all I got for christmas is a full time job

My first week of work is in the can. It's been a real jolt to the system, getting up and having to be functional so early. I can't complain, all my adult life I've been an early bird, but after so many years of practically no activity, getting up off my ass and moving again has been a shock.

I have so many stories that I wish I could share with you but can't. I'm still on a learning curve made even more precipitous by the fact that my boss is currently on vacation and will be leaving the company shortly after her return. Thankfully, she doesn't seem to be the kind of person that leaves a mess in her wake. I like her a lot and I'm disappointed that she's leaving, but them's the breaks. My feelings about my colleagues are... mixed, so I'll let that alone for now.

I did manage to get my contract signed by the skin of my teeth, however. I started on a Saturday so I was supposed to have my contract in hand on Monday. Then they needed to verify some information so that set them back a day, and then they finally sent it Wednesday morning, the "end" of my work week and the day my boss went on vacation. Sheesh. So I'm officially signed up for three month's work with the option of a CDI (a contract of indeterminate time, aka a never ending contract, the "golden ticket" in France) at the end.

Of course, I landed this job at both the best possible time and the worst possible time, depending on how you look at it. It's perfect because I started the job exactly on the day that Stéphane's Christmas break started, otherwise we would have been up the proverbial creek with Fry. Since there is no daycare in Tiny Town and we only have one car, we've decided to place Fry with an assistante maternelle in Tiny Town (I mentioned this in a previous post, yes?). There are approximately 20 available in Tiny Town, and two days before Christmas we managed to find two that have openings. We'll visit them Monday and make a decision. Fry will go four days a week full time during the school year.

Speaking of Fry, what a change this has been for him, too! With very few exceptions, we've been together every single day of his life. With me not coming home until after he's had his lunch and gone down for a nap, I think he was starting to get upset with me, to the point that by Tuesday he was practically ignoring me. Finally having two days off, I'm hoping he understands that it's not like he'll never see me again. I'm hoping we'll find him a nounou that has other kids his age, because it would be so good for him to have some little buddies to play with (and learn how to share with!).

As for the worst timing, I hate that our Christmas suffered a little, though it could have been so much worse - I was fully expecting to be scheduled for Christmas, but it was just dumb luck that I ended up with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. I only got half of the gifts finished and we ended up grabbing some last minute gift certificates, but we had a great evening with family on Thursday and I had a well earned veg out day yesterday.

The next two weeks are going to be exhausting, since we're already on a skeleton crew even when the boss is there, so not a lot of rest coming my way for a while. But man, I have to say, there's nothing more satisfying than being tired from a good day's work. I have to admit, I've missed that.