a sky gone on fire (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
askygoneonfire) wrote2010-10-07 06:50 pm
askygoneonfire) wrote2010-10-07 06:50 pm
Land Locked Blues?
It strikes me it has been some time since I've posted a 'proper' entry. Perhaps it is time to remedy that.
I have been in my new job for a month now and whilst it does not fulfil me it is a relatively low stress environment and my manager - the school bursar - seems to think I'm a good egg and has made many efforts to stress she wants to help me develop my career in school administration which, whilst it is obviously not my career of choice, is certainly positive - in this financial climate, a manager who has a long term professional development plan for their newest employee after 4 weeks is a rare thing. In short, my response to the dilemma I expressed in my previous post, is to try and wait it out. My timescale for a review of where I am is set at the beginning of January, after that? We'll see.
The usual idiosyncrasies of a new work place have begun to reveal themselves to me; half the office hate the manager because she expects them to do work during the day. Instead they sit about, bitching about staff, parents and kids and gossiping with anyone who stops by. The other half of the office work part time and do three times the work of the full time bitches. Such is life. I am, unless you haven't guessed, firmly in the second camp, except I have to be there full time.
And I do mean bitches. I've never worked anywhere where the majority of the people full on don't like me, or just plain ignore me. And that really is what happens. As usual I find I'm getting on better with men in the school than the women and were it not for the guys in premises who pop in from time to time and always have a smile and always enjoy a brief chat and a giggle with me, I think I'd be tearing my hair out. It has to be said that after a particularly frustrating day today were a couple of my contributions to an office wide conversation were not just ignored, but overruled/immediately restated by someone else, I came home and cried. Le sigh.
I'm finding living back at my parents house not nearly as bad as I anticipated. In particular, I feel relieved to be back in the countryside. In the mornings, as I am smoking my cigarette, I watch a family of squirrels play in the same tree. Yesterday one snuck up on another and pounced....oh his tail. Then they chased back and forth, tumbling and grabbing each others tails. It reminded me of this scene in the Sword in the Stone.
The other day I clambered down the river bank next to my house, as I have so many times before, and watched a vole and, later, a water rat, scramble about on the bank. Every day my parents garden is filled with birds - just as it has always been, but you forget how much you enjoy seeing these things until all you see for 3 years is seagulls and pigeons. We have pigeons here too, of course, but they are the beautifully purple wood pigeon. And those guys mate for life, unlike the promiscuous city birds.
The last two lunchtimes - partly out of frustration at the office situation, partly because the weather was so enticingly mild - I have left work and done a speedy circuit of the village on my bike in my lunch half-hour. It's been nice.
It's not all good though. I'm aware - acutely aware - for the first time just how oppressive queer invisibility is. There is a teacher at the school who I knew was a dyke the first time I met her. This week a PGCE student started in her department and she is also, clearly, a dyke. The urge to just seek them out one lunch time and exclaim "gay! you guys are gay! so am I! Can we talk about gay please?! do you know any gay bars? Can you take me to some?!"
...Which is absurd of course, and unimaginably embarrassing were I wrong (although I'm sure I'm not) and I'd be pissed as hell if someone said that to me BUT. I miss teh gays! I miss a gay on every corner, as provided by Brighton, and I miss people asking after your "partner" instead of your "boyfriend" before they know for sure. And I miss people not doing that surprised face/quick hide it look when you casually correct their "did your boyfriend" in your answer (e.g. "no, she.....") And I miss wearing whatever clothes I want, instead opting for clothes that won't get me heckled in on the streets of Grantham.
How I hate Grantham.
All that said? I guess I'm comfortable. Actually, I might go as far as happier. But not content. More factors need to be present in my life before I can claim content. And less bursting into tears because everyone at work is mean.
I have been in my new job for a month now and whilst it does not fulfil me it is a relatively low stress environment and my manager - the school bursar - seems to think I'm a good egg and has made many efforts to stress she wants to help me develop my career in school administration which, whilst it is obviously not my career of choice, is certainly positive - in this financial climate, a manager who has a long term professional development plan for their newest employee after 4 weeks is a rare thing. In short, my response to the dilemma I expressed in my previous post, is to try and wait it out. My timescale for a review of where I am is set at the beginning of January, after that? We'll see.
The usual idiosyncrasies of a new work place have begun to reveal themselves to me; half the office hate the manager because she expects them to do work during the day. Instead they sit about, bitching about staff, parents and kids and gossiping with anyone who stops by. The other half of the office work part time and do three times the work of the full time bitches. Such is life. I am, unless you haven't guessed, firmly in the second camp, except I have to be there full time.
And I do mean bitches. I've never worked anywhere where the majority of the people full on don't like me, or just plain ignore me. And that really is what happens. As usual I find I'm getting on better with men in the school than the women and were it not for the guys in premises who pop in from time to time and always have a smile and always enjoy a brief chat and a giggle with me, I think I'd be tearing my hair out. It has to be said that after a particularly frustrating day today were a couple of my contributions to an office wide conversation were not just ignored, but overruled/immediately restated by someone else, I came home and cried. Le sigh.
I'm finding living back at my parents house not nearly as bad as I anticipated. In particular, I feel relieved to be back in the countryside. In the mornings, as I am smoking my cigarette, I watch a family of squirrels play in the same tree. Yesterday one snuck up on another and pounced....oh his tail. Then they chased back and forth, tumbling and grabbing each others tails. It reminded me of this scene in the Sword in the Stone.
The other day I clambered down the river bank next to my house, as I have so many times before, and watched a vole and, later, a water rat, scramble about on the bank. Every day my parents garden is filled with birds - just as it has always been, but you forget how much you enjoy seeing these things until all you see for 3 years is seagulls and pigeons. We have pigeons here too, of course, but they are the beautifully purple wood pigeon. And those guys mate for life, unlike the promiscuous city birds.
The last two lunchtimes - partly out of frustration at the office situation, partly because the weather was so enticingly mild - I have left work and done a speedy circuit of the village on my bike in my lunch half-hour. It's been nice.
It's not all good though. I'm aware - acutely aware - for the first time just how oppressive queer invisibility is. There is a teacher at the school who I knew was a dyke the first time I met her. This week a PGCE student started in her department and she is also, clearly, a dyke. The urge to just seek them out one lunch time and exclaim "gay! you guys are gay! so am I! Can we talk about gay please?! do you know any gay bars? Can you take me to some?!"
...Which is absurd of course, and unimaginably embarrassing were I wrong (although I'm sure I'm not) and I'd be pissed as hell if someone said that to me BUT. I miss teh gays! I miss a gay on every corner, as provided by Brighton, and I miss people asking after your "partner" instead of your "boyfriend" before they know for sure. And I miss people not doing that surprised face/quick hide it look when you casually correct their "did your boyfriend" in your answer (e.g. "no, she.....") And I miss wearing whatever clothes I want, instead opting for clothes that won't get me heckled in on the streets of Grantham.
How I hate Grantham.
All that said? I guess I'm comfortable. Actually, I might go as far as happier. But not content. More factors need to be present in my life before I can claim content. And less bursting into tears because everyone at work is mean.