Back to work

Today is my last workday off for a while. Monday will be my first day at a paying job since leaving Dunder Mifflin over the summer. Thanks to the wonderful network of bloggers, UTRider and I will be working together. At least for a while. I'll be working as a consultant initially, with the potential to become a permanent employee in the next few weeks.

I never thought I would say this, but I'm actually excited to get back to work. I've always thought that I would have no trouble staying busy and enjoying myself when I retire. But there's a big difference between retiring with enough to live on the rest of your life and being out of work with a finite amount of savings and a mortgage, student loans, and young kids to provide for. The people I'll be working with are a great group (at least those I've met so far). Regardless of what I've done, the people I work with have always been the difference between liking my job and not, so I'm actually looking forward to Monday.

Aside from the job itself, though, this is a big change. Here's what I'm looking forward to:

• Getting paid.
• Being in Salt Lake City just in time for ski season.
• Riding MTBs at lunchtime (there are some great trails very close to the office).
  
• Having an answer to the question "what do you do" when I meet someone for the first time.
• Riding, skiing, and hanging out with Utah friends and family more often.

Here's what I'm not looking forward to:

• Not seeing my wife and kids every day. I can talk to my wife on the phone, so that part won't be too bad. But I can't really keep as involved with my kids that way. I'll especially miss my one-year-old, who is just too young to understand what's going on.
• Commuting: I'll be at my sister's house in Utah County and commuting to Salt Lake for work--35 miles each way. On the weekends, I'll be back home in Boise. That's a lot of travel time each week.
  
• Getting up in the morning early enough to commute. Right now my plan is to commute by bike to the Trax station and then take the train the rest of the way downtown. That means leaving at about 6:30 in order to make it to work by about 8:30. At least I'll get to ride every day.
• Working but still having the stress and time commitment of finding a permanent job.
  
• Not riding with my usual crew. I've got a great group of guys that I have been riding MTBs with for as long as I've lived in Boise. They aren't just guys I ride with but true friends. I hope they still invite me to Moab in the spring.