Overall, I enjoy my job. It is stressful at times and it has made our home life more hectic. But, I enjoy being in an office again and contributing to a team. My coworkers are nice and easy to work with and my immediate supervisor is fantastic. I kind of like the work I do. I like my main job, but some of the ancillary duties are frustrating and difficult. And, they take up far more of my time than they are supposed to. In some ways, this is good, as the days go by really quickly. In other ways, it is frustrating and makes me pretty unhappy at times. I do think I am really good at leaving it all at the office. When it is time to leave, I shut down my computer and figure I will face whatever it is the next day. Of course, being a double income family again has definite perks; we are still careful, but we also have a bit more freedom.
One of the drawbacks is occasional work trips. They will decrease in frequency the longer I am there, but I do have to go to several trainings in my first year or two. The first of which was this week. You may recall the horror over (so, I ended my writing mid-sentence last night and I have no idea what horror I was referring to--although, I'm super curious. Post, post-note--this referenced that the trip coincided with Hamilton).
The first day of the orientation was in DC. I drove up on Monday night with a few of my coworkers so we would be ready to report early on Tuesday morning. The first day was listening to high-ranking people talk about the organization and provide different perspectives on a wide range of topics. It was a good information and there are lots of interesting jobs.
The second day we took a bus to Quantico. We got to do some simulators, one with weapons on a convoy and the other shooting various weapons. I learned that ammunition is incredibly expensive. We had lunch at a mess hall and sat with Marines nearing the end of their 6-month OCS (or, whatever the Marines call it). The food was surprisingly good. We did a tour of the base and I learned that Quantico is far more extensive than I realized. I previously thought of it solely as the training base for the FBI, but it is a huge Marine installation with a vast amount of land. After we wrapped up at Quantico, we got back on the bus and headed for Norfolk.
In Norfolk, we toured the Comfort, one of two Navy hospital ships. It was most recently deployed to Puerto Rico to serve those impacted by hurricane Maria. They were there for something like 53 days and saw a couple thousand patients, all completely free of charge (well, free of charge to the patients anyway). It was pretty cool to be on a floating hospital. We were given our tour by the head nurse, and he walked us through the ship in the same way a patient being seen would view the ship. It is impressive what they can do and the tour was very informative.
We also went to an E-2 Squadron. I didn't know anything about E-2s, so that was also excellent. Finally, we toured an LSD ship and it was fun to be aboard a Navy vessel again. All of this was to give us an idea of the big picture, to see how our small part as acquisition or personnel law attorneys fits into the overall mission.
It was a long 3 days, with lots of traveling and mandatory socialization, but it was worthwhile and I enjoyed it. At home, Thomas had no trouble managing without me, although, I am sure he would prefer not to. It was nice to pick up the kids from school on Friday. They were as excited to see me as I was to see them.
The horror of having to give up your Hamilton tickets and reschedule your NY trip! I bet that is what you were going to say. Glad you had a nice weekend!
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