Frustration levels

I am realizing that this past week became more about survival at work rather than me enjoying some of the things that happened.  I think this was bound to happen at this point in the summer as we just finished week seven of summer programming; I have put in approximately 430 hours at work (and that doesn't count the amount of work I have put in at home) and I am ready for this next week and a half to be done and over with.  Just to put it into perspective, "normal" full-time for these last seven weeks would have given me 280 hours.  Yes, summer coming to an end provides new sets of challenges as we roll into the beginning of the school year and are understaffed but it will end up working one way or another...

One of the things that I have been struggling with lately is my boss taking credit for things that I do when they go well but criticizing me when things don't go well.  I don't know why it should overly surprise me because it's been going on for quite some time now but that doesn't mean I have to like it or that it's not going to frustrate me.  Maybe it's just too reminiscent of group projects from school which an introvert such as myself always hated being forced into participating in with the result me doing the bulk of the work and everyone in the group "earning" the same grade that I did - I always found that to be extremely frustrating.  In a couple of weeks I will be attending a work conference where I'm slated to attend a two-day training on working with different personality types - maybe this will help my frustration levels since they are at an all time high.

Another reason I'm looking forward to going to this particular conference is I'll be meeting up with a good friend of mine who lives/works on the opposite coast and I am looking forward to seeing her again.  She and her family used to live here and she and I worked together.  We started forming our friendship right after the wasband and I split and she would eat my blue m&m's for me (I don't eat blue things).  Yes, she and I have a weird friendship but she gets me for me and I appreciate her for that.  We'll be in a different learning track but we'll be able to meet up in our "off time" to catch up.  It'll be nice to have someone to spend time with who gets me who isn't family.

There was a situation at my apartment this week that almost ended in disaster...  I put my dogs on leash to let them out for the last time for the evening, I opened the door and in the bush right outside my door was a skunk!  Luckily my dogs were on retractable leashes and I could haul their little butts back in the apartment and slam the door before the skunk sprayed.  We unfortunately had to still go outside for them to do their evening business but it was the quickest potty break they have ever done so that was a bonus.  Another bonus is that I have a air purifier right inside my apartment so I just turned it to the maximum setting and had it set on that for a day and a half so the scent could dissipate.  It was not a fun situation but it definitely could have been a whole lot worse!

This upcoming week isn't going to just be busy at work but at the dance studio as well.  We have two performances this week one on Friday that's here locally and one on Saturday that's approximately and hour and a half drive (one way) from here.  We're doing the same dances at both gigs but we can wear different costumes to the shows.  And then next weekend, we're performing again at a local festival where I've been invited to solo.  I'm slightly nervous about the solo but I'm sure that all will be well - at all of the performances.

Well my dear readers, since I have a busy week at work and dance, I should probably think about bringing this to a close, get myself together for the week ahead (or at least tomorrow) and heading to bed.  I hope that you have a week ahead where you can be yourselves with the least amount of drama/frustration as possible for you.  Thanks for joining me!  =)