Taming the Introvert Anxiety with LOTS of Knitting (new career, more gray hair: I Want to Believe!)

Well, week one went off without a hitch. I arrived, I met, I chatted, I learned. In the evenings I crawled into my shell and collapsed into bed for very hard, long sleeps. I got up the next day and hit repeat. 

Suddenly our whole world has been turned on its head by the arrival of my new career/J-O-B. 

I am in the book business now. Books and people, how bad can it be you ask? Not bad at all. . . so far.

I love books. I love people who love books. I love reading. (Truth be told, not much of that going on now that I'm the working girl again--though I sneak in as much as I can in the wee hours of the mornings or late evenings right before bed.) The working girl in me says, "calm down, this is the chaos part", this is the remembering what it's like to be surrounded by noise, people, and strangers all day. The introvert in me climbs out of her shell (yes the one who has spent the last seven years and mostly every day surrounded by canines, plants, food and my own quiet pace and rhythm)--and crawls into the depths of business/work. It's going to be a long road to my fully grasping every little detail of my new role.

I read Quiet: The Power of Introverts in World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. If there is one book that has helped me prepare and understand how my introvert self might better cope in situations where people are required--it's this one. A brilliant reflection on the matter of being an introvert and how strategies of other introverts might be used to overcome the stress of working outside our comfort zones. Highly recommend. It's been out for a while now, but every time I re-read a passage here and there, it's like I've just worked a ten minute meditation into my day. 

I swear, my white streak managed to get whiter after only five days of this upheaval!

 I love my gray hair. 

Badges of my courage and outragousness! 

In between the chaos of jumping up and heading out the door at a godawful-who-gets-up-at-this-hour time in the morning--to the evenings of shared updates and stories I share with DH about the this or the that of every single second, sprinkled in between are moments of sheer terror of BUT WHAT IF? He calmly re-assures, as does my sister, that "these are fragile times for you. . .give yourself a break" and carry on--all will be fine. Well, my fingers are crossed. 

Knitting has helped. Boy has the knitting helped. Right before the BIG CHANGE, I promised myself I would assess all of the yarn, patterns, and what have you of my knitting. I joined two MKALs on Ravelry. One for Downton Abbey and one by Never Not Knitting's Alan Dakos. So far both have proved to be perfect distractions and have helped me calm down and re-center. I have knit more consistently in the last seven days than I have in the last seven years. Click. Click. Click.  

The Downton Abbey MKAL.

The other MKAL shawl. Lots going on in this one: cables, and more cables. So far I think I've been able to keep up here. But sort of space out on the repeats and I will need to check the chat room on this to make sure what I am making what sort of looks like what everyone else is making.

So. Excited! X-Files stitch markers--yay! Cannot wait for the return of X-Files! 

I Want to Believe!