Although I still have a LOT of boxes to unpack from the move, that task is proving to be taking longer than I had hoped - mainly because it's still difficult to try to unpack when the rustling paper noises upset my cockatiel and he starts whining (one of my triggers). I can only tolerate his whines for short durations of time before I need to walk away from my apartment and try to de-stress.

Work-wise, things are going well. I do get exposed to triggers on a daily basis - from whistling to eating noises. I just have to remember to put my earbuds in so I can tune them out (literally) and bring earplugs with me to meetings in case I sit next to a coffee slurper. Yesterday I realized that the recycling bin where people smoosh their large paper plots into the bin is right next to my desk. It hasn't been an issue yet, but at some point I might want to see if we can relocate it further from my desk so I don't hear crunching paper being thrown out. As I mentioned in previous posts, I'm trying to hold on as long as I can before saying anything so that everyone can have a good first impression of me before I talk about my misophonia. Hopefully I won't have to mention it at all, but at least I've been very impressed with how nice everyone has been. I have a feeling that people here would be understanding of my situation if it ever did have to come up.

The most stressful misophonia trigger attack I've had over the past week (other than my bird's whines) was when I was standing in line to grab a bite to eat. A mother and her teenage son were standing in front of me and the son kept shifting back and forth, back and forth... Like Edger Allen Poe's pendulum to me... I *really* wanted to ask him to stop, but I just had a gut feeling that his response - or even worse, his mother's response - would be very harsh. It was a LONG wait in line with them in front of me and by the time I finally got my food, I found myself sitting in my car trying to do mindfulness breathing to calm my racing heart and racing thoughts. I've actually slacked off with my mindfulness practicing and I know I'm going to have to get back into the swing of those exercises soon.

Other than that, the days and weeks have been going by fairly quickly since I started working, so I must be having fun. Once I get fully unpacked and settled into my apartment, I hope to get back into the swing of regular misophonia writing again.

Hello, everyone. Sorry for the long lag between posts. If you've ever done a major move by yourself before right before a new job, you probably understand how hectic it is trying to get into a regular routine again.

To give a brief update: Putting aside the "fun" I'm still dealing with unpacking my belongings after the move, so far so good with my new endeavor. I've been enjoying my new job. My coworkers are really nice, the work is fun and creative, and although I do experience a few misophonia triggers here and there (usually when I temporarily take out my earbuds), the work environment is much more acoustically isolating than recent firms where I've worked. It's a huge, open-office environment with carpeting, very high ceilings with acoustic tiles, and I'm back to being in a cubicle situation with fairly high partitions.

Yes, there is an occasional trigger here and there from a gum chewer or whistler here and there but for the most part, it's been pretty tolerable. I only mentioned my misophonia to one coworker - my pod mate - who I tried to explain my head-jerk reaction to a trigger sound during a conversation we were having. She seemed to be understanding of my explanation and once or twice even asked me if something she was doing at the time bothered me. I'm hoping that I won't have to bring it up to anyone else but at least, from the experiences I've had so far with my coworkers, I have a feeling that if I did need to mention it, they'd likely be sympathetic to my condition.

I've experienced triggers outside of the office too, but mainly from my bird. As I mentioned in a previous post, I think he might be sensitive to certain sounds too - particularly the sound of crumpling paper when packing and unpacking boxes. His whining makes it tough to make decent progress with unpacking but I'm doing the best I can to get as much done with each unpacking effort so I can wrap this up as quickly as possible.

I'll do my best to get back to posting updates at least once a week as well as responding to submitted comments with only a couple day turn around. (For those readers who reached out to me over the past two weeks, I haven't forgotten you!) I hope you'll be patient with me during this unpacking stage since I still don't have a good working area in my apartment with which to set up a computer. I look forward to finally being settled into my new life out here!