One minor adjustment..

It is said that time can speed up or slow down depending on certain situations, i.e., "Time flies when you're having fun." But I've yet to hear anything like "time flies when you're adjusting to change in your life." In fact, I would say most big changes in people's lives are met with agonizingly slow times - divorce, children, starting school. I've never heard anyone say "I just had a baby boy, and man, the months are just flying!"

And yet for me, the last 2 months, rife with change, have flown by.

It seems like just yesterday that it was time for me to have a nice little vacation. I'd go to my sister's wedding, visit with my parents for a week, then return to the grind at my job of nearly 4 years.

But before I went on vacation, I was restless at work. I needed a change, and I think I needed to get away from what I felt were the childish attitudes of several of my co-workers. I felt an internal promotion, while not a huge change, would provide the spark I needed. A position was about to open up, I just didn't know when, and I was about to go on vacation. I didn't want to miss it, so I asked a co-worker to hold on to a copy of my resume, and the internal application, in case the position opened up while I was away. That meant updating my resume. I couldn't find my hard copy of it, so I went on to Monster.com. Monster allows you to save your resume on there as a Word document. So, I updated it and saved a copy.

But the thing is, when you update your resume on Monster - even if it's just adding a period - it bumps your resume to the top of the list, and makes it look "new." Several headhunters out there were now seeing my resume.

I hadn't even unpacked at my destination before the calls and e-mails started coming in from recruiters. Most of the positions just didn't sound appealing to me, and several wanted me in for an interview ASAP, which obviously wasn't going to happen. The calls and e-mails continued throughout my vacation, but for the most part I ignored them and enjoyed my vacation. A couple I told my situation, and they happily said they could wait to talk to me.

So, I waited till my last day of my vacation and called these people. There were claims of "Wow, we read your resume and we just think you're perfect," but as usual, these claims were false. They asked me if I had experience in certain skills (something obviously spottable on my resume). I said no. One person's remark was "oh, well, that pretty much eliminates you." One of them said they'd talk to the hiring managers (the same ones which allegedly just gushed over my resume) and get back to me. I thought, "I'll never hear from you again." I went on with my life and my job.

Astonishingly, the person who told me I was "pretty much eliminated" called and wanted me to come in for an interview, despite my tremendous under qualification. I obliged. I blew off the usual interview preparedness routine, gave a quick once-over of the company's website, and went to the interview. They asked me questions I really didn't know the answer to, so I applied the questions to my current job. I went out of the interview confident they would find my skills lacking for the position. Still, I went home, and gave the requisite "thanks for the opportunity" e-mail to the recruiter. Shortly afterward, I got a reply.

"Can you come in for an interview tomorrow?" Suddenly the people I gave as references were telling me they got calls from the company. They were surprisingly interested in me. The second interview ended up being scheduled for a week later. That morning, a terrible storm rode through. I arrived at the company to a near-empty parking lot and an office like a ghost town. I announced myself at the front desk, and got an astonished look. "I think you're the one we were trying to get in contact with!"

Apparently they'd lost power and sent almost everyone home. I was informed they'd been calling me and e-mailing me to reschedule (which wasn't the case). But, I was there, and the manager took me in for an interview. He led me to the conference room, and left to take care of a few things. I decided to take the "high road" and asked him when he returned, if I should just come another time. He thought about it and said it would probably be best. So "another time" became the next day. It was essentially a repeat of the first interview. I felt the same way walking out as I did the first time.

4 days later I was told I got the job, and an offer was being prepared. 3 days after that my offer came through, nearly twice what I was currently making. I quickly accepted. Within minutes I was at my office, explaining to my stunned boss I would be leaving. A week later was my last day at my job of 4 years. 2 days after that my new job started. That was almost a month ago.

All that started early May. Now it's mid-July. I don't know where the time went, really. I've gone from a Friday thru Monday 10 hours schedule to a Monday thru Friday 8 hour schedule. I've gone from starting at 7am to starting (for now) at 9am. I now have a "classic" weekend as opposed to my beloved "mid-week" weekend. I've had to re-adjust to dealing with the large volumes of people at stores and theaters. I've got a much larger income coming in, where I can finally pay some debts off.

And time has flown. It won't be long until it's August and I'll be celebrating some family member's birthdays. It seems like I don't have the time to do what I really want to do after work and on the weekends - including putting some posts on here.

So, anyone else experience this? Long gaps of time completely gone, as you adjust to changes in your life? Is adjustment ... FUN? Because logic would say if time flies = having fun, and facing adjustment in your life = time flies, then having fun = facing adjustment in your life.

I guess a change-up in life is like a change-up pitch in baseball. The change-up is designed to disrupt your timing. A good batter will observe the pitcher and learn to anticipate when the change-up is coming. Then they can knock it out of the park.

Guess I just need to observe life more and anticipate the change-up.