Stuck with a Punk ✔

No. 28.: Buried in work

~ One week later ~

I can't remember how the rest of the week has gone. I've been buried in work since Jed came to me both as a boss and a friend. I took his advice for the words of God and started following job descriptions of a head engineer. 

Mark my words, be careful what you wish for. I've dreamt of this position since I showed my Dad one of my first designs. It may or may not have been a project for children but it was enough to spring my interest which potential only grew when renewable resources appeared as something realistic and reachable. 

Since then I've had this dream of becoming a boss in my field of engineering and now that I've become one... I'll just say it comes with many extra and less pleasant tasks. I still enjoy it, definitely more than the last one where I was practically an errand boy, a pawn to run around and do everything and more for my boss who'd barely lift a finger. 

What I'm not so fond of is the running around, checking how others are doing, how are their own projects going and see if they've come up with anything that could be worth mentioning to Jed and Lenart. And I've only begun with listing all of the responsibilities. I'm also the one who needs to sign thousands of documents that allow my other workers to go on a field legally and in the name of the company. Guess what, I still need to work on my own designs and projects. 

Man, I remember when I had to work on field. If that wasn't a nightmare, I don't know what it was. It sounds weird, right? Engineer that hates working in the field. It's true, though. I was a little intrigued with it when I first started. I loved to play the boss and tell them where they needed to back off and where they could continue. The thing that became so bothersome was the interaction with everyone and how the fault would always fall on my shoulders. 

Thankfully, that's all behind me now. I work from the office, always doing research, dragging pencil over the sketches that could be turnel into prototypes, then doing even more research, do some more drawing of the same idea with different materials used, and guess what - even more research! 

It may not be as dreamy as it sounds but after working on solar cells for so long you know exactly what adaptive cells need, how surface texturing works best and then you're only trying to find a way to improve the thin-film solar cell or work on the intensity of absorption in another place. 

I won't go in any more details, because frankly, I'm too tired to do that. I've worked like a slave and if my description of my job sounded a little exciting earlier, I'm telling you, it's really a bother right now. I spend most of my time just looking up certain materials then calling around our departments to ask if we even have it! And then they say it we don't and I gotta start all over again. 

It's how this week went. It went with me not being aware of anything. I recall coming home, seeing Annabelle who spoke graciously of how Devon is the sweetest kid in the world and after she left, I rememeber wrapping him in a fresh diaper one last time and then there's only a memory of me collapsing in my bed. 

Even when I am free of calculating and rethinking the choices I've made, I dream of defining certain problems, narrowing research and analyzing criteria. My job follows me everywhere. It's infested in me like a virus that has a potential to be beneficial. 

This Thursday, or was it Wednesday, I nearly knocked a poor old woman off her feet with the stroller. No matter how much more drawing my sketches needed, I still tried to find the time to take Devon out for a stroll. Annabelle told me she takes him out twice a day which is more than enough for a baby but I believe this was my excuse to leave my work. 

Sadly, the work didn't leave me. I walked as if I were sleepwalking. In the park where I took Devon are usually tons of parents. It's a nice neighbourhood and the park has a playground in the middle of it, perfect for children. Whenever one of those kids cried, I stuck a pacifier in Devon's mouth. You know what's funny? The pacifier was in his mouth all the time... I have no idea what I was trying to accomplish.