I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to getting yelled at by old people.

Ever since Mark and I got back from our honeymoon in August, work has been CRAZY BUSY.

I think I told you I do internal communications for a big company and my main responsibility is benefits communications for retired and active employees.

I've come a long way since I started the job 3 years ago. I remember sitting in my first benefits meeting, all eager to jump in and get started, but then finding myself glazing over as they started talking about FSAs, HSAs, 401(k)s and a bunch of other acronyms.

Here it was my first day and I realized I was drifting off, so I started screaming in my own head:

WAKE UP STUPID! YOU HAVE TO LEARN THIS STUFF!

I've gotten better at benefits basics - in fact, I can hold my own in a conversation about diversifying investment allocations for retirement savings, which if you know me, is kind of surprising. I hate math, despise lawyer-speak and don't care for paperwork. Yet in my job, I think I'm doing pretty well helping people learn the value of a company match, decipher plan documents and create forms that don't make you want to jab out your eyeballs with a pen.

The fall is always the busiest time for this kind of work. It's when most companies offer their benefits enrollment period - where employees get to pick medical plans, etc. for the upcoming year. And this year was particularly busy, because in addition to writing 25 different enrollment guides, copy for our intranet and various other communications, I also got to be in charge of some new government-required disclosures that all companies need to send to their employees.

At this point, I know I'm probably losing you. BORING, right?

Right.

But my point is that all of this dry, boring material can be mind-numbingly painful to write and edit. And that's what I've been lucky enough to do for the past 3 months straight.

So, this week, as the enrollment period ends, the hard part of my job is essentially over. No more deadlines, legal reviews or editing sessions. The material's out, active employees' enrollment period has ended and now we're just wrapping up the retiree stuff.

Which brings me to today. Today starts the beginning of the retiree roadshow, where for the next four days, we hold a series of optional meetings where retirees can come learn more about their options and get their questions answered.

Oh, and they get to complain.

The complaints range from sharing medical ailments, to rising health-care costs to what's that bum in the White House doing about all of this? (I've heard that complaint for 3 years straight.)

My job at the meetings is to make sure the PowerPoint works, the decaf is flowing and that nobody gets lost in the coat check room. I'm not an HR person, so I can't answer specific questions about peoples' coverage. But I am a company representative and as such, I listen intently, make small talk and sniff out stories for our retiree newsletter.

Most of our meeting attendees are nice - delightful even. But there are a handful of folks each year who feel the need to chew me out for some policy I didn't make.

To some, this would not be a fun job. But for me, after being glued to my computer for 3 months combing though the umpteenth legal review, this is a welcome change.

I can take it. I'm psyched up and ready for whatever they throw at me. I'm just glad to be free from the shackles of my cubicle for a little while.

Let them complain. Everyone has a right to be heard. Besides someday, I hope to be at those meetings as an attendee and have some nice gal sit and listen to me tell her about all my medications and how my crummy kids don't visit enough.

And I hope they politely look the other way when I shove breakfast pastries into my purse. Because by then, I will have definitely earned it.