The first day of the rest of my life.

As a mom back in the workforce. I guess I expected to jump in and have it all under control, which was just dumb.

This morning, I staggered out of bed at 6:15, boiled myself awake in the shower, ate...something (can't remember what at the moment), and managed to pull it together in time for the trip to school at 7:15. I got Elizabeth and my carpool kiddos off to school, then came back home at a little before 8:00 to get ready for my first day at work. Out the door by 8:30 and headed downtown, where I scored an available free 10-hour parking space a mere block from work. Whoot!

Work was fun. I think I'm going to like it there. I like the job, and my co-workers quite a bit. They have a slight advantage in that most of them know who I am. My father's job is in their main clientele (did that make sense? I'm so tired.), and they all know him.

Funny aside: their display window contains, among other things, a mannequin dressed in a polo shirt embroidered with dad's name. The mannequin cracks me up, because it's a wee, skinny little guy. Probably 5'8", and scrawny to boot. Dad's...not. Seeing "his" shirt on this wimpy little mannequin makes me giggle.

Moving on. I was introduced to lots of people who already knew who I was through dad, so that was a nice icebreaker. The woman training me, Doris, invited me to come to lunch with her and we had a nice chat over yummy food, getting to know one another a bit.
My job seems to be mostly billing, although I did type up an 11 page bid for a prospective new client and gave it to the owner. According to the other employees, owner man will review it, make corrections, and give it back to me to revise. I'll revise, turn it in, and get it back for another revision. Apparently, we'll go through this process three-ish times, and I'm not to take it personally.

One minor flub today: I was given a fat stack of invoices, and a self inking stamp, and told to stamp each one "anywhere". The stamp was red, and stated "Invoice. Please pay. Due within 30 days." So I found a nice empty spot on the invoices, and stamped all 200+ of them in that spot. Then I was to put them in envelopes for mailing. It was then that I realized I'd stamped each and every one so that the bright red "Invoice" stamp showed through the address window. Oops. [blush]

I got off work at 2, and things started heading downhill. Got home just in time to say goodbye to Kev so he could leave for work. Changed into my workout clothes, tossed Alexander and Catherine in the van, and headed to school to pick up the kiddos. Dropped off my carpool kids, and headed to the Y to meet Susan for a workout. Dropped the little kids off at the babysitting room, and Elizabeth and Katie ran on the track while Susan and I walked. We then packed the girls off to the older kids rec room to do their homework while we tortured ourselves on the elliptical machine and stationary bikes. So far so good. We finished and rounded up all our kids, then decided to meet at a fast food place for dinner. I was all excited because I had gift certificates for there. So far so good.

Got in the van, turned it on, and everything fell to pieces. It was 5:07. Elizabeth had soccer practice at 5:30, and I'd forgotten her uniform, cleats, and shinguards. So we dashed to the fast food place where I started to explain to Susan that I was going to have to get takeout and bail on her. Bless her, she'd realized the same thing when she turned on her van, and watched all five kids while I ordered food to go and got it all packed up to leave. The kids ate in the van while we drove to the soccer field. I explained to the coach that I'd just gotten overwhelmed today, and sorry we were late, and could Elizabeth practice today in capris and a tshirt? They were great about it, thank goodness.

Got home from soccer about 7, where I packed Alexander and Catherine off to bed. Elizabeth, darn her, had missed an entire half page of her homework, so she had to sit down and work on it. But she was tired and not comprehending things well, so I gave her a shower and packed her off to bed too. She'll have to finish it in the morning.

I hate that "getting a new routine down pat" time period. I expect myself to have it all together right away, and get everything just so, and it just. never. happens. Which frustrates me to no end. Gah.

Tomorrow is another day, though, right? I'm struggling to stay awake until Kev comes home, then we can hit the sack. Yawn.

The first day of the rest of my life.