Day 178: Vacation Day 1

 

Today is day 178 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and I was wide awake at 5 am ! Not exactly the way I planned on starting my vacation ! I gave up trying to go back to sleep around 5:30 and headed downstairs to start my day.

Breakfast was waffles with sugar free syrup and a yogurt. Lunch was a pepperoni pizza melt. After that I was off the Nutrisystem trail ! I had strawberry shortcake with ice cream while I was out. Later I had pork dumplings and a chicken quesadilla with salsa, followed by fresh strawberry shortcake.

Today is July 1st and I think it's a good day to recommit myself to losing this weight I've packed on. I spent the past 2 months stressing about my job and now that worry is gone. However, I did learn that the skills I have are not much good outside the telcom industry. I applied for project manager jobs and quickly found that I don't really qualify as I have no experience with "real" project management and the associated tools. I looked into Data Analyst jobs and I don't have any experience with those tools either. I also looked into Client Relations Manager jobs and I don't qualify there as I've never had sales experience. The jobs that I'm "qualified" for pay much less than what I make today. Although I plan on staying put as long as possible, I'm thinking about taking steps to add some new skills. Jira is a project management tool and I can access online courses to familiarize myself with it through my employer. I'm on the fence about spending time on that as I'm not sure it's a good use of my time, so we'll see. I'm coming to realize that I'm not a "leader" - I'm a "doer". When my boss was given her role I was really upset, because I felt like I should have been given the opportunity to apply for the role. In hindsight, I'm glad things turned out the way they did as I am not interested in managing people. I am happy being an "individual contributor" and just worrying about MY work. I see what the job does to my boss and I would not have been willing to make all the sacrifices she has. Every year she laments losing weeks of vacation and even when she does take time off she works. During our conversation yesterday I issued 2 challenges to her for 2024. I told her I wanted to see her take every single one of her vacation days AND to start delegating some of her work. For myself, I stepped up take back some of the work she has absorbed since we have been so busy. Part of my role is supposed to be reviewing claims issued by other centers and my boss took that on. I told her I want to get back to managing that part of my job instead of relying on her to do it. So it  was a 50/50 kind of challenge. She needs to do less & spend more time on self-care and I need to step up and do the parts of my job that I don't really enjoy. This 2 month long wake up call also made me think more about my financial situation and it turns out I needn't have worried quite so much. It seems that anyone who refuses their new assignment will be eligible for severance and unemployment, as they'll be laid off. My severance would have been 6 months pay, which is pretty significant ! I don't have a lot of debt but my monthly expenses are not trivial. Car and home insurance cost me about $5k per year and I'm taking steps to see if I can reduce that. I have an appointment with an Allstate agent next Thursday. 

Since I was up early I decided to vacuum the rug in my bedroom after I made my bed. Well, then I noticed the vacuum cleaner bucket was stuffed and headed downstairs to empty it. Well, then I decided to pull it all apart and wash all the parts. It dried pretty quick and by 10:30 I had finished vacuuming my room. I was really surprised at how much lint and other junk it picked up !

This morning I noticed that the dumpster at the funeral home was gone ! This explains why the stray cats moved into the workshop. The house next to the funeral home had a dumpster for a long time too and the strays were living under both of them. I guess it's a good thing I bought a little house for them ! It should be delivered Monday and I can't wait to put it together and get it out there for them.