Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Busy-ness

In the spirit of keeping you up to date with my every day life, I thought I would let you know what’s been going on with me and my work. When I got the contract to work for the BOM, I thought I might get an opportunity to work in a position embedded in the state fire agency. Back in February, that position opened up, and I seriously considered applying for it, but decided against it for two reasons: 1) I was worried about the commute and 2) it would have taken me out of the forecast office and I really wanted to broaden my forecasting skills.

Fortunately, I have gotten a chance to work there anyway for the past few months in the interim before the new person arrives, and it’s been a good experience. I’ve been working on the Fire Weather Training program, which is something I really enjoy, and I have really liked the day shift schedule. However, the commute sucks. I have to take the bus to the train station, take the train out to the burbs, and then get on another bus to get to the office. Between all the walking, transporting and transferring, I spend about an hour and a half getting to work. It wears me out. I don’t think I could have maintained working at this job and living where we do long term. 

I did try to ride my bike to the train station and then take my bike on the train a couple of times. It saved me a lot of time by cutting out some of the transfer stuff. However, it was about 12 miles round trip, in rush hour traffic, and between that and the work day, I didn’t feel any less worn out. Plus, taking my bike on the train was no barrel of monkeys either. I was travelling against traffic, so the train wasn’t too full, but the set up is not ideal (there’s one small area that I had to share with people with strollers, suitcases, and wheelchairs) and I still had to navigate Central Station with my bike. As a result, I haven’t done it since, and I just get fatter and fatter because by the time I get home at night I’m too worn out to work out, and it’s dark, and waking up any earlier than I have to (5 a.m., currently) just isn’t going to happen.

So that’s what’s happening with work. I’m enjoying this opportunity, and it is pretty much the exact experience I wanted. And, the short time frame means that I can tolerate this ridiculous commute business for just a little while longer. Then it’s back to my regular job, which will be good for my forecasting skills. Plus, it will be good to work with my forecasting coworkers, who are a lot of fun.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hang in there, Kid. Not much longer.

-D

Anonymous said...

Too bad it's so far away and that you couldn't have some of one job and some of the other too. You were always good at teaching/training, but know you enjoy forecasting even more.

Agree with Dad - hang in just a bit longer.

~M

L said...

Well, I didn't mean to make it sound THAT bad. I am enjoying the job experience and I'm really glad I got the opportunity. I think all in all, this turned out perfectly -- I got enough time working out here for it to be worth it, but not so much that I would have to reconsider my transportation options.