My Week In Review

In case anyone missed it, I am employed once again!

I have finished my first week of work and what a week it was.

It is so difficult to try to wrap my mind around concepts that I haven't thought about in over a year. Some of it is coming back easier than other parts of it. Heaven help my brother, he had a tough week of trying to teach me what I need to know while trying to get everything he had to do while getting ready to leave the country for 2-1/2 weeks. I think after this past week we both have a few more gray hairs!

We went through a lot of information every day. I came home every night with brain cramps! I was exhausted mentally and physically even though I sat most of the day. I'll tell you one thing, I slept like a log every night this week!

Brother Michael and I are trying to get used to working together. We are learning each others idiosyncrasies. For example, when he gives me "the look" over his glasses, I know I'm in trouble! I've either put a mental block against something he's trying to teach me or else I've gone over the line on something. Hey, I have definitely learned "the look" this week! It's all good though; we'll get there.

One thing about this job though is that it has really put me in a nostalgic mood.

My first job ever was when I was 15 years old and my sister Barbara was the office manager at the Erie Cab Company. Actually, the name of the company at the time could have been a number of things. The business changed names back then more often than some people change their underwear. But, I digress.

A little background: I grew up in the days of Twin Tech. My high school was split into two sessions, one session beginning the school year going 8-5 Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The other session would start school 8-5 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. In the middle of the school year, each session would switch. Granted, you ended up for half of the year going to school on Saturdays, but you only went three days a week. For four hours of the day you would have the normal academic studies of math, English, chemistry, whatever. The other four hours would be in a particular field of study. My choice at the time was medical assistant. Some of the other choices were diesel mechanics, business, cosmetology, welding and a bunch of others. Supposedly we would be ready for life after school! Anyway, you went three days a week with the idea that in your junior and senior years you would be out in the world working on the days you weren't in school.

While I didn't originally get a job in medical assisting while in school, my sister Barb hired me. She hired me at age 15 to do her grunt work. Keep in mind, this was in the days before having computers at work; everything was done by hand. (If you read my last post, you know I AM old!) I could never explain to you the crappy job of typing by HAND all of the 1099s and W2s with the five carbon papers put in between the copies. Holy crap. At the end of January, I'd work with carbon papers so much, my fingertips would be constantly black. What a mess. I had to keep drivers records by hand, payroll was done by hand.

The first computer we got took up half of the room and was loud. I did progress from grunt to accounts receivable. I got to take it over by the age of 18 and run with it. How crazy is that? I learned so much from Barbara throughout those years. I learned all about how business works and accounting overall. And, we did it all on hand ledgers. Those were the days.

Now working for my brother, the comparisons are sometimes so strong they come up and smack me right in the face. Working for a sibling in a building that is very reminiscent of the Erie Cab Company. Ahh, those were the days. I have been so nostalgic this week that I can't tell you how often I've picked up the phone wanting to talk to her and tell her just how much she is on my mind.

Anyway, on to bigger and better things. I am learning my new job. Not as quickly as I'd hoped, but I'm learning. My big test came on Friday when I was alone in the office for most of the day as Michael have left in the morning for his trip to China. I was so nervous, I was throwing up in the morning! But, I put on my big girl pants and went on to work. I may not have done everything perfectly or even correctly, but I didn't kill any one and I didn't burn the building down. All in all, I'd say that was a pretty successful day.

The good news about this job is that we have decided that there will be no TPS reports. They have been deemed unnecessary! A silver lining in every cloud!