A few of the things that have changed between today and 3 months ago. Now:
- I paint my own toe nails.
- My blackberry's battery is almost always dead.
- On Sunday, I only prepare dinner for Sunday.
- I no longer wince when checking my email or answering my work phone.
- I don't worry about, think about, or do work outside of work. It is astonishing what a difference this has made in my personal life.
- My insomnia is better and I no longer buy mega sized bottles of excedrin.
- We failed to pay off a monthly credit card bill for the first time ever.
- I am stressed the f- out about the above, though it was a crazy combination of expensive events that caused it to happen and we have a short repayment plan. I'm trying to find comfort in the fact that the number of things that are left to break keeps getting smaller.
- I live in an old house.
- I plan to take days off and then I do not work on those days.
- We no longer eat out twice a week.
- When I leave work at 4:00 on a day when I arrived at 7:30, I don't feel any need to tell people I see on my way out that I worked my 8.0 hours, nor does anyone seem to want to know.
- I wake up before the sun.
- No one talks about how many hours they billed in the last day, month, year.
- I read far fewer blogs and have terrible delays on personal email replies.
- I take far fewer breaks at work.
- I share my bathtub with bugs.
- I mop our floors.
- I no longer bookmark vacation websites.
- I don't know how to get anywhere except for the places I know exactly how to get to.
- I live in "north" Texas.
- I have to buy a diet coke at lunch.
- Everyone here has 3 kids. Everyone.
- I keep obsessive track of my hours of accumulated annual leave (i.e., earned days off).
- I no longer find joy and comfort in checking our savings account balance.
- At my check-up today my blood pressure was back to the 102/56 it was when I was in high school and college.
- I spend at least 2x the amount of weekday time with my kids and enjoy the hell out that whole extra x of time.
Sounds pretty dang good to me. Some of these (blood pressure, insomnia improvement, leaving work at work) are really indicative of positive change. I don't know you, but I'm happy for you! So glad you get to see your sweet kids more!
ReplyDeleteOn the whole, you sound so happy with this change!
ReplyDelete3 is definitely the new 2 here in N. Texas!
ReplyDeleteI remember having to buy my sodas at lunch really made an impression on me when I left my big firm. I didn't realize how spoiled I had become!
ReplyDeleteSounds like it was been a good quality-of-life choice moving to Fort Worth, but I would definitely prefer my life without buggies in the bathtub. Gives me the shivers.
ReplyDeleteOn the whole, some great changes. And many of the same ones that I fully expect if/when I make a job change myself! Really enjoy reading about the comparisons between life at the firm and the SEC. Good stuff, LL.
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