The Daily Trudge

I've tried very hard to be positive about my work situation this year. Working for the state, is, well, working for the state. But there are many advantages to this position. For example, I get almost as many federal holidays as my husband, who works for a bank. My hours are 8:00am-4:30pm, although in my case it's more like 8:15am-5:00pm. But come 4:31pm I am typically the last person left in the office, so technically if I wasn't such a goodie-goodie I could leave at 4:30pm with everyone else. And I think I get paid relatively well, considering what I do, although some might beg to differ.

But no matter how positive I try to be about my current job situation, I CANNOT bring myself to find anything good to say about the daily trudge to my car and back. I've even included a photo below so you can see for yourself I am not exaggerating when I say it takes me at least 10 minutes to get from my car to my office. And that's only when the weather is good and I'm wearing an outfit that allows me to walk really really fast. When it's 150 degrees outside, or raining, you can add an extra 2-5 minutes to said commute. In the dead of the winter, there are some days I'm able to cut it to 9 minutes, but even on my fastest days that is as good as it gets. Anything below that would require an actual sprint, which is hard to do in high heels and dry clean only clothes.

View from the roof of my car to the FRONT of the hospital (Note my office is in the BACK of the hospital)

Now the hospital does offer a shuttle service, but honestly, by the time they pick you up, and then pick everyone else in the parking lot up, you'd have been better off walking. When I tear into the parking lot at 8:05am, I cannot afford to spend 13 minutes on the shuttle when I know I can hoof it in 10. My (recovering) Type A personality simply will not support that level of inefficiency:)

My point in saying all of this is to explain why, on days like today, I really have a hard time finding anything positive to say about work.

Because this means that today, I am going to wet, potentially really wet, before I even set foot in the building. And for someone who is always freezing, even on a normal day, that is almost enough to make me turn around and head straight for the house, and in turn my warm, comfortable bed.

Even this beautiful umbrella that I got from my sister-in-law last christmas doesn't cut it when the rain starts blowing sideways, and the water in the stadium gets deeper by the minute. And to top it all off, we park in a stadium, and tailgaiting is like a religion around here. So for weeks after a game, there is garbage, and tons and tons of chicken leg bones, floating around when it rains. It's like a freaking chicken cemetary. I can hardly stand the sight (or smell) of it now, I have no idea how I'll handle it when I'm pregnant. But that is another story for another day.

One day last month it rained so hard we were all drenched/soaked/completely saturated from the WAIST down by the time we got to the office. Not just our shoes and socks folks, but EVERYTHING from the waist down. And of course our office is always freezing, so on that particular day we all sat shivering at our cubicles until some kind soul brought us a hairdryer to help with the drying process. It was possibly my worst day of work to date. Joint Commission visit - no problem. Complete clothing saturation before 8:30am - it's all over. Since the "prime" parking spots are assigned based on your tenure, I can look forward to at least 10 more years of hoofing it (if I stay that long) before securing a place in the garage.

Now I know what you are all thinking, that the cold shouldn't bother me because I'm from Alaska. Well let me tell you about that - in AK, save the rare 80 degree days in the summer, it's almost always warmer inside than it is outside. That's why you can still wear your cute little outfits, even in the winter, because you know you'll be okay once you get inside. In the south, you go from 150 degrees outside to 50 degrees inside, so even if you want to dress for the season you, or at least I can't because there is a serious risk of contracting hypothermia everytime you step into a building. Also, AK is very dry, so unless it's below zero outside you can usually put on enough clothes to stay warm. In MS, the humidity makes 50 degrees feel like 15 degrees, and the cold just goes right through you no matter how many layers you have on. I'd take middle of Alaska winters to Missisippi cold snaps anytime!

Thankfully, even though it was drizzling when I got to work this morning, I did not get wet. We'll see what happens on the way home.

Okay, enough griping for now. I think I'm going to invest in one of these for future commutes. It's what I used to fish in in AK, and it kept me dry on the worst of days. Wouldn't that be a site to see:)