Phew!

What a difference a week makes.  Last Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I was holding my breath every time the phone rang. My mind was not engaged in many things that I was doing.  Last Wednesday I grocery shopped, Target shopped, emptied and cleaned the refrigerator, emptied and cleaned the cupboards, sorted and shredded mail…

and then they called.  

I got a job!

They called around 3:30 Wednesday afternoon – which isn’t “early in the week” to me, which is when they said they’d make the decision, but I’m not complaning!  I’m just glad they called!  So I have a lot of paperwork to fill out and a health screen and drug screen to complete and then I’ll start work January 30!

So now I feel like I can look ahead to 2012 and make lists or set some goals or do some planning!  Already, amid all the celebrating, I have tackled a big messy closet and made some sense of it – something my mom would have done in her first week of unemployment, instead of one of her last!

It just feels so different to NOT have job searching hanging over my head.  Such a relief!  The first thing I did on Thursday was to file away all of my job searching notes and resources!  I should look back at it and check the number of jobs I applied for and the number that I actually heard anything back from.  That was a little surprising to me.  It is such a technological world with no people contact in many cases.

The whole thing has been another learning experience for me.

• I learned, once again, that it is ok to accept help and support from friends and family. It is very humbling. I am so thankful that I have such wonderful friends and family, because it wasn’t that long ago that I was learning the same lessons for a different reason! Hopefully I can return the favors!
• I learned that it’s possible to go a whole day without talking to anyone. Sometimes I would have to put on some music I could sing to, just to warm up my voice!
• I learned that I can easily live without cable television but I cannot live without internet. You can watch a lot of television on the computer!  And I love revisiting the movies I own!
• I learned that if I read fewer blogs I’d read more books.
• I learned that lots of people liked to come up with job ideas for me – and very rarely were the ideas anything that I would want or like to do.  I guess I like to think for myself.
• I learned that many things are easier said than done.  The signature of my email for years has been: “Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.” -Gilda Radner.  Turns out, it isn’t easy to relish ambiguity. 🙂  But I think I kept a pretty good attitude throughout, treasuring each day as it came.
• I learned that having faith – in God and yourself – really helps when you’re dealing with ambiguity and big changes. That, and good family and friends, gets you through anything!
• I learned that even with lots of time on my hands, I still don’t make time to exercise!  Yikes… I need a workout pal!

I know there were more lessons, but I’ll end it for now. I’m sure I’ll also learn more about myself as I start this new adventure!  The job I am moving into is going to be a big change from what I did before and will be a big challenge, but I am so excited for the opportunity in this next phase of my life.

Maybe I’ll blog about that learning curve another time.  🙂 First, I’ll try to put into words some goals for 2012.  But for now…

Off to read.  Ah… Life is good. 🙂