So ... after more than 15 months of an insane workload that included moving from Columbus back to Youngstown and three large enterprise level projects that pretty much killed my life ... I'm FINALLY going to take some time off work here in September ... basically starting Friday and running through September 14th, when I return to the office.
Except "the office" is now my dining room, as officially, beginning tomorrow, I'm one of the thousands of 'virtual employees' that work from a home-based office. So, here's my evolving home office:
This isn't the final view ... I've not finalized it yet ... there will be three 22" wide screen monitors rather than the one 22" and one 19" you see ... and a filing cabinet on the left with a printer on top, but this is pretty much what I'll be working with from a furniture point.
This is what it replaced. So yeah ... huge increase in desk space, work space, looks and ergonomics.
In addition to that ... two of the biggest projects I've ever worked on both ended today. One of them piggybacked off the huge anti-virus project I was that started in July 2009 ... so I've been kicking ass at work basically since July 2009 without stopping.
Then, as of today, it just stopped. The projects ended, the speculation as to us being home-officed or forcing to move to another location ... ended. We're virtual ... and as for the hard-core projects ... I'm back in the general work-flow, not dedicated to huge projects that kill my life.
For the first time in 15 months not only can I breathe, but I feel like I can get stuff done. Today I did six loads of laundry before noon. I slept great last night for the first time in probably six weeks (which included two on-call shifts). I'm just finally in a good point personally and professionally. It's weird for me, having not had either, basically for three years now.
I think working from home is going to be a HUGE part of that. There's no stress in driving to work ... I'm not spending $5 on breakfast and $10 on lunch every day; I have a kick-ass desk, and home office setup. My company is paying for my Internet and phone, and since I'm not working in Youngstown anymore, I'm not paying that insane income tax ... so I'll have more money in my pocket and less stress about getting to work. A seven-step walk beats the hell out of a seven-mile drive ... especially with winter coming this way soon.
Another big part is the confidence I've gained in these three projects ... I went from standard day-to-day support to three enterprise level projects that impacted 3,000+ servers and forced me to step up my game to deal with something on this scale.
And then there's my personal life, which is also rolling along nicely and enjoyable. Things with Sarah have had a couple of ups and downs, but we've worked through them and are moving forward. And I'm glad I'll have more time to enjoy it. I signed a new lease so I'm going to be in Austintown for another year, which is good with me ... I like Austintown ... and to be honest, I really wasn't in the mood to move again. I like my little box at the top of the stairs. But I have no Indian rug or a pipe to share, sorry.
But yeah ... finally ... I really feel I can relax. I can breathe. I can enjoy my non-working hours doing things I want to do ... and not spending all day and night sitting in front of my computer building servers or cleaning viruses and all that stuff.
Yay me!
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