Knitting on the bus

I started my new job last week, and so far so good. I haven't taken on a lot of responsibilities yet, but I think that will be changing quickly. For me, last week was primarily about getting administrative stuff taken care of, learning how to get around the building, and getting a general sense of what my schedule will be like. I have been told that once I really get started, the workload will hit quickly-- I'll basically be managing the psychology consult service for the entire hospital, so once I start carrying the pager there's no going back and not a lot of downtime (or so I hear). We'll see how it goes.

One other thing I've been adjusting to is my bus commute. It's about a 35 minute bus ride every morning, and about a 45-50 minute bus ride home from work, due to heavier traffic in the evening. On top of that, I have a 5 minute walk to and from the bus stop. So it's a bit different from my 12 minute drive to work last year, and worlds different from my 12 minute walk to work for the several years before that. I am so totally not used to being a commuter, and so far, that has been the most stressful part my new job.

On the other hand, I think it has the potential to be very relaxing. It's a single bus ride, no transfers, so I have long stretches of uninterrupted time for knitting and listening to podcasts/music/whatever I want, every single day. I am so far not taking full advantage of this; I've just been listening to the news each day, but I could certainly be getting some good books on tape to listen to. I have been doing some good knitting though. In my first week of work, my bus knitting has amounted to about half a sock (a relatively large sock, for Jeff). At this rate, I could probably do about a pair of socks or the equivalent every month, which is more knitting than I've ever really had time for. I'm going to try to really make this happen.

In other knitting-related news, I will also be re-joining my intern fantasy football league this year. Last fall I learned that knitting and football go really well together. This afternoon I worked on a team name (the Knit Kickers) and logo:

Note that the little footballs are photos of a knitted football. Game on!