Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes....

Yes. I'm starting March off with a bundle of changes. Things that will alter the daily routine around here from what I'm used to. That will mean making changes to how I will work my "schedule" I had planned to incorporate for myself to become more productive with my writing and life in general.

First off, Hubby is making a job change again. He started his most current job in October of last year (09) after he found out the place he had been working as a warehouse manager for 6 years would be closing their doors. He made the job change swiftly because he was concerned about our financial security. Well, needless to say, this new job- all 4 months of it, was hell for him. He had taken a cut in pay to make sure we would still have income, but that also meant he took a lower positioned job as a fork truck driver at a pallet rebuilding company. Maybe it wasn't a bad job- but pay was every two weeks and far less than what we had before. Once they added the insurance to what would come out of his checks, that was going to knock an even bigger dent in our single income.

Because of his prior years of experience as a supervisor and manager, his boss encouraged him to interview for the 1st shift supervisor position when it came open a month or so ago. Unfortunately, his boss KNEW he didn't meet the requirements, but proceeded to allow him to interview with corporate, only for my husband to find out that—no matter how good his resume as a supervisor, they couldn't offer him the position UNLESS he has a college degree, which he doesn't. The corporate head said it was policy and that it's because they feel someone who's been to college is better prepared and capable of handling the stress when things don't go exactly as planned and they're down to the wire. Whatever....

It was after he was turned down for that supervisor position that he told his boss he couldn't stay at this low pay for much longer because he has a family who depends on him and he still has resumes out there and if something better comes along, he would HAVE to take it for us. His boss didn't take it serious I suppose and then seemed surprised and ticked off when my husband went to work one day and told him he had an interview AFTER work.

The guy stayed on him all day over stupid stuff and then tried to keep him over doing a job that wasn't even part of his responsibility. I'm no ninny and I can guarantee you the guy was trying to purposely make my husband miss his interview so he wouldn't be able to leave them.

After that, it seemed the boss stayed on hubby's butt for all kinds of minor things every day in the week or two that followed. One day when he got ALL his work done and was going to help out the other fork truck drivers, his boss told him no and put him on "cigarette butt duty"- picking them up in the parking lot, even though he doesn't even smoke.

Of course, Hubby kept getting interview call backs for this other job. and last week, when things were starting to fall into place was when hubby got dust, detergent, debris in his eye at work and had to go see their doctor. They had him flush out his eye at work a couple of times, but told him he would be fine. He told them he was going to the doctor after work, whether it was their doctor or ours because he was in serious pain. As it turned out he had a scratch on his eye, but when the eye drops their doctor prescribed didn't help, the doctor sent him to an eye specialist who flushed his eyes out and said his tear ducts were all clogged up with all kinds of debris- probably from the few months he's been working there and only using safety glasses that do NOTHING to prevent dust from flying around the lens and getting in your eyes.

After he had his 2nd interview, did his background check, drug test and physical, his boss- though he had seen this coming for almost 2 weeks got mad and told him one day he needed to find out exactly WHEN he'd be leaving because he wasn't going to leave them high and dry. He got on the ball and got that figured out. He was going to work today, Wednesday and Thursday there to give them a little time to find his replacement- meanwhile Tuesday he has orientation at the new job and then starts his first official day on Friday. Of course, last Friday ended up being his last day, so he's home today and will be Wednesday and Thursday this week.

See, here's where the new job creates the biggest change. The new place has odd shifts and his is going to be Monday & Tuesday and then Friday and Saturday working 5 AM- 3:30 PM. That means middle of the week he'll be home with me except when he has to work overtime or chooses to. I'm a Monday-Friday- If I plan to get things done, I do better when the kids are at school and he's at work. That's going to be different when he'll be underfoot in the middle of the week and all the better that I got my laptop because now I can go elsewhere in the house if I can't seem to concentrate because he's got his video games blaring or the television, etc.

As I said- Big changes are upon us and I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks attempting to find a new kind of balance for my days. Perhaps my mom was right- I need to figure out how to set up a "workspace" in my bedroom- set up a makeshift office so that when I go in there, I have something conducive to writing.

Off to start figuring things out. Have a great 1st day of March!