9.16.22
I descended the stairs to a living room full of sleeping teenagers. There was professional development scheduled today instead of school, so seven of my son’s closest friends came over to watch Thursday night football and spend the night. I’m glad he has good friends. His two older siblings are away at college, and I sometimes wonder if it’s weird for him to suddenly be an “only child”.
I quietly went to the pantry in the basement and peeked in on the sleeping teenagers down there on my way to grab cereal to leave out for anyone who was hungry. I told the dogs to be nice and not wake anyone up, and then I left for work.
I should note that I actually made it on time today! It turns out not dropping my son off on the way to work and/or having to deal with the heavy traffic in front of the school saves more time than I remembered.
Because we’re going to pretend that he’s the only reason I arrive at work at 8:06 every day instead of 8 o’clock. Yes. I would definitely be on time without him. My summer track record says otherwise, but today it’s a nice thought. Today is also payday. So. More positive things.
I sat through a meeting and was able to help a coworker figure out a problem. I was also a sounding board for a different coworker who was affected by a ridiculous new policy that was put into place. We have different bosses, and our bosses are interpreting the new policy differently – to her detriment and my benefit – so I feel a bit weird listening to her and affirming her right to be upset, knowing that I’m not dealing with the same stipulations and I likely won’t be in the future either.?
I walked my son through the process of making bacon via Snapchat, starting with where it was located in the fridge. I’ve been told that someday I’m going to miss these things, and as I inch ever closer to that phase of my life, I can understand what people mean, but I do look forward to being able to just be at work without bacon interruptions.?
Today I didn’t have much on my calendar so it was a nice chance to get caught up. I cleaned out my inbox (because I use my inbox as a to-do list), my top left hand desk drawer (where I shove actual papers that don’t need to be immediately dealt with), and I managed to get my life organized for next week (which will be necessary because next week is looking a little crazy). So, even without a bunch of meetings, I managed to stay pretty busy.?
The time to clock out hardly came soon enough though.?
After work I raced home to let the dogs out, do a last minute double check on the contents of my suitcase, leave $20 on the stove for my son to go to breakfast with his friends the next morning, and I was back out the door and headed to meet a colleague to travel (for my second job).
We had a great conversation about strategic planning, different personality types, and current social media happenings as we drove to our destination. We ordered from the closest Chinese restaurant and ate in the hotel lobby as we discussed what we were presenting the next day.?
Yes, we waited until the night before to finalize things. This was definitely not my choice. But. Having done the presentation before, he had zero concerns, and let me choose how we would divide the work. Which I did. Reluctantly. We did a quick run through so that I could ask questions, and called it a night.?