5 things on my mind: Cardinals fans need Southwest Diner more than ever right now

Let's get into a few things on my mind.

Starting a new job at 40 is like starting a new grade in school. You know nothing, feel alienated, and try every minute to adapt and feel more comfortable in a surrounding that is aimed to make you better yet also make you feel pretty stupid at first. Hold on, that's a rough word that some of my readers will take offense to. 

This week, I started a new job at Drive Social Media, a booming digital marketing company with a growing list of cities and locations. Facebook and Google ads, videos, and innovative ways to broaden a business's horizon. It's like walking into a room of experts and you don't know shit, which only leaves someone to dance around in their own head at the complexities of the job. Someone will explain a lengthy set of procedures and ways of getting work done and ask if I have any questions. My response is "no, I'm good," because the truth is I have 90 questions but no time to answer all of them. 

All of this is by design, but it still hits like a flood. They see someone who is new and learning the ropes, even if that feels like I am swimming way behind two monstrous jet streams in the open ocean water. As the Joker would say, it's all part of the plan. But it feels so much different from my perspective. Going from the freelance "design my own hours" hustle box for eight years to a standard Mon-Fri day job is a twist beyond what M. Night could come up with. Instead of being able to be at home whenever you like (keeping an eye on 5 pets), the day has nine hours snatched out of it. This is regular life to many people, but the human species adores routine, so it's a different kind of rush on my end. 

Every day gets better, and I have to admit that having nights/weekends off, and being able to bring in a larger salary for my family powers me through every panicked, tense, and overall distressed moment. Knowing my wife and son are powering their way through uncertainty at their collective jobs-my son said we're all going to school essentially each day-gives me a sense of "we're all in this together" mentality. This is just me telling you that it's not easy and it's okay to say that a new exciting job isn't easy and quite scary. Thanks for listening to my TED talk, and now let's get into a few other topics.