Moving time

As a couple of people out there know, I switched jobs a few weeks ago. Same company, just moved on to a different position. It’s something that I am supposed to do every year anyway so it really isn’t that big of a deal, even if I am now doing as different a job as humanly possible from what I was doing before. And while I will continue to uphold my standard of never writing about work there are a few aspects surrounding changing positions in a massive company that need to be addressed.

I’ve switched buildings on campus in the move. Pretty basic, right? Well, except for the fact that this requires me to switch parking garages and as a result my commute is about five minutes longer now. I’m not kidding. I’m on the same campus, just on the other side and it takes me forever to leave company property at night. Maybe that is a sign that your office complex is just too damn large.

The even bigger concern is that my desk is different. On the surface it is just another cubicle. Same old box, still no view of a window, still have to walk about half a block to look outside and see if it is raining. But previously I had what could best be called a right handed cubicle. Trash can on the right, file cabinets on the right. My cube has been set up that way for two years, you get into nice morning habits that way. Well I’ve now found myself in a left handed cubicle and it is the most disconcerting thing imaginable. I seriously have no clue where anything is in the morning. Every day it is like, “Who the hell stole my trash can?” and “Who moved my shelves?” I would never have thought that something as simple as that could have such an impact. It’s going to take a month before I feel comfortable in this cube and by then I’ll probably move again.

On the plus side, a new parking garage means I’ve gotten to see new personalized license plates on my drive to work. This week’s highlight was “FLATTAX”, on a car with a Rush Limbaugh bumper sticker on it (what a surprise). You know, while sitting behind that car a red light I really began to wonder how much nicer this world would be if I was able to get that flamethrower attachment for the hood of my car. Seriously, political leaning aside, would you want that to be your license plate? Is that supposed to impress someone? Or influence someone’s opinion? Like someone was just driving to work that morning and went, “Wow, if it is on a license plate it just has to be correct. You’ve completely changed my mind on the U.S. tax code.” I’ll never know what scares me more, the fact that these people are allowed to drive or the fact that they are allowed to vote.