Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho . . .

Tomorrow is the big day! Well, I guess from your perspective of reading this one day into my future, today is the big day!!!

Those who have spent part of the last year spying on my family through the lens of my blog know that I haven’t had much work of late. Between staying home to raise two children and the spotty work provided by substitute teaching, I’ve had a lot of time to sit at home doing nothing.

That life is coming to an end. At 8:30 Thursday morning, I will reclaim my place among America’s working elite as a Revenue Tax Specialist Trainee for the State of Illinois.

I have not yet decided exactly how early I intend to awake tomorrow. There is a slight possibility I will be up before six with every intention of putting my treadmill to good use before dressing the kids and myself. It is a lofty goal, to take a short jog every morning before work, but all too often I keep the snooze button too close. I had short success running mid-mornings while successfully winning a ‘biggest loser’ competition, but like most workout regiments I’ve undertaken, a few missed days leads to total collapse of the will.

Tuesday, I saved one of those install-a-pull-up-bar-in-your-doorway thingeys from certain the certain doom of a trash pile. While it is still hiding in the trunk of my car, I’ve toyed with the idea of hanging it in the hallway with the goal of doing 3-5 pull-ups every time I pass that way. After my weight loss successes, it should be a much easier task; these day’s I’m pulling-up about 35 less pounds as compared to a year ago. But once again there is the matter of a consistent will. I can foresee myself holding to the task the first few passes, but once a three minute span takes me to my study to check e-mail, to the kitchen for a drink, into Andrew’s room to put a book away, into the living room to watch a little TV, back into the bedroom to put a away toy I just stepped on, then finally back into the living room, the ‘every time’ mantra may find itself quickly discarded. Of course, I might as well hang it up. (On the wall, not quit entirely – I had to clarify because I read it the wrong way twice!) It’s not doing me any good in the trunk. (It’s not quite heavy enough to aid with traction during the upcoming icy winter, so I’m out of excuses.)

Of course, with real employment fast approaching, I will be spending much less time wandering aimlessly about the house. That means less passes under the looming pull-up bar. It also means I should be faced with some sort of a mental challenge every day.

Sitting around the house can be fairly monotonous. I cannot count the number of times I’ve finished a task on one computer, only to flitter about briefly before alighting in front of the other computer. I do not know exactly what to expect from my new job, but I anticipate it will exercise my mental capacities, at least a little. The first two weeks should be a fairly intensive lesson in retaining a majority of the Illinois tax code. After that, I believe I will be answering questions from inquiring minds via a newfangled device that is known as a ‘telephone.’

Another blogging milestone has just been reached, and with it a fading dream seems even more unreachable. Since day one, I’ve been keeping all my writings in a Word document. The thought of losing every shared thought to a website’s demise was too much; I needed my own back-up. I had hoped to someday print a hard copy of these ramblings, but it quickly added up to an overwhelming stack of to-be-printed paper. Today’s milestone sets my printing need at exactly 1/5 of a ream. That’s right, I just crossed onto my 100th page of the written word. (I am quick to wonder, has anyone actually read every posting?)

With that random divergence into irrelevant blogosphere factoids, I shall wrap it up for this week. I suppose I shall end where today’s title left off.

. . . it’s off to work I go.