Random thoughts about going back to work
Tomorrow we will get up earlier then usual, check out of the Extended Stay Inn and drive from Fairbanks, AK south on Alaska Highway 3 to about 11 miles south of Healy, AK to the McKinley Chalet. We will check in with HR and by sometime in the afternoon we should be full-time seasonal employees of Aramark, Inc.

Wasn't it just a little time ago that we had loaded up our truck, rental van and car, closed the Livermore house for the last time, dropped of my Lab badge at 7000 East Ave and headed East? March 29, 2008 if my memory serves me. So four plus years ago, my how my need for a job to define who I am and provide the daily structure to keep me honest has faded. I've worked pretty hard these last four years to push past those constraints and take me to the next level. I have failed. I say failed because I have not accomplished anything grand and suiting of such a luxury as not having to work for a living.

Now I have really enjoyed these years of few constraints and even fewer commitments. I think I have grown as a person, if only because I've allowed myself to take the time to think about what is going on in my life and not reacting to every little brush fire. At least that is me at my best, I can still be incredibly petty about certain things but I honestly think I have some real insight into what motivates and more importantly de-motivates me.

So with that noted, tomorrow, it all changes. I will re-enter the work force at a pretty low level, a bus driver, just like Ralph Kranden (Jackie Gleason of the Honeymooners for you young'uns). I will have that job that I used to dream about when my work-life was a little too demanding and confusing; a job with a beginning, a middle and an end. Every day I will drive a Dodge Sprinter around a couple of miles of narrow private road, ferrying passengers from the Chalet to their rooms and back. A simple route, a routine that should prove to be easy enough to do with minimal stress, and a chance to interact with humans from all over the world whose relationship with me will be as ephemeral as the Yukon Spring. And of course the chance to meet 460 or so others who will be doing all the other tasks necessary for Aramark to extract the last cent possible from our intrepid land-bound sea-faring cruisers.

I'm excited, I'm hopeful, I'm confident that all will go, wellllll and come September 20, Lis and I will have a treasure trove of experiences and friendships to compensate for a sightly over minimum wage income. Cut short here because the TV wins out.... Ah did I mention that is one of the pluses I'm looking forward to, no TV in our room.