First Day of School!

Okay, I'm not going back to school. But I feel like I am.

Tomorrow is my first day at a new job. And I feel like I'm starting the first day of high school. Seriously. It's like everything that I've done this weekend I'm pretty sure I did as an insecure 14-year-old. Let me break it down:

• Lack of Sleep: Remember how nervous you were the day before school started? Nervous thinking about what people would think of you, how you looked, if you remembered to do those pesky summer assignments? It keeps you up at night! And I know for a fact that I'm going to end up thinking the same crap tonight.
• Procrastination: Speaking of those summer assignments, every year in high school, I always had to read two or three books and write a comparative analysis on them. And like clockwork, I'd stave off that assignment until the last day and end up staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning trying to finish the bloody assignment (thank God for Cliff Notes). And then I'd wake up the whole dang house with the sound of the dot matrix printing off my paper. The last few nights, I've been cramming my brain with the history of the company, the products they sell, etc. All because I must meet with the VP tomorrow and sound intelligent on his business while also proving my value.
  
• Proper Attire: I have spent the last three years of work keeping it pretty casual. As long as you wore a cute pair of jeans with adorable heels and maybe a cardigan set, you were good to go. I'm now going into stereotypical corporate America, where dressing up is a reflection of your work -- and where Casual Friday isn't a daily way of life. Rummaging through my closet has alerted me to the fact I only have a limited number of outfits for this type of atmosphere. CRAP. It's like in high school when that first outfit you wore was what people judged you by for the rest of the school week/month/year. First impressions are important, and I'm having a mild heart attack even as I write this because I can't afford to get new clothes. BAHHH!
• Organization: I feel like a mother getting her kid's backpack ready for school, but it's my own dang backpack (in the form of a five-year-old purple Lodis computer bag). Do I have my lunch (check - Amy's brown rice and vegetables frozen dinner), forms of identification for HR (driver's license + social security card) plus bank routing number information, paper and pen to take notes (can't assume they'll have that stuff for me -- and need to look prepared for anything that rolls my way), and my gym bag (excellent news! they have running trails and a gym on-site to get my @fatroll on)?! This is like making sure my school binder has enough college-ruled paper, dividers and map pencils for when I randomly have to color crap when the teacher is feeling lazy....

But I will get through and own this day. And I will make sure Justin takes a picture of me next to the car, just like my mom did the first day of school when in 1998 and got to drive myself.


And yes, I'll say it. I don't know what the hell I was thinking wearing that outfit either. See, outfits make or break you that first day, dang it!! At least my hair looks better now. Seriously, those bangs are stupid-looking.