May Day celebrationsHappy May Day! Anyone gearing up to dance around the Maypole?

Hey, I’m not crazy. In fact, you’re lucky I’m not wishing you for “Labour Day,” and no, that’s not a typo.

It took me years of living in the U.S. to get used to the fact that International Workers’ Day, for Americans, was meant to… well, work on. No holiday here, as I was used to having while growing up.

Similarly, it took me a while to get used to the fact that Labor Day itself wouldn’t be celebrated in this country until much closer to the end of the year, when most people – including “laborers” – were about done with “laboring” and getting ready for a variety of festivals and the winter holidays, and …

And they call Australia “down under.”

Oh well. C’est la vie, non?

Be all that as it May (get it?), for those of you who are celebrating Spring rites, I wish you much frolicking and glee. And for everyone else, who’s laboring along with me… hey, nice to see you!

It’s also two weeks since I started my new job, and many of you have asked how it’s going.

Well. It’s complicated.

First of all, I love it.

I love getting to know several new co-workers, both in the DC area as well as around the country (around the world, actually!), who are really committed to doing absolutely the best job they can do for their clients and the agency. My DC colleagues have been really welcoming to me, and while I still can’t put all the faces to all the names, every day I feel more at home.

I love that I work at a company whose social media policy is basically “don’t be stupid.” And that not only do they try to keep things simple, but encourage employees to participate and engage in social media.

I love that my colleagues are fiercely passionate about their work, fiercely protective about clients, fiercely caring about the people their clients are trying to reach, and fiercely committed to the ethical practice of our profession.

On my very first day, I sat in on a meeting that reinforced my earlier impressions of all this fierceness, and that was a good feeling.

So, with all this love, how is it complicated?

Well…

I’m trying to get used to a commute that is a tad longer than 14 steps. It’s 1.5 – 2 hours (round trip) and while that itself isn’t too bad (doesn’t really matter whether I take Metro or drive, so I drive since I have at least a semblance of control that way, and can listen to NPR on the way in/out), it still takes some adjusting to.

I’m trying to get used to not jumping onto Twitter or Facebook whenever I feel like it; because if I’m working on something, then social has to wait.

I haven’t worked out with my trainer in a week, and am probably not going to be able to pick that (bootcamp) up until mid-May or so. You know how religious I’ve been about that, and that feels WEIRD. And before you ask, no, I’m not going to stop working out.

I just have to figure out the routine of my new life, both online and offline… just when I thought I was making headway on mastering the mechanics.

I’m already less stressed than I was two weeks ago, and while I still have some travel coming up (Counselors Academy, I’m so excited to see Gini, Lisa, Dana, Abbie and so many more!), I’m pretty sure that once I’m back and have a chance to catch my breath, I’ll start settling in better.

Figuring things out – especially when I’d settled into a routine I’d built up to over four years, which set great store by offline and personal time, for which I was deeply thankfulisn’t easy.

But that’s what we do, right? Figure it out?

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you sticking by me as I go through this process.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the WUL team and guest bloggers chipping in to help with the content (aren’t they great?!).

I can’t tell you how much I’m still very much here… just silently; so just because you might not “see” me as much as you did earlier, on blogs, and Twitter, and Facebook, and Path, and …

I’m here.

It’ll just take a while before I start to get noisy again (so enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts).

If you’ve been down this road, and figured it out, would you share your tips, please? As you can tell, I sure could use them!

And happy Labour, er, May, er… oh, whatever.

Happy happy.

Image: somewhereintheworldtoday via Flickr, CC 2.0