While I Wait

Tonight is Hispanic Heritage Night at my daughter's school. They are going to have some sort of concert. I'm guessing it will involve badly rehearsed Mexican dance numbers performed by student's and their cousins. I really don't mind going but I find myself fighting to stay awake, and so is my wife (or so I  thought) I see her pass my office on her way to the bedroom. I figured she would be going to sleep. She knows I don't want to go, but is determined to stay awake and drag me to this event.

 
I figure while I wait, I would throw something together. I've been trying to sit down and write about my recent adventures at work. Even thought they are all noteworthy and in some cases funny or thought provoking. I don't think anyone cares about by trip to Delaware or Fredricksburg, PA to see chickens get processed for supermarket shelves. Instead I'm just going to write about my feelings.

My feelings? What am I? A girl? There's a lot of new stuff going on in my life. Things have turned around for me, finally, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. Up until a month ago, I was the silent partner. I was the sidekick. If I made a decision, no one noticed. I had someone to take the heat if was a bad one. All I had to do was follow protocol and make sure things got done. Then one day I decided I wanted to shake things up and take the top job.

Now everything revolves around me. Everything I do or say is constantly scrutinized, not just by my superiors but also by my subordinates. I want to be effective but at the same time fair. I came into this looking to make drastic changes. Now that I'm 4 weeks in, I see things improving, but it almost seems too easy thus far. I was expecting more of a fight. Maybe they're taking it easy on me. Things seem to be running smoothly even with all the time I've spent away from the office since my first day, less then a month ago.

I had to travel to New Jersey for a meeting in my second week. That week I worked 7 days. Last week I spent two days in Delaware for more meetings and management team bonding. This week and next, I'm taking my team to various industry related facility tours. All this in preparation for the holidays. Now that I'm halfway done, I'm surprised how everything worked itself out. I really don't feel like I had anything to do with it. I give my crew a lot of credit for holding things down on the front lines while I travel up and down the Mid Atlantic. I'm quite pleased with how things are going.

I just hope that all this holiday planning really prepares me for whats to come. This will be my 9th holiday season in the Meat department. This is our Superbowl. I know exactly how this works. Except that normally, someone else does all the planning and trouble shooting. This time I'm riding the horse and hoping not to fall off. I have, what so far seems like a great management team supporting me. I just hope that there is enough writing on the wall to lead me out of this dark tunnel. Nobody is perfect, and I know Murphy's Law will rear it's ugly head. I just hope that I've learned enough over the past 9 years to get through looking like I know what I'm doing.