Change on all levels...good and tough at the same time.

It's official, I am now a Sweet Adeline! Today was my first day on the new job. I awoke early, eager to have plenty of time to shower and get ready for my first day without feeling rushed. We had breakfast at a nearby Panera and made the 12 minute commute to my office. We left with plenty of time to spare, since we all know that a 12 minute commute in California can mean literally 45-60 minutes on the road. Not so in Tulsa. We made it in 12 minutes! Once the office was open, I stepped inside and began my first day, which was full of welcome meetings and new hire instruction. Everyone was super nice and welcoming and I spent most of the day going over office policy and procedure, organizing my office and catching up on projects that are coming up quickly for my department. It felt familiar and strange at the same time. No stranger to office administration, I felt at ease learning the new computer and voicemail system. How to enter the codes for the payroll and the photocopier so that they were paid for out of the correct line-item was fine. But at the same time, it was weird to be in an office. To start work at 8:00 am. To record the outgoing voicemail with her new title. No longer a singer (by trade) or voice teacher, but an executive. Kind of weird. But kind of neat too. The day flew by and before I knew it, it was 4:30 pm and time to head home. A week ago, 4:30 pm was the just the middle of my work day. Now it was the end. Kind of nice.

My new office

The flowers and Waterford Vase that my mom sent to my office on my first day

Meanwhile, J had a jam packed day as well. The cable guy came and installed cable, our new phone and internet service (hence, our ability to resume blogging!). The Sear's delivery guy arrived with our new refridgerator (they forgot to put on the truck yesterday when they came to deliver our new laundry machines). Then he hit the bank to open our new accounts with Bank of America (alas, WaMu isn't in Oklahoma). Phone calls to the water and garbage services and more errands and it was time to pick me up from work.

We headed back towards home and had dinner at TGIFridays. Then we came home and crashed for about an hour. Refreshed from our nap, we headed to the market to stock the refrigerator. Grocery shopping in Tulsa will be a big change for us. For the past three years we have pretty much shopped exclusively at Trader Joe's for groceries and Target for sundries. Trader Joe's isn't in Oklahoma. So we headed to Target and got the items there that we normally buy and then headed to a Walmart Neighborhood Store which is actually a grocery store and not the big box stores we're used to associated with Walmart signs. The closest I can relate it to is a cross between Albertson's and Safeway. They carry national brands as well as their own. The prices were excellent, but when it comes to finding organic options, they are severely limited. We bought a lot of items that we normally buy, but brand names that we normally do not (since we've pretty much only bought Trader Joe's brand for the past few years). I was a bit overwhelmed by the whole process. "What do you mean they don't sell organic 1% fat milk?" "Don't they have low-sodium turkey?"

Change is tough and we've been though a lot in this past week. New city. New home. New job. New career. New hours. New appliances. New phone number. New weather. New food. Change is good, but all this newness can be overwhelming at times. Hopefully, in the coming days and weeks we'll settle down a bit. And perhaps, in due time, we'll find a store that carries organic 1% milk!