Survived my first week

I have lasted one week at my new job (actually 7 working days now) and I’m still alive to blog about it. It’s been a pretty stressful last few days. Correction, it’s been EXTREMELY stressful the last few days. For one thing there is the usual “new” job stress of having to learn new things, meet new people, and adjust to new surroundings. And then there’s the stress that’s specific to this job – totally new industry for me, totally new culture, very high expectations and deadlines that are looming over my head. On some days it can get pretty overwhelming and I’ve found myself a couple of times wishing I were back at the old job – where life was less stressful and less complicated. But those moments are few and far between since I really weighed my options before taking this new job, and by almost all counts this one is better than the last. I guess it will just take some time for things to sink in and for me to get adjusted.

My mom gave me great advice. She said “Just take it one day at a time”. Sounds simple – but really it’s quite profound. I get overwhelmed thinking about the big deadlines I have to meet and the amount of work that needs to be done. But if I compartmentalize them to mini, day-to-day stuff, it’s not so bad. I get such satisfaction creating daily to-do lists and crossing out items one by one – IN RED PEN. Totally helps brighten my day. :)

There is not much else going on with me other than work. My “work life balance” is not too balanced these days. Most days I spend 10-12 hours at work (yes, you read that right!) and then get home and hit the books to study work-related materials. Weekends (this and last) have been mostly sitting in front of a computer doing on-line training courses to catch up with still work-related issues. It’s pretty sad, I know. But I’m assuring myself and my ever-patient hubby that this is only temporary. Only the first few weeks and I’ll cut back, I promise.

To relax, I’ve started reading David Sedaris’ book “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and I am really enjoying it. And since it’s a collection of essays, it’s not hard to read a chapter or two, put the book down and forget about it until you have time to pick it up again – say two days later. And I really like Sedaris’ dry-wit style, although personally, I think he missed the mark with his book “Dress Your Family in Corduroy”.

Other than that, I’ve started drinking lots of lemon water. Two reasons. First, we have a lemon tree in our backyard that just won’t quit. There are about a hundred beautiful, huge, ripe lemons at any given time and it’s such a waste to see them fall to the ground when no one picks them. We’ve given bags of lemons to family, friends and neighbors and have adapted more citrus in our culinary fare – lemons in our food, in our marinades, and in our sauces. But the problem is most dishes call for a tablespoon of lemon juice or a dash of lemon zest – I’ve yet to come across one that needs 84 cups of lemon juice. So this is a good way to use up the fruit. Second, I was reading a magazine at the bank the other day and saw an article where glamorous actresses were interviewed about their beauty secrets. Some claimed soaking in mud baths, getting regular sea salt scrubs, having plenty of sleep, and remaining stress free. And capped off with the usual jetting off to St. Tropez for a holiday too. Well, I don’t think I’d enjoy lounging in mud nor getting rubbed all over with salt. I can only wish about getting the right amount of sleep and there’s no way I can remain stress-free. Plus I don’t think we could afford to spend a week in St. Tropez right now. So I decided to take the simplest of all the advice. Eva Mendes claimed her beauty secret was drinking tons of lemon-flavored water. She claimed it cleared up her skin, got rid of the dark circles under her eyes, and was a great way to restore energy. Well, that seemed easy enough – so lemon flavored water it is!

You know how boring things are when my blog is about the kind of water I’m drinking …