out the future city a lot better.

The apartment has been a challenge on several levels. First, the trains, which some days I'm okay with and others I'm like enough already. So far, Sundays are high volume train days with an average of five trains going through between around 5:00 AM and 11:00 AM and there have been two trains through within a 45 minute period on Sunday mornings. I know because I've been working out and it's a 45 minute workout. Some aren't bad, others sound and feel like they are about to come through the house. Sadly, I didn't take my cat into account with the trains. In fairness, when looking I didn't realize they'd shake the apartment, but they do. So, I've got a kitty that is still spending the majority of time under the bed. I may consider moving to an apartment closer to work and further from the trains, both for her and for me.

Another challenge was the upstairs neighbor. Labor day was particularly bad, not just their stereo but a lot of thumping and banging, which at one point bounced my ceiling. I finally complained to management. Long story short, we wound up calling the police non-emergency number Memorial Day night. A lot of people according to the apartment manager and hosted by someone not on the lease. I hate being the cranky old lady downstairs and have never done anything like that, but it really was more than I could handle. There was no peace in my apartment for almost the entire Memorial Day weekend and my home is my sanctuary.

I have to say, with peace and quiet, I'm enjoying the apartment more. I'm not doing a lot of cooking, but I have done some, though I haven't gotten to where I'm whipping out new recipes. Still feeling my way around this new kitchen. I have found, though, a couple of grocery stores that will work for me. I also stopped by the mall the other night. I've always kind of enjoyed mall walking. Not an every week kind of thing, but I always saved up my errands and then just enjoyed a visit to the mall. Meh, the mall here was okay, but I don't think I'll be visiting it a lot. Just didn't grab me. That may change over time.

In the meantime, I continue to explore a little, mostly on walks at lunch when I'm downtown, but for the most part, I'm finding that there's enough to keep me going, but not truly endear me to my new city. So, while I'll admit I'm not doing change well these days, at least it won't be hard for me to move on from here. I'm putting that in the plus column.

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