Say Hello to Something New, Say Goodbye to Something Old

I’m back in the saddle with a day job that has me excited about new things to learn and new people to meet. At my new company, the norm is to start the work day at the latest by nine in the morning, which is a significant shift from my recent employers, and certainly the night owl tendencies I lived during the course of my sabbatical. It’s like being in a different time zone, and I felt jet lagged most of the week.

There was, however, another drain on my energies. As of August 1st, our tenants moved out of our Milwaukee house. The disaster zone they left behind has meant that hubs and I have had to hire junk haulers, gardeners, and a handyman to deal with the mess.

For the record, JDog did an amazing job, if anyone in Milwaukee needs to deal with the detritus of evident hoarders. Apparently our former renters left behind clothes, exercise equipment, furniture… and even food in the fridge and freezer. And were kind enough to have the power turned off before they left to make sure things got stinky in the meantime.

For another thumbs up: Cantoral Maintenance ripped out years’ worth of weeds, trimmed back overgrowth, and re-mulched everything to live up to their Angie’s List top rating. From the outside, things are looking much better already.

Apparently, too, the renters changed one of the locks on the garage, and only saw fit to return one of the four sets of keys we gave them. They also felt free to scream at us and our various helpers claiming that all of these things are actually our fault.

There’s a certain level of heartbreak to knowing that a structure that sheltered you and provided a secure home base for you was so disrespected that the tenants felt free to destroy all the screens and blinds and did something inexplicable with plastic on the walls and windows that is causing our handyman headaches.

The good news in the mayhem is that no major repairs are necessary and we should be able to get the house on the market in the next week or so.

I can promise spamming the world with links to the listing once the realtor has it finalized, because the house deserves to be loved as a home once more–and hubs and I won’t be returning to Milwaukee to make that a reality.

In the meantime, I’ve been reading about things to do if you’re going through adversity. So far, we’re doing pretty well following that advice. Similarly, Tiny Buddha had a post I found recently that listed four ways to live life to the fullest. Being authentic and doing things we love are high on our daily task lists, which is why I suspect we have the emotional resilience to come through even the fiasco of our renters’ aftermath.

A former colleague forwarded a Forbes article about creating rockstar employee engagement that actually didn’t sound that far off from the personal advice in the previous two articles.

And then I found a futurist’s take on what the world could look like in 2050, and how to prepare today’s children to face that reality. It was a stark accounting of the pace of change and how little anyone is served by merely shoveling more data into their brains. It’s a long read in Wired‘s UK edition, and scary for anyone who’s looking for a sense of comfort at settling into middle age. The underlying point is that the world is changing so quickly, we all need to be equipped to know ourselves well enough to surf each transition and still land on our feet.

For myself, change seems to be a feature rather than a bug in my life in the same way the author of that article outlines. While reading about uncertainties writ large can sound scary, I’m the same kind of optimist as C.S. Lewis in today’s quote. So far it seems that even the worst-appearing changes put me into positions of growth, and allow me to remain true to myself.

My creative mission has lately been on the back burner as I adjust to the changes in my life, but the nature of my new schedule indicates I’ll be back to having an hour or two every evening to work on Team Alpha. I’ve adjusted my editorial deadline with the ever-patient Liana, so I’m hopeful that this book will be out in October or November.

On the health front, last week my phone says I averaged 4,744 steps (2 miles) walking, but only 6 hours and 16 minutes of sleep.

Even amidst an openness to change, it will be good to find a better sleep routine.

This thus marks my return to my weekly blogging schedule as I hold myself accountable for balancing my work life, my writing life, and my home life in such a way that I remain healthy physically, mentally, and emotionally. In the meantime, I recommend following the other ROW80ers as they pursue their goals.