Cupcakes & Change

Come the first week in July I will have been in my new job for one year. I know we all say it but time seems to be passing by so quickly. This time last year I was trying to get my head around a multitude of issues: I was missing my mother and Aunt Nita who had just returned to Canada, I was trying to get used to the idea that Polar, our beloved family dog was not going to be there to greet me anymore upon my holidays home to mom & dads, and I was beginning to despair that I wouldn’t find another job anytime soon. A week later and that all changed as I was offered this full time job. Full-time was anathema to me - I hadn’t worked full-time in over six years and I liked my part-time hours, they gave me the freedom to have long walks with Molly, to get in a work out during the day and best of all lunch and shop with Beryl. Yet I couldn’t refuse based on the hours – I needed to work and no part-time jobs were coming up. Besides it was a great opportunity career wise, and as Andy was no longer working away the extra money would come in handy.

So here it is a year later and professionally, it’s been a good year. I fit in well with this team; a team full of professionalism, respect and yes, most importantly support. I honestly believe that this team is where is will stay. However next week we are moving into a new building which will have so many benefits, mainly that the team will be together, not spread over 2-3 locations. Myself and my boss have been situated at the hospital site in a beautiful, listed building that I will hate to leave;  our new location will take me around 20 minutes to get to and now it only takes me around seven (those of you who commute an hour+ feel free to roll your eyes now); but it’s the admin gals that I don’t want to say good bye to most of all. We get on so well and even though they are technically not part of my team I shall miss them. We share a lot of laughs, a few recipes and a couple of gripes. One of the best perks of being with the girls is Dee bakes the loveliest cupcakes – delicious, moist, melt in your mouth cupcakes that are so beautifully decorated you don’t want to eat them. But you do. Oh how you do. (Thankfully its not a weekly event or I would be a lot heavier). We’ve decided though that we will meet up for a drink after work from time to time, and of course I will soon be hanging out in Dee’s kitchen trying to learn the basics of icing cakes because come September the two of us will be taking a cake-decorating course.

I think what’s bugging me (but only slightly) is that I yet again have to move offices and yet again meet new people that I have to share an office with. This will be the fifth time I’ve changed work locations (not jobs) since I moved here. Is it any wonder that I run into people I know wherever I go in this town? Gone are the days when I could dash to the grocery store in my sweats and not worry about being seen by someone I know (like I ever really worried about that anyway). Beryl often makes the comment that I’ve met more people here in 6.5 years than she’s met in 30. I suppose it was a good thing when I agreed to move 4000 miles to be with my love that I wasn’t the shy and reticent type.