"Clever people & grocers ..."

There you go msolga. That's the way to do it. Some things just aren't worth the effort to keep wracking your brains over ;-)

Setanta

Thanks for that.
Yes, I do remember Visitor!
So nice to meet you again, Eve!

Absolutely RIGHT, Montana!!
And thank god it's the weekend & I'm not there!
Come to think of it, why don't I just consider applying for another job & ESCAPE?
Airing this here has been very useful. Thank you all! (Now to figure out a way to curb this busy, busy brain! Isn't that called "taming the monkey?")

No it aint, Setanta!
As I mentioned above, time to break a lifetime habit!
Wish me luck!

(ps ... Setanta, are you now a NEW critter (in your avatar) or is it just a different view of the previous avatar ... Very handsome critter, I must say! )

Miss Olga, the previous avatar was of Lovey's friend and companion, Mr. Bailey--this is of Lovey's friend and companion, Miss Cleo . . . i like the big smile she's wearin' . . .

Good luck in avoiding the ponderous . . .

Then they are both quite beautiful, Setanta!!!! <virtual pats>
And thanks for the encouragement, too!

Well, what is to be done with the big, fat organ that makes it so hard to be born, and so hard to escape this life without neck pain, except THINK with it?

I enjoy much of the passing parade inside my head - keeps me endlessly amused in cars and baths and suchlike.

If one's thoughts are negative and repetitive and get one nowhere, time to change 'em - but who is to know what lessons you may learn for future jobs by anlaysing what is the problem with the dynamics of your current one?

Then it is time to take your mind out into the metaphoric fresh air and let it run around and roll in the grass and such.

dlowan

Ah, sensible advice, indeed!
And speaking of neck pain - I have it, front AND back!!! - in doses from over-using that most annoying organ!!!!

Yes, I admit it - I rather enjoy a jolly good think, like you - but confess to over-doing it sometimes, when it's counter productive to continue.
In this particular work situation it really IS a waste of time. It would take magic, the injection of lots of $$$$$, a change of government policy & a year's leave at an extremely relaxing location for the entire staff of this place to change the way things are done & how people feel about it. I suspect a solution will not be found in my lifetime.
Maybe the best thing is to just get out of there ... early!

I love the idea of taking one's mind out in the fresh air & letting it run & roll about! Lovely!

I don't believe that 'thinking' or 'not thinking' are matters of volition. Some of us are so constructed that we must think everything through; we cannot do otherwise. Others tend to fly by the seat of the pants trusting in whatever one trusts in that the spur-of-the-moment decision will be the right one in the long run. Furthermore, I find no merit in conciously trying to change one's very natural patterns of reaction to events. There is much to be said, of course, for Setanta's dictum that if a hard object is coming at you at 80 mph, the sensible thing is to duck without giving it a moment's thought. But in this situation, it is not really a matter of choice but, rather, self-preservation.

I should think about this, but then again, maybe not.

Well, Osso found that that is what she did anyway. The presupposition is that this isn't an instant decision to be made here.

First time I noticed establishing this behavior was when I was working at a clinical lab I had started (under the aegis of a medical professor) doing researched tests and I had gotten tired after a few years, working as I was, oh, 9-12 hrs a day to get and keep it going (paid for 8, of course). I was perplexed, because I liked everybody, and liked the work too, but I was also not doing what I thought I was interested in at the time, which was hematology, a favorite subject in school. So one lunch time, when I went - you won't believe this but it's true - across the alley from the university parking lot to a laundromat and did a load of laundry, and all there was to read were some want ads. So, reading fool, I read them. There was an ad for a hematology tech at a clinical lab in Beverly Hills. hmmm.

I called. They answered. I had an interview. I got on like gangbusters with one of the, uh, idiosyncratic lab owners, a forensic pathologist. Omigod. I had a sleepless night. I called in the morning and took the job. I quit where I was when I went in to work, two weeks notice. About twenty four hours later, the big guy came in, with his young son in his arms, and asked if there was anything he could do to get me to stay. How much they appreciated... and so on. I said (well, I can't remember) but I think I said I will think about it. Another sleepless night. I called the new lab late the next afternoon and said I changed my mind. (Everybody sorry, etc.)

