Back to the Daily Grind

First day back at work - attended a two hour departmental meeting regarding the status of the economy, status of the firm and status of my department and realized that the economy really must be pretty grim right now. The good news is that my supervisors are already itching to staff me on deals, so it doesn't look like my job is in immediate danger, although my freedom might be.

Everyone at work keeps expressing surprise that I came back - the various remarks I have received range from "you didn't decide to go join Amnesty International?" to "you didn't find some rich guy to marry abroad?" I find this kind of amusing but also a bit disturbing - are people so unhappy at this job that they think I'm crazy to come back? It was always in my plan to come back, which is why I took a leave of absence instead of quitting. And I'm finding that I like being back in the office. It's great to catch up with friends and catch up on the backlogged gossip (which doesn't appear to be that interesting, disappointingly), but it's also kind of nice to have structure to my day - to have to be somewhere by a certain time, to have goals and deadlines to look forward to. Give me a couple weeks, I'm sure I'll get over it.