End of an Era?

Tomorrow is my last day of work at Time Warner. Sorta. They want me to come in two days next week to check in on everyone and make sure the girl replacing me is doing fine. How did that happen? How did I become the person who needs to check in? I'm actually going to be in Chicago next week, meeting with my potential new boss and finding an apartment. Right now, compared to Time Warner, Chicago is definitely my priority. Cambodia is before that, and does anyone at work realize that it takes time to prepare to leave the country for three weeks? Next week, they will be lost without me. Is that conceited of me to say? No. Because it's true. The area manager thinks it. Our maintenance guy thinks it. I know my catering clients think it. That really feels good. I feel important and needed.

Time off from work is heavenly

Right now, I'm sitting in a coffee shop. It's 10:42am. At work, they are furiously getting getting for a cook out. I woke up at 9am. Even though I woke up with a text from my boss on my phone asking me how to hire a temp for the day, I woke up with a smile on my face. I'm not tied down by a hellish work environment, at least for half a day. I can't take off the whole day, that would just be insane. But, as I sit here, researching family crests, Alice in Wonderland and children's bookstores in the area, I find myself breathing deeply. I'm breathing in the air of freedom. I'm allowing my body to regain the life I once had. Am I being overly dramatic? I'm only taking off 6 1/2 hours. I'll be working a full 4 hours still today. No. Once I realize that my usual work day is 10 1/2 hours of non stop, on my feet, action, training my boss how to be the manager, and getting grief from my coworkers when my management isn't flawless, even though I'm doing all this without any training myself. I realize that I'm not being dramatic enough. If only life were a musical, I could sing my joy and dance with a whole company behind me about how heavenly not being at work truly is.

Fortunately my mind is elsewhere

I woke up early to the sound of rain falling hard. I snuggled deep under the covers for a few more minutes of slumber before I reminded myself of the harsh reality that is my job. I got up and looked forward to the trek from the backdoor to my car. The air was fresh and clean and full of water. I walked quickly to sneak into the shelter of my car and thought about how tent like cars can be. Everywhere except for my little canopy was soaking wet, but I was safe inside. I drove, not thinking about my destination, but imagining myself waking up in a tent to weather like this. (In my head, my tent was super waterproof, since it was quite rainy.) I thought about the plans I would have made to get up early and start hiking. I smiled just like I would have in the tent when those plans went out the window. If I woke up to the sound of rain hitting my tent, I would have smiled and snuggled deeper into my sleeping bag, letting the sound of the rain lull me back to sleep.

My creativity level is at an all time low

I've been working diligently on a story that is close to my heart. I have put myself into the characters and my best ideas into the plot. I've been more dedicated to the outline of this story than I ever have of any term paper for school. If I worked this hard at school, I totally would have gotten all A's. But, last Saturday was the first time in over a month that I've written anything on it. Even then, I only wrote a couple of paragraphs. My main character feels more like a stranger than a close friend. Her strength is fading and she's the hero! I need her to be creative and strong. But, how can I expect that of her when I can't bring any of it to the table. I feel her flittering around my subconscious every now and then. She wants to be let out. She really wants to fly. It's cabin feverish in my brain and that really doesn't feel good.
Bleh...even this blog post feels a little sluggish in the creativity department. It'll have to do for now.