Speechless

For once in my life I don't have anything to say.  I know, this is a unique phenomenon.  But it has happened!

Work is going well.   I am settling in and doing the job I was trained to do the first weeks of July.  But in the midst of that, my manager (who is the person assigned to mentor me during the next phase of my training which begins in August) has started to pull me aside to observe her as she works.   So I'm still receiving lots of knowledge daily.  And yes, I start the next phase of training in early August.  I will be driving up to the main headquarters of my company (about 55 miles one way) for classroom training for about 6 days in August.  And then I will be set to do that job and get my feet under me for that aspect of my job.   Eventually I will go back for even more training as I learn more and more.  So things are progressing nicely with that.  I will say though, I LOVED the 6 months that I didn't work.....well other than the fact that I was constantly stressed about the lack of income!  But yeah, not working was a WONDERFUL experience otherwise.

My weight loss efforts are well....stagnant.  Ok, maybe not stagnant.  I may be slowly starting to drop on the scales......I mean, maybe.  The scales are not linear, so I don't want to say they are going down ...yet.  I AM down a bit from where I was about a month ago....but when I say a bit I mean a bit....I"m still in the same 'decade' of numbers on the scale.  So within a 10 pound range....which fluctuates (frustratingly so).   I am watching what I eat and trying to make sure that I'm not going crazy, but not being super strict with myself.     Exercise is almost non existent.   I am on my feet a whole lot more at this job and the first weeks (after training) when I was on my feet all day long were tough as my legs ached and my feet were so sore.  I did buy new shoes, which helped. However, my plantar fascitis is really kicking my behind lately, so any heavy exercise is just not happening.   I do however walk the dog every day for about 25 minutes....so at least there is that.     I did just see something this morning about an exercise class.  I have kept my eye on this small exercise studio near me for a while....she leads classes that are good for flexibility and mobility....but I haven't wanted to go in to a full flexibility class as a beginner......but just this morning I saw that she is now offering this class for beginners!  So I may try it!  It actually starts the week when I start training for the next aspect of my job, which will have me off my feet a bit more so that should ease up the foot pain....I hope!

 I decided to start a memory quilt.  This is my own creation......but what I am doing is that I am making 12 inch blocks.  Each block is totally unique and highlights one aspect of Jason and I during the last 10 years (we will hit the 10 year mark in our relationship in November...in some ways it feels like a lifetime, but in other ways it seems like it was yesterday that we had our first day 10 years ago).    What kind of unique quilt blocks you may be asking?  Well I have a quilt block that depicts the New River Gorge since we have vacationed there a few times.  I have a quilt block done for my cat...hey she is our furr baby.....and of course I also have one for our goofy newfie dog.  I am embroidering anything important on it.  Like the New River Gorge ones I embroidered the dates we went.  The dog has her name and her birthday as does the cats.    Those are the three that I have completed.....  I am working on one to indicate hiking......it's just a normal block with a base fabric that has things that depict hiking like signs and trees, etc....and I plan on embroidering at least the words Hiking and Nature.  I'm toying with embroidering the names of some of our favorite places to hike/favorite trails.    But I have plans for lots of blocks, for the bird, for our first date (we went and got ice cream sundaes), other vacations, our house, our apartment, bike rides, etc    Each block is unique...I am not carrying any one theme of color through the quilt.  Each block is being created with whatever colors and design that my creative juices say to do at that time.   I am trying to carry at least one piece of fabric from each block into another square...also to keep my fabric costs lower.  But that's not something I am worried about.   The center of the quilt will be a larger (the plan right now is 24x24) block which will be a double wedding ring pattern....on which of course I will embroider the location and date of our wedding.   It is a perfect choice because hello "double wedding ring"  but also because that quilt uses lots of small pieces of fabric to create the rings.  So my plan is to create those rings using all the various fabrics from the blocks that I create......so a hodge podge of colors possibly, but symbolic in the craziness of life that combines to bring two people together into one life.   Ok, that was totally sappy wasn't it?   But anyway, that's my current project.  

 

So that pretty much sums it up.   I'm just trying to settle back into a routine of work....and a routine of working in an office (I worked from home for 5 years before this, so leaving the house every day is no longer familiar!). 

Shoe Size Matters

 I have successfully completed my second week of being back at work, and it was a full 5 day work week with no vacation time!   It was a week that had it's ups and downs.  It was a week that had it's painful moments but also that had pain-free moments.   I also learned a lesson in how much size really matter.    But most importantly I survived!