On my way home after that I was driving down Santa Monica Blvd., I remember it well, I was approaching the intersection of Santa Monica and Beverly Glen and the Mamas and the Papas started in with Go Where You Want to Go, Do What You Want To Do, and so then I had another sleepless night and really gritty eye sockets.

Called the second place back and asked if it was still open. Yes, yes. Did it.
Goodby parties at the first place, schniff. Girl goes off to find self.

Worked there a year. Missed research atmosphere. Took lots of stars' and other people's blood for mostly routine tests. Didn't learn much, which had been the point. Felt like stranger in strange land. The pathologist took stars down to the basement to see the rats (pregnacy tests). Best part amidst it all was the staff, my friends Sharon the tech and Nat the driver doing rock and roll lyrics as often as possible.

Applied again to the university. Had application tagged for reference and the first lab group called me to come back. Went back, was happy there with one of the doc's and research lab for years and years.

Moral? I should have decided one more time, had one more sleepless night.
And Not Mentioned All That To Anyone. Although it sort of worked out for everyone, as the guy I got to replace me and his associate hired soon after, did well with the first lab.

So now I do my multiple deciding in a quieter fashion.

Merry Andrew

You're right, of course. Some of us are just made like that. Since I was a small child this has been how I've made sense of the world.
BUT, sometimes one finds ones self longing for the "OFF" button & not being able to find it! That's when the thinking becomes counter-productive & yes, perhaps negative, too .... I like the idea of being able to find the "OFF" button in time!

osso

What a story! And what a journey!
But do you think you would have finally reached the understanding you achieved without doing what you did?

well, ms olga, this was a bunch of years ago and far away now. I don't regret any of my experiences, she says, taking a deep breath. The whole atmosphere that one person could be valued enough for brains/slight background is one of those good marbles hitting another good marble (I never played marbles). My own expertise of those years devolved when computers came in, when much was gained and perhaps much was lost. I dunno, by then I had switched fields.

I can't say I regret any of my decisions, some of them horrible, and not all to do with work. But I keep trying to be wiser now. Thus my easy answer, think about it, think about it, and think about it a third time.

But I don't know if I would do that. I think I know it all right now of course, now as then.

Well, sometimes.

I don't mean to portray myself as all that shillyshally. Some of this consideration can happen as fast as it has to, and some other decisions just fall off the knife, piece of cake.

Still, I think it is luxurious and sometimes useful, to play in my mind as if the decision is made when it isn't

osso

I can assure you that you didn't come across as a shillyshallying sort of person!!!! I really hope that you didn't get the impression that that's what I thought. Quite the opposite!

I'm gettin' tired of all of this pussy-footin' aroun'

**** or get off the pot . . . there's no two ways about it . . .

heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee . . .

okbye

Setanta's post just reminded me of something that's been in the back of my mind all along. Could it be that some of this is gender-related? '**** or get off the pot' is perfect advice for a man to give another man. We males place great stock in the ability to make quick decisions. Most women do not. At least that's been my experience. A woman wants to be sure that everything is 'just so' before she makes a leap into the deep end of the swimming pool. I don't know very many men who would have gone through Osso's experience of agonized indecision. Most men, once they decide to do something, it's as good as done. No turning back. And, if you've got it together, no regerts either.

Osso asks, Which pot? This one, or...that one over there?

Msolga, nah, I read it myself as indecisive, or multiply decisive. That was all by way of explaining that that experience of years ago has sometimes been replayed by me in short form, as a process in my own mind, as I decide something now.

Another aspect of personality related to this question is....do you talk about your decisions with others before you make them? I am not much of a talker myself until I have decided about whatever life-changing question has been befuddling me.

In routine daily decision making I am speedy enough, and easily discuss ramifications with others before or after the decision. But whether I sell my house or change jobs or cities or .......my pro and con thinking has usually been within my own head. Unless those decisions affect someone else; if we are partners, then we are partners in decisions.

I realize that I jerked other people around in that year's ago example, and that may be part of why I try not to send up noise clouds while I make up my mind these days.