Rough Draft: Training Days, the Bus and Kate Spade

Friday, April 28, 2017

Training Days, the Bus and Kate Spade

Dear Readers,

Now that I am starting training for my job, my blog will likely be less attended to. My drafts might be rougher as I have other things to fill my days. I still plan to write, but probably less often.

Thanks for reading,
Lauren

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I had my first two days of job training this week. I started on my birthday. The training was good, and relatively easy. It was a course in Excel, which I have been using since 1990. The challenge for me was using the PC version of the software instead of the Mac version which still has pull-down menus. The PC version is all icons. My muscle memory was challenged a bit, but I survived. I also learned some new things, which was good.

The biggest part of the day was riding the bus downtown to "work." The first day, I felt like a visitor on the 74 Downtown, that I was going downtown for a meeting just for the day. The second day, I saw some people I knew who rode the bus the day before. There is a little "bus culture" where neighbors who ride the same route at the same time chat as they ride. Two women at my bus stop were talking before they got on the bus. Two other people who live in my neighbor compared notes on their kitchen remodels. When I rode the bus every day to work when I lived in Chicago, the morning routes were as quiet as a library and the evening routes had more discussion as co-workers might sit together and discuss the day.

I even looked (somewhat) like the other working women. Between my stop and the Starbucks at the University Bus tunnel, I spotted at least four Kate Spade bags. I had a Kate Spade bag, too! Mine was the color of a salmon, a peach and a construction cone whereas the other women's bags were more subdued maroons and grays, but still I matched! My other Kate Spade bag is bright blue, but hey. They might have bought their's full retail whereas I bought last year's less popular model at Nordstrom Rack for half price.

The training I had was "Mentor Led" training, which meant the training team gave me a curriculum and several resources to learn the material: videos, PDFs to read, and exercises. The instructor was available to answer questions. She welcomed interruptions. She was friendly and easy to get along with. During lunch, I stopped by the downtown Seattle Public Library and visited their gift shop, which sells books for $2 and all kinds of stationary, bookmarks and bags. The store is a gem and run by volunteers. ("Why are you buying books at a library when you can get them for free?" you might be thinking. I don't have an answer other than I like books and this is cheaper than my overdue fines at times.)

Before I began my training, I thought I would be leaving the world I know behind. In the weeks before my training, I had been cramming in as many social events as I possibly could, fearing I'd never see my friends ever again. I met everyone I knew for lunch, coffee and walks. I felt like getting a job would be like moving to Mars and I'd be alone like Mark Watney in The Martian.

Ha! Instead, I was going to the center of town with thousands of other people. Where did I get this idea that working would be lonely? When I worked in St. Louis, I was the only person on my team in that office. My colleagues were in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and New Jersey. I traveled a lot to meet them. We talked on the phone, but I had no one to eat lunch with, which was a drag after a year. Jack and I had just moved to St. Louis from Chicago, and I hadn't yet made any friends. In Chicago, I would occasionally meet friends for lunch and after work when I was wasn't eating with my co-workers. In St. Louis, I had no friends. Work wasn't lonely. St. Louis was, at least for the first year we lived there.

I realized work will add a new realm to my life, not take away what I already have. It will be different and an adjustment to be sure, but my life is changing anyway as my kids grow.

Time for me to grow, too.