Continued Fallout

I was in my second week of training for my new job.  This week was divided between classroom training time and time in the actual office with a mentor.  I was excited to get into the office to actually meet my coworkers.  Coworkers really make or break a job.   As bad as my last job was, the one with Karen who was verbally abusive, I had some amazing coworkers. I mean, I just went on a girls weekend with one of them!  It seems as if I will be with a good group of gals.  They laugh and talk and it seems like it is a friendly group.  I continued to feel that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach each time I am doing something where I am being observed.  I get skittish and almost shaky as I wait for the verbal abuse to rain down upon me.  I keep telling myself, Karen is not there.......she was not right in the head......her words were a reflection of herself and NOT a reflection of me.  One morning I was heading the the office an hour away where the training is being held and I was replaying something in my mind that I had said and done at the office.  Absolutely NOTHING out of the ordinary, but for some reason my mind seized upon it and in my warped way was convinced that "karen' was going to tell me about it.  I finally put the thought to rest by praying and asking God to take away these thoughts that I KNEW were invalid.    So the fallout of my time with Karen is not totally in the past, but I am still working hard to make it in the past!

 The Pain

For the next month or two my sole job will be to work on the teller line. In early August I will go back into the training classroom to start to learn my actual job (how to open the various types of accounts is first.....more training will come a month or two after that....and continue until I am fully trained).   Once fully trained I will be in an office but will still be a teller about 20% of the time while while I cover lunches, help out when short staffed and take a turn on my weekend to work.   But for right now I am 100% teller.   The office is a typical with the teller stations being standing height.  The office does have chairs to sit on behind the teller line, but my office is pretty busy and the chairs are more in the way.  Thus most of them have been pushed into a back room. (And the one that is out is annoying as we are always running into it.).    So for the three days that I worked in the office I was on my feet for the complete 8 hours.  That is where the pain came in.  Oh my word, the first day my legs were so sore!  But to be honest, I was not surprised.  I well remember the first weeks when I left a desk job and started to work at a deli where I was on my feet all day. (Wow, that was during the first year that I wrote here.....19 years ago....and I did write about my legs aching.) The aches in my legs started to decrease as the week went by.    What surprised me is how much my feet hurt.....each day with no noticeable improvement as the week went on.  I have long had an issue with 'The Bone.....an issue with my foot that has been around since I was 10-12 years old.  I don't have too many issues with it anymore, but this week was not one of them.   That wasn't the only thing wrong with my feet.  I noticed on one day that I had a tender spot on the foot, like my shoes had rubbed wrong, even though they were shoes that had previously not given me any issue.  The most disconcerting issue was that in the evenings I would be sitting with my aching feet propped up in front of me and I could FEEL my heels.  This is not a good thing as I have suffered with Plantar fasciitis for quite a few years.  (My first posts about it was in 2013 and I referred to the pain having started about a year earlier.)  I have been able to manage this issue quite favorably most of the time.  I have had some bouts that have been difficult, but I have learned to recognize the early signs and I have been able to make changes and stave off a full bore attack!  Thank heavens!    So that familiar tingling in my heels was not at all welcome.  In fact, that heel pain is scaring me!  The good part about the pain in my legs AND my feet is that after a good night sleep I wake up and feel no pain.   So I am able to take the dog for a walk in the morning with no pain.

 Size Matters

 Desperate to correct these foot issues I started to think about what I could do.  Most of the shoes that I have are remnants from my time at my last job when I was in the office.....pre 2020.  They still look great.   I wore them all the time in the office, and even led training classes where I was on my feet all day with no foot pain.  I used to go for walks on my lunch break every day wearing the shoes and there were no issues.  But, still something was wrong now.   I attempted wearing different pairs of shoes, but to be honest when I even went to put them onto my feet in the morning they started out feeling bad, so I would revert to the pair that felt 'manageable', a pair of clog style/slip on shoes.  Maybe my shoes were fine on the outside but the 'guts' and support was shot!   That had to be it.  So I vowed to go shopping over the weekend and I made it my priority yesterday.  I looked at a few different places and I finally found the pair by Clarks (pic below) that fit well.  And here is the shocker.........I had to buy a half size higher than I normally buy....and I bought the wide width (which is also abnormal).   Holy heck.....was that the problem?   I have gained weight since I have worked from home....a significant amount of weight, so it makes sense!  I remember when I lost weight the first time that I had to get shoes that were a bit smaller, so it's not an unknown phenomenon, just one that I forgot.  A different shoe size also makes sense as to why any pair of shoes that I tried to wear that was not open back was just too tight, making me revert to a pair with no back.  I bought a dark brown.....and hope to make it work for all of my dress shoe needs...because I haven't given up, I still want to lose this weight.    I will be trying my new shoes this week.  I've got my fingers crossed that the pain eases!

 

Weight

And now lets talk about weight.   As I mentioned in my last paragraph, I have gained a whole lot of weight in the last few years.....and the day before I started this job I saw the highest weight I have been at in probably 20 years.  BUT, I am happy to say that I have lost  4.2 pounds in the last two weeks.  I don't know that it is any major feat as it just happened kinda accidentally.  I'm not even going to promise that I can continue to keep up a loss.  I just know that I WANT to lose and that I am going to try to eat healthy and TRY to lose!  But yay to the 4.2 pounds!

Another week is upon us.  The dog is hounding me to go for a walk.... I think it's time to get this Sunday rolling!