Yesterday I was having my weekly with the boss. We got to chatting about the possibility of hiring another person for my department (I’m my own department currently). This person would take on a lot (if not all) of my daily tasks, the maintenance stuff, etc. It’s something I’ve been requesting for a while now, and it looks like it might happen. We started talking about what my responsibilities would be once that load get lifted, and the thing that I realized was, I’m going to have to start thinking again. I haven’t really had to think on the job since 2000. Back then I was working on a really big project for another company. It was really challenging, but fun. Eventually I got laid-off from the gig, and all of the subsequent gigs have been pretty mindless – just maintaining things, no forward-thinking or planning really. It’s a little scary now, the prospect of actually having to use my brain again. I’m so out of practice. I was just sitting there staring at her, as she’s talking about something she wants me to work on – something I had no idea immediately how to do. It’s weird.