Wednesday, May 12, 2010

a couple of nutshells

(Yesterday's post that never made it)

I'm feeling a bit frantic today. I don't know what happened to my calm, relaxing day, but it turned into a whirlwind of...I don't know...stuff. I've been zooming around like crazy and thought I'd go ahead and tell you all about it.
So here's my frantic day...in a couple of nutshells:

I get to work and I'm not really feeling it, as usual, so I do my usual routine - check my email, tell some people what to do, answer their questions regarding why they need to do them (because I said so! now go!). Then I proceed to read a couple articles on heart rate training in preparation for the arrival of my new polar heart rate monitor from amazon (yay!). After I while I decide to get off my butt (figuratively...I've been on my butt the whole time) and do some work. I call Government Institution A to set up a telecon, dink around with a presentation I'm supposed to be working on and a nomination form I'm supposed to be filling out, and answer some more questions. Booooring.
Around 11am my boss comes around (and by 'come around' I really mean double-clicks on my name to send me and Instant Message) and tells me I need to make some slides for him to send to Important Director-Type Person for a presentation to Important Government Official from Government Institution B to explain why Government Institution B should cancel current program X and create new program Y which would be much better and we happen to be very good at executing Y-type programs.
Since I really don't know much detail about program X and don't really know what boss was thinking regarding program Y, I end up making an outline that looks like this:
1. What you currently have
2. What you could have
3. Why you're an idiot if you don't make this decision
4. Proof that we know how to do this (experience with Y-type programs)
5. What you're missing out on (the Y-type program we're currently working on)
6. What we can do for you to make you look less foolish

Fortunately this goes over well with boss, but unfortunately that means I have to, not only fancy-up the wording (it's generally not good form to refer to an Important Government Official as a foolish idiot to his face), but now I actually have make some of these slides. That's where the chaos begins:
I make some slides. Boss says, "make them pretty". I make them pretty. I leave work late. Stop for eggs (and 2 boxes of cereal...impulse buy).  Boy is out of town so I'll be home alone to take care of the world.

Get home, open door, remain silent while I inspect the apartment for disaster. Breathe a sigh of relief, then enthusiastically greet the dog. Then...

feed the dog change my clothes wash the dishes sautee the mushrooms prep the peppers warm up dinner eat dinner roast the peppers take out the butter walk the dog (meet black lab down the street discover that his owners are Colorado-grads decide that they are my new best friends in town) come home bring in trash bins take out the trash prep the brussels sprouts (I can't believe I'm eating brussels sprouts) cook the rice roast the brussels sprouts peel the peppers STOP EVERYTHING to play with dog because he cannot live another moment without some living room fetch with his newly acquired tennis ball put away dishes make cookie dough chill cookie dough wash the dishes bake test cookies play with dog dog is mad about being ignored earlier and will not play now so blog...

...and here I am now! Oh...I'm sorry, was that incredibly difficult to read because the phrases were stuck together without any indication of a pause? Oh good. Then my point has been made.

And now I must continue baking and do some quality control...

Thanks for listening!

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