Things are starting to move faster at work now. (I can hear Dr. Starikoff taking two letter grades off for that sentence: one for “things” and one for a passive verb. I learned a LOT about writing from her.) I’ve been in training since I got there in April. It’s good because I like being thoroughly prepared instead of just being tossed in the pool, but it’s also been a little frustrating. Patience isn’t even my strong shirt.
I’m tentatively scheduled to “go live” August 1. I have an official schedule, and this morning I got my team. My boss is introducing them to the concept of working for me. A couple more weeks of warmup and final prep, and then I take the helm and steer for the stars.
I’m excited. I don’t think of call center management as my career any more, but I still enjoy it. I like helping people do better. I like leading and inspiring. I like solving problems and helping a business succeed. And I’m excited at the idea of being able to earn bonuses again. Money’s not the only thing, but it’s a nice thing.
I’ve been doing a fair amount of reading lately. In case anyone’s curious:
- Scott Turow’s Innocent is good. Somehow I remember his books being better – I knew whodunit pretty early on – but it was still a good read, and the twist at the end was pretty cool.
- I’m in the middle of David Weber’s Mission of Honor. I love his Honor Harrington series – she’s such a cool character. Think of Weber as Tom Clancy meets C.S. Forester in space. There’s a lot of talking-head style exposition to wade through, but the big space battle scenes are worth it.
- I just started Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists, which so far is just wonderful. I picked it up after reading a review in “The New Yorker”. I’m really loving it.
- And I’m also in the middle of C.E. Morgan’s All the Living. Morgan is a friend of a friend. We’ve never met, and now that I’ve read some of her work I’m a little intimidated to even think of meeting her. Practically every sentence is poetry. It’s beautiful and heartfelt and just absolutely amazing. I’m excited to see where she goes from here.
Anyway, that’s my deal. I’d try to share some deeper thoughts and attempts at insight, but there’s been a little too much limoncello and vodka this evening for that. 
