2008 was a pretty stable year for me...by my standards, anyways. I didn't change jobs or houses, I had a steady girlfriend the whole year, etc. I didn't even change my hair style.
But the past few months have started to signal the return of the constant upheaval that I'm more accustomed to in my life.
The deal to buy a horse farm with Sheila last year fell through, and we both basically settled back into our previous plans, almost as if it never happened. All within the course of 3 months. Shortly after that, she lost her job very unexpectedly. My roommate and close friend seems to be reconsidering his entire life. My other close friend is going through the big D and don't mean Dallas. And I may be moving soon.
It's not a major move - I'm hoping to get an apartment 1 block from work, rather than an hour's drive away. I've officially given up too much of my life to Route 20. I love the idea of dropping the 1-hour commute, rarely getting home before dark, getting home tired even after a normal day, and always having to coordinate with someone else for transportation...all of that, I trade for one simple device: an umbrella.
Work is...different. 2 months ago I was finally put in charge of a small team. Then in Jan that team was merged with its counterpart from our sister company, and their team leader was put in charge of the joint team. So I wasn't demoted...I'm just no longer in charge of anything. Funny how that works.
So I'm working very hard to accept the fact that I'm just a team-member. That when they walk into the lab wondering who on our team they should talk to...it's not me. Damn it's hard - I'm not wired to be a worker bee, and it bothers me deep down inside.
To add insult to injury, I don't really get the impression that the girl who was given the Team Leader job really wants it - or even thinks like a team leader at all by nature. But she has seniority within the company, and more programming experience. So by default, she's the team leader. She is very good at what she does, from what I can tell. But being a top-notch worker doesn't automatically make you a good leader.
So it looks like Feb is shaping up to be the month I learn humility (again), start to really focus on my financial picture in earnest, see Obi at the end of the month, move closer to work, and start my first side project with embedded circuits. I'm inching closer to being able to build networked, autonomous game interaction devices. Next step, Imageia Inc???
