musing

[serene]

So this nine-more-days thing made me realize how really focused I am on
getting out of Ikea. I feel so good and confident about the improvement
this will make in my life. I will get some time back, true, but I will
also get some stability that I didn't know I needed.

I've been a temp for 22 years. I've always said that one reason I do well
as a temp is that I don't have a need to know from day to day where and
whether I'll be working. However, I've mostly temped in business offices,
and I didn't realize, really, how rough a variable schedule, working
nights and weekends, was going to be on me. I don't like not knowing from
week to week if I'll be free on a Monday night. I don't like being pretty
sure that I will not have weekends free.

The things I'm looking forward to, with the intensity of a little kid
looking forward to Christmas:

• being home for dinner at night
• knowing a week in advance what
  I'm doing in the evening
• being able to spend at least a little time
  every day puttering around my home
• seeing stonebender!
• having more than 24 hours off from work in a
  row

There's stuff I like about Ikea. I like the customer service part. I
like the department -- I'm a cooking-and-eating slut. I like my
cow-irkers, most of them. I *really* like the customer service part. But
I'm tired of working so hard for so little, and I'm mostly tired of giving
up all my time.

I think about this and get happy. That's a good sign, right?

(And someotherguy and I figure we'll actually make out better
financially now, because: (a) I can say yes to UCB more often, and they
pay better; and (b) we'll be cooking more and eating out less, which will
save us tons of money.)