Shift

I'm starting to feel it.

I'm starting to feel my life shift from Wisconsin, to Ohio, now.

I can feel it when I jog through my neighborhood every night, waving hi to the same neighbors and admiring the latest landscaping work they're pulling off. I can feel it driving through town, learning my way around and also realizing I've got a few secret passageways to dart around. I can feel it watching TV and the news out here. I can feel it on the morning drive into work when I listen to the same radio station, day in and day out.

I can feel it at the end of a work day, after SO MUCH has happened in such a tiny 8-hour timespan, and the only people who know it best, are my coworkers that were experiencing it all right there with me. Boy, you really have to be cut of a certain cloth, to survive in the fast-paced lane of a manufacturing setting.

And lately, I can feel it with how I am perceived at Honda. It seems I have more friends there than I thought?

It's humbling, but it's also what I needed. Because let's face it, the folks back in Wisconsin, or Mississippi, or Germany, or anywhere else I've lived........are ultimately going to be mostly concerned with their own daily lives. And if I'm not a part of that daily life, I get pushed to the outlier circles. I know, I know. That's just how life is.

So, talking to me, "the outlier," and catching up with me, probably involves a lot of feigning of interest from the other person. I can see that, I'm not stupid. :)

It's suitable, then, that I just keep myself, to myself. I go about my life here in Ohio, and build a bond with people in MY daily life. And I can feel that shift now. The folks that are in my daily life, are mostly in Ohio. I feel a big gain and personal reward, when I am surrounded by my Ohio contacts. I LIKE that I feel a reward when I talk to them, versus the strain I sometimes feel when I correspond with back home.

After a few rough weeks with this grotesquely challenging boss I have now, I sat down and realized yesterday how many good people there are at Honda, to balance him out. Even though these coworkers have no idea about the boot camp I am going through, them taking time to stop and say hi and shoot the breeze with me, means a lot. And I realized how many Honda folks have demonstrated to me, how they are there for me.

Herein begins some character profiling of the Honda crew I feel a camaraderie with.

Tom - You freakin' crack me up, Dude. I miss sitting next to you when I worked in Assembly. From the random conversations we'd have about cable DVR, to the way I got you hooked on the outrageous story of what my dad did the first time he met my former boyfriend, you always got me to laugh from the bottom of my belly and up. You're a sharp shooter, with the vacuum tester you put together, too. Thanks for being a fellow young gun at Honda and helping me learn the ropes to earning some respect.

Matt - It is like a free live show watching you and Tom (just mentioned above) knock each other around at work all day. It's hilarious!! You are such a sweet, docile man, even though you are only about 5'3" and I could probably take you in a cagematch if you didn't have the energy and ADD level of a chimpanzee. I can't believe you've been at Honda for 25 years - you sure are established, but act and work as young and spritely as if you were only on year 2.5. Thank you for being so appreciative of me and making sure I always had someone to work with in those tender first few weeks at Honda.

Alicia - Thanks for being my best work buddy! Out of everyone mentioned here, I am the closest to you. It all started with you walking up to me at work one day, where I was looking kind of lost and forlorn. You just started talking to me - so spunky. :) We are the AMU twins - we have the same initials! :) We'd talk all day and night - working odd shifts for the rampdown PAC-V project. We'd chatter about so many things, because we are only 2 years apart in age and are programmed to think in much the same way. You spent a whole Saturday with me, taking me to meet your whole crazy fun extended family at your cousin's high school graduation party, AND you spoiled me by going shopping at Maurices and eating lunch at Panera! It was such a fun day with you!! But now, you and your husband just had your first baby, and you're off on maternity leave for a few months. I'm happy for you, but I think of you each day that you're gone, leaving me with all the boys!! Eeek!

Tony - Man, you are THE coolest boss. I was so comfortable with you from the get-go, and cracked up at your jokes and laid back attitude even when you INTERVIEWED me for this job. I could not have landed a better supervisor - you give my team members and me the space to do what we want, work at a comfortable pace, and make sure we don't work too hard. :) You trust us, let us take the initiative, and represent ourselves. Plus you do so much in a day, but when I finally catch your attention to sit you down and talk with you like we did this morning, you immediately take a pulse on things and take the words right out of my mouth for how I am feeling. You are so good, how do you do it? Talking with you is like instant relief - the ultimate "guidance counselor." You really know how to look out for me, and you know I need it most right now. I am actually really looking forward to this 2-year tour of duty to be done, where I will permanently be working in the office with you again. I look forward to getting to know you better.

