This is the end of an era in my life and the second major ending I’ve experienced in three years. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t affecting me. My last week at a company I aspired to work for and more than twelve years served. If I told you half of the things you might accuse me of drifting into fiction. Even though I quit I have been sent off like a retiring dignitary. It is bizarre.
Nothing is more nuts than my current employer reaching out to my new one requesting a joint press release about my job change. I’ll let that one soak for a minute…
My last official day was today because I have a pile of PTO. So much in fact that I could have taken the last two months off and still had some to spare but I wanted to leave things better than I found them so that wasn’t going to happen. In the spirit of a job/insurance switch combined with the year ending I just returned from having three fillings done. These were old ones that needed updates which I didn’t even know was a thing but the one tooth was getting a bit sensitive.
When you are a human of my size they look you up and down then reach for the biggest nerve numbing needle they have which also means it has the highest payload capacity. This has half my face completely numb and I feel like I have Novocain induced Bell’s Palsy. I also call bullshit on the “cain” being used in the name because I have absolutely none of the wonderful feelings from that delightful smelling powder.
My lips feel like sausages and I keep biting my swollen tongue. I am not entertaining phone calls for the foreseeable future or at least until I stop slurring. Luckily I will have some drive time to myself tomorrow and hopefully this madness will end. I do have some people to catch up with on my ride as well as a couple of owed so-long-farewells.
My facial paralysis aside I have a tendency to be my own secret Santa with the help of alcohol and Kickstarter. Today I wandered out into the mail area to find some bag tech organizer thing that for some reason I thought was genius. I am tempted to go into my email account and see what I paid for this particular ridiculous nonsense but I think I’m better off not knowing. As soon as I finish typing this I will be deleting my kickstarter account to hopefully remove temptation as I resume a vigorous travel schedule with my new job.
Good news is unlike travel in the past life on the road will be the same as life at home. Years ago I traveled more to earn more money to support my family. Back then I missed the noise and activity of home. Closing the hotel door for the night was a lonely proposition. Now I just need to support myself, honor another twelve years or so of contractual obligations, and help the kids out here and there. Here’s to new beginings.