After 9 years at my current job, today is officially my last day. End of an era.

I got a new job
One that won’t make me sick
One that won’t make me crash my car
Or make me feel three feet thick

There are lots of things I’m excited about at the new job, but none more so than the commute. My new job is downtown, so I’ll be taking the train. In addition to saving myself 2 hours* of stressful Chicago driving every day, I can actually turn that time into something productive. Read a book, write, do some knitting. Anything other than stare at the bumper of the car in front of me.

*2 hours assuming nothing unusual, like construction, an accident, any kind of weather, a large event going on in town, it being Friday…because those would make it take a lot longer. Luckily, none of THAT stuff ever happens.

I got a new job
One that won’t hurt my head
One that won’t make my mouth too dry
Or make my eyes too red

Certainly it is a bit nerve wracking to give up what you know for a new opportunity. I mean, I think it’s for the better. I hope it’s for the better! But you never really know, right? Change is scary. What if they won’t let me sit at their lunch table? What if they go out of business next month? What if they’re all secretly lizard people who run the world and they think I’m a lizard person and that’s why they hired me and when they find out I’m not a lizard person they put me in a dungeon so I can’t reveal the secret lizard person plot to the media?

On the other hand, no risk, no reward (e.g. ruling the world at the head of a secret lizard-person cabal). And after 9 years, I think it’s just time to move on. They certainly seem like a fun group of lizards people. They like legos. The conference rooms are named after planets from Star Wars. I said I write science fiction in my cover letter, and they actually considered that a plus.

One that won’t make me nervous
Wondering what to do
One that makes me feel like I feel when I’m with you
When I’m alone with you

I’m nervous, but excited. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be awesome. At the very least, it will be different.

The way I figure it, worst case scenario, at least I have a whole new group of people who haven’t heard any of my stories. Time to start over at the beginning…