Snake - Already, we go so far back. I know I already wrote a whole blog post about you, 'Mario.' You are my buddy, my wannabe cool uncle out here, even though you're a grandpa! Without even having to exchange words, you and I are always seeing eye-to-eye, and we hold a certain respect for one another. We know how to saddle up and get to the bottom line. :) It always feels so good to stop by the office and say hi to you. Or watch you scuttle up to the building in the morning when we park in the same row in the parking lot. :) Thank you for sending me nice little 'hello, thinking of you, how is the Beetle doing?' emails once a month, too.

Shane - My neighbor and PQ Department buddy!! I was getting really worried about you! Up until yesterday after work in the parking lot, I had not SEEN you or HEARD from you in over a month! I was worried you quit Honda! You're so polite though, and always getting yourself into something interesting. From the time you invited me out to Benny's for pizza with the Honda gang and we just got to sit and talk, to the time you came out to visit me in Weld Shop and take pictures of me working on the assembly line, to now trying to get into a cycling club together - thanks for being the very active friend for me. :)

Glen - You are America's Sweetheart. Enough said. I have not stopped pouting ever since you announced your retirement date of October 30, 2009. I am so glad I got to Honda just in time to have the pleasure to work with you.

Jon - Another guy who claims to take the title of being a 'cool uncle' for me out here - thanks for keeping me SANE in the Weld Shop. You and I have a camaraderie like no other, solely based off of our desks and how they're grouped together with..........you-know-who's. Just because of desk location, you and I have to put up with more oddities than anyone else in our office. But we hold together and make it together. You're my jogging buddy, always rooting each other on to go work out for the night, trading tips on new trails we've found in the area to go running, good meals or snacks to eat before running, etc. And this week, when I was especially tested by........you-know-who.......you were right there meeting me in the cafeteria to just talk and vent it out. THANK you. I also see eye-to-eye with you and I appreciate the breath of fresh air that you are to me. I want to keep working with you - can I take you out of Weld Shop with me when I leave on October 1st??

John - I didn't really get to start working with you until last weekend when........you-know-who.....commanded we come in for an 11-hour Saturday work day. And you were such a blast! So laid back, cracking dry-humor jokes throughout the day and subsequent week. You know how to roll with the punches and still ENJOY what you do. You know what needs to be done to complete a task, so you prod along and do it, never working to the point of breaking a sweat, but also not slow enough to get the backs of your heels nipped. I like how you balance yourself, and I appreciate how patient you've been with letting me job shadow you.

Andy - You are so silly! I SWEAR you look like a turtle, too. I don't know why - it's just that every time I see you, your face and physique reminds me of a big ol' turtle in a turtle shell. And if I ever told you this in person, you'd probably be a goofball and try to ACT out how a turtle is. I know we never formally got introduced to each other - we just looked at each other's name tags and just started talking one day - but MY GOD everytime you buzz through my office you're always doing something funky and peeking in my direction to see if you got me to giggle. And of course, you do. :) Anyway, I find it really cute that you keep coming down to my office and asking my Weld Shop boss if I can just stay in Weld and not rotate to another department - it's nice to feel like an asset that people want to hold on to. Thanks for making us all laugh.

Lowell - Oh my god, Lowell. I had you pegged wrong, SO WRONG. I have to admit, I was the most scared of moving into Weld Shop and having to meet you, and having to work with you. Just.....the things people throughout the rest of the plant would say about you, how you treated other people......you had me shaking in my boots, thinking you were a gruff, strict, heartless old man! But when I got to Weld Shop, you were the first person to yell out, "HELLO THERE, LITTLE LADY!" from across the room, and introduce yourself. You offered yourself to me first, to let me work with you and tag along with you. You are the hugest teddy bear!!!! I hate that so many other people perceive you as the exact opposite, so I will sing your praises and plant seeds of good stories about you, as I pass on to other departments. I admire you to pieces - even though you put your damn foot in your mouth all the time with how you ramble on about your crabby wife!! Ha ha. :) But seriously, you are one of the most driven, hardest-working, loyal men I have met. I am glad that you and I can confide in each other - like today when you just pulled me aside to vent and share some of your worries with me. Your name is Lowell, not Atlas.......you don't need to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, you know? I am glad you finally opened up to someone to get some relief, instead of it always being the other way around, with YOU as the crying shoulder. And I am honored that I could be that relief for you.

There are other folks, of course, that I could write anecdotes about. But by now, I'm sure this post about these random people means about as much as listening to a celebrity give their 'thank you' speech for winning an Academy Award. You know what they're saying means a lot to themselves, you know why they won the award, and you want to be happy for them.....but it's a little too bland and boring to listen to them rattle on and on about people you've never met.

Grab the cane and pull them off to stage right, please??

:) Thanks for reading this far - and thank you, to my blossoming Honda family. I've wanted this for quite some time now.