Work Live Play

Or should I say "Live Work Play"? I think the emphasis should sit on the work as that is where my emphasis is right now.

My mat leave is over and I will no longer be a SAHM. Back to office coffee and uncomfie shoes, water coolers and photocopiers. Oh and back to 8 hours of staring at a screen instead of my beautiful baby's face. But I must see the positive. I am going back to a job where I know I am valued.


I really wish I was going back to a job where Dwight works.

I recently applied for a job with another company (cue the shock!) and was offered quite a bit more money than I was currently making. And so...counter-offers ensued and I am back at my old job. My reasons for looking elsewhere were two-fold: money and time. I now have additional expenses (baby boots), therefore money is a big issue for me. It feels good to be valued monetarily...because no matter how many pats on the back or "good jobs" you get at work, being handed a few thousand more on your paycheque always feels a million times better.

I love my work environment, and love my co-workers (shout-out to Rawbean even though you're on a completely different floor) so applying for this new job had nothing to do with that. I applied for this other job because I didn't think I could ask for a raise after coming off of maternity leave. And apparently I was wrong. And simply put, I hadn't had a raise in over 2.5 years. That's a long time considering inflation. I mean, 2.5 years ago, I used to be able to buy a loaf of bread for $2.50 and now it's 5 FREAKIN dollars!

BUT...there's a big but here. At this new job, I was offered a slightly more flexible schedule (9am - 4pm!) with overtime to be done at home after hours when possible. So even though I took the counter-offer by my current company, I still feel like kicking myself in the shins for not negotiating a more flexible work schedule. Because time is precious...even more precious now. I can't afford to come home at 9pm meanwhile having to be at work at 7:30am the next day. I made mention of this during the negotiations but nothing concrete was presented to me. So I hope with all my might that it works out in the end and that my work life becomes much more balanced than it was before I went on mat leave. At least for the next year or two when I put my new "life plan" into action.

..............................................................................................

On a completely unrelated note, Victor and I are tasked with the job of cleaning out my grandma's storage unit on the Sunshine Coast. We spent a good part of Thursday rifling through boxes and unwrapping knik knaks that we had wrapped up only 3 years ago. As a writer, I knew that the only thing of value in those boxes (to me at least) was my grandma's writing. Letters, manuscripts, poems etc. now litter my living room. I just spent a few hours reading through old letters between my grandma and grandpa where my grandpa disguised himself as "G. Gray Hill". The two of them were so playful and total oddballs. The closing sentence on a large part of the letters was "So remember the motto and don't be a..." with a badly drawn picture of a sheep following. They really were in love even though they weren't together anymore. It makes me want to do something grand with these letters.

Here is a snippet from a letter written in January 1966, addressed to "Tubby":

Have you got your wedding ring fixed yet? That ring has a very sad-story well-suited to you. In a direct connection here, is the tale of a shrivelled turkey, which emerged from the oven no larger than a sparrow! This farcical exaggeration is known as one of "Gray's Specials" but it does make a nice conversation piece. The ring once belonged to a friend of mine. Now it belongs to another.

Believe it or not, I still love you, Tubby, a bit.

Signed,
G. Gray Hill

Anyways, I better get off to bedland (not before turning all the clocks back an hour...hint hint).