First Day

I'm not sure what I'm going to say here tonight.  Having previously decided not to post the name of the company that just hired me, or in what industry it does business, I should also avoid writing about coworkers, parking arrangements and other details, if only for the sake of consistency.  Still I should say something about my first day on the job.  I expect that Becky isn't the only one who wonders how it went today.

It went fine--mostly.

First of all, nobody said I should have come in last week to get my parking pass and name badge in advance, so that's all right.  I got both today.  Everyone was nice to me, I got an hour for lunch, and by the end of the day I was beginning to have a clue about the job.  Also, the accounting department is upstairs, so I should get a bit of exercise going up and down steps.  (Yes, I know:  it's pathetic that that's significant exercise by my standards.)

The bad news is that I was pretty much lost for much of the day, not knowing what exactly I was supposed to be doing and how to do it and how it all fit in to the overall scheme of things.  I was introduced to almost everyone in accounting, but I didn't begin to memorize their names and faces and what they did, with the possible exception of R. I spent hours watching S. do what I'll eventually be doing, but she didn't really explain much of it.  I did get in some journal entries (general ledger, not blogging), but I had to redo some of them because of a dating problem.  I looked stuff up and printed reports, put things in order and marked numbers with a highlighter.  Overall, I did make progress, but not as much as I would have liked.  I tended to find out only after the fact what I should have done.  Bummer.  I did make myself a very important sticky note to keep things straight in reclassifying assets:

Debit--what it should be
Credit--what it was

One problem was that I felt sleepy and out of it for part of the day, due to the 7-hour allergy attack and pre-first day jitters that kept me up most of last night (again!), coupled an allergy medication hangover and a bit of stuffiness in in my cubicle.  It was indeed the same cubicle I used to fill out forms a week ago, and I overestimated the size of it.  S and I shared it for much of the day, and a third person could not have gotten a chair in there.  So far my supplies consist of a very slow computer, a manual, a pen, a highlighter (procured around 4:30 PM), paperclips and an electric stapler that I think was jammed by the end of the day.  I know whom to ask for supplies, but I don't yet know what to ask for.  I also don't know what, if anything, I'll bring in from all the stuff I had on display at Worldwide Travel.

At lunch I called Worldwide Travel and made arrangements to make myself available by phone (at lunchtime) and email (at night) for accounting questions.  So far I've had three emails from WWT, one of which was Dave, wishing me a good first day on the new job.  He's a good guy.  During lunch I also bought Star Wars tickets (only available for the 10:10 PM showing--rats!).

Tonight John and I went out for barbecue. At the resturant, he expressed doubt about whether the company where he's working will hire him when the temp contract is up.  He's not thrilled about his long daily commute anyway, but I really hope they take him on. 

After dinner we went on to the mall. I finally got a decent purse--stylish, colorful, and big enough for my stuff: wallet, hairbrush, makeup, camera, checkbooks, writing notebook, tissues & pens.  It's also lighter and easier to carry than the padded, boxy red one.  I also bought a part of (can you believe it?) actual women's shoes, as opposed to the men's ones I usually make do with. 

Later I went back out without John.  I bought a pair of black slacks with pink pinstripes, an assortment of nice trouser socks, Dr. Scholl's "memory" insoles, and some blush to replace the blush that mysteriously turned up wet in the bathroom at WWT a couple of weeks ago. Still on my want list:  nice office pants in my size, with pockets.  Between the inadequate purse and the lack of pockets, I was really scrambling today for a place to put my keys.

I'll be

I hope I can sleep tonight!

Karen