The Grind - Back to Work

I started back to work this week. Against all odds, I actually had a job offer in place within two weeks of losing my previous job during a workforce reduction. I applied for one job, had one interview and got one offer. I did have interviews with about a dozen hopeful recruiters-- even a verbal offer, but nothing panned out. Nothing. Pretty amazing, hunh?

My new commute, for now, is shorter than the old one. I understand the it gets a bit slower during the school season -- I don't know. I guess I am a bit of a space-shot in the mornings, as I have missed at least one turn on my "customized by friends" route each day. The GPS gave up yelling at me a few minutes after I left the driveway... apparently, "make a legal U-turn," and "recalculating" can only play 244 times each.

This first week has been hours of phone calls with an off-site consultant, meetings with my manager, trying to remember where my office is, the headaches of configuring a new computer to talk with the rest of the network, and making notes about all the things that they want done.

I do find that working around attorneys and paralegals to be a very new type of environment. It is certainly a little quieter and a bit more stoic then what I have been used to. These are just observations -- first impressions -- and in the midst, there two men that have the same coffee schedule as I do. We've had some small talk about how long they have been with the firm and what my role is. After all, there are hundreds of attorneys in my building.

Outside my door runs the bank foreclosure machine. My only perspective of this industry has been on the news. I have to say, the doom and gloom of the reports that I have heard, left me wondering if there were any ethical people involved. I should have known that even those reports were biased. What I found out is that 85% of people that receive foreclosure notices in my region, don't lose their houses. Certainly for those that do, it can be one of life's most sad and stressful times.

As America, the great America, adjusts to the reality of her overindulgence of credit, there are still real families out there that need real grace-- and only One name on earth to receive it from. I am pretty sure some also need a class in personal responsibility too. For those that are subject to unavoidable personal tragedy, the church needs to be there for them.

As I review my work week, and sit here enjoying my first paid holiday, I am thinking about what is next for David.

This is the first job that I have ever had in which I am required to take a one hour lunch. It is taking some getting used to for me. I like to go to work, and go home -- I am not much for breaks, and I eat at Al Desko's every day. I am still trying to find something productive to do during that time -- besides stuffing my face with calories I could easily do without. I don't have a regular Internet connection, and there is no wireless in the building, therfore; amusing myself online is pretty much out of the question. Maybe, I'll practice Spanish in support of my daughter's new bilingual education-- I don't know. So far, except for lunch out with one of the senior partners, I have just worked through it.

The actual work I find is a lot of fun. I have been full-time programmer pretty much since 1994. Honestly I can't see the real me, doing anything else in terms of making tents. I'll be learning a new programming language, which I always enjoy. As I navigate these unfamiliar, and at times confusing, new surroundings, I keep wondering what God has in store for me beyond this job?

Until I hear something...

1 Thessalonians 4:11 Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands.