Anything for 9 Weeks

Apparently, I should have named this blog You Can Do Anything for 9 weeks. For the 2nd time in as many assignments, the hospital Brynn is working at has given a 30-day notice, and shortened her contract. We will be leaving Murray about a month sooner than we had initially expected, but we knew that this was a possibility (just like any other assignment).We are obviously a little bit better prepared to handle it this time around, as we've been through this process before.

It is a bit of a mixed bag for us, as we are just starting to explore the area around Murray. We have, realistically, 3 more weekends with which to explore the Kentucky/Tennessee area. Over the next couple of days, I'll have a few posts up about the exploring we did this past weekend.

So of course, the next question is: Where are we headed now? Well, Brynn has licenses in California, Michigan, and Kentucky. Also in process are licenses for Maryland and Georgia. They are still working on getting her next assignment lined up for her, so hopefully we will have a better idea in the next few days here. In the mean time, enjoy the upcoming posts about our travels to Nashville and Mammoth Caves.

Adjusting to Working at Home

I have been working remotely from outside my office for the past couple of weeks. I have never had a job where I could do this, so I figured that there would be some adjustments I would need to make mentally to work from home every day. Definitely hit that one on the nose.

• I have created a computer set up which is similar to the layout in my cubicle back at home. I'm using a 26" LCD TV, connected to my laptop computer. My laptop is a Mac, so it is setup with a trackpad for a mouse and a smaller keyboard. Since I work in accounting, I am used to using a full size keyboard with keypad, and a 2-button mouse to do a lot of my work.I was able to get a keyboard (with keypad) from my father-in-law, and a 2 button mouse to connect to it. I had tried using the laptop keyboard and mouse the first couple of days, and realized just how much I needed those features. My printer is connected as well in case I need to print something here.
• While this helps that I don't have to take time to "get" to my office, it has blurred the dividing line between my work and my home quite a bit. It has helped that I have to login to the network for my company to have any access to my work, but it is still different.
  
• Working from a home office causes another issue I had not expected. By not being in the office with my co-workers, there is very little inter-personal interaction during my day. While a lot of the conversations I was having with my co-workers were not always particularly intense or necessarily even work-related, there's something to be said about the day-to-day pleasantries that happen when you see someone 5 days a week. This I expected. The part I didn't was how fast it would become noticeable to me.
• The thing I have found most interesting is the fact that, in spite of all the distractions that exist at home that are not available at an office, I find that my productivity doesn't seem to suffer particularly. I am still getting the same amount of work done, and in the same timeframe as before. If anything, I actually feel like I am more aware of lapses in productivity, and work through them sooner. It's been rather strange.

We will have to see how these adjustments go as more time progresses.