You know how in cartoons, the characters can sometimes go so fast and then they crash into a wall and there's an imprint of them in the wall? I have been going full speed and have hit the wall so hard that I feel as if I've made one of those imprints. At work, I've had to work six days out of the week for the last two weeks, do it again next week, travel and then work through the weekend again the week I'm back. I had an event I had to work last weekend, yesterday and next Saturday I'm working because I gave my Sports Coordinator the day off and then the week that I'm back from travel, I'll be working an event on that Saturday. I was hoping to be able to leave after about a half day tomorrow but I just got a text from an employee saying that she was in the ER with a migraine all day today and might need to be off tomorrow - that means I'll be taking her place...
At this point the phrase from the movies comes to mind - "with great power comes great responsibility..." I know that being the boss has both power and responsibility that goes hand in hand with it but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't be able to have a life or time off. I know that I'll be taking a week off coming up in the very near future but it's going to be a tornado of a trip so I won't have too much downtime. On the plus side, I have time off on the books in December too so I'm hoping to go back home then for relaxation and some rest (even though the nephews may or may not let me have too much relaxation time). I'm hoping it will help to have something to look forward to...
One of my accomplishments from this past week happened yesterday. I took my car to put gas in it and opted to get a car wash because it was starting to look a little gross. As I bumped into the car wash (gotta love the speed bumps to keep you in place at a car wash), my tire pressure sensor flashed on. My first fear was that I popped my tire going into the car wash but with the water/soap/rollers everywhere there wasn't anything I could do. I rolled out of the car wash and drove over to the air station at the gas station. I didn't see anything in my tires or that any of my tires were visibly flat so I got out my tire pressure gauge (always keep one in my glove box like I'm supposed to - thanks, Dad!). I tested the pressure on all four tires and they were all low so I prepared to fill them up. I went and asked the attendant to switch on the air pump and she asked me if I had a guy in the car - I said no, that I knew how and would take care of it myself - she replied that she was impressed that I knew how. Of course I know how to put air in my tires! I know some women who don't, but my Dad made sure I knew how to do the basics (check the oil, fill fluids, change wiper blades, put air in the tires, etc.).
After working and taking care of the gas/tires for my car, I decided to take myself on a date to the movies. I haven't taken myself to the movies for awhile and I enjoyed the movie I went to see. I liked the storyline but didn't personally like how it ended but that happens. If nothing else, taking myself to the movies made it that I was unreachable for about two and a half hours and that was nice in and of itself. I will have to do it again sometime soon.
Well my dear readers, I know this is a shorter post tonight but I did some laundry earlier and I should probably find my bed so I can attempt to get some sleep tonight. I say attempt because I was wide awake in the middle of the night last night for no reason for about 2 hours. Hopefully you have a muchness filled week and I also hope I find my way out of the wall. Thanks for reading and see you next week! =)
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Handy
Let me begin by saying that I am super sore and sunburned after my week so we'll see how this post goes... I spent everyday at work this past week moving large pieces of furniture (in a storage shed to make room, take pieces of furniture into the storage shed and then moved large pieces of different furniture from my office and into a new office space - that had to be taken apart and reassembled) and I found out just how un-handy people are that I work with. They couldn't believe that there could be times you would have to lay on your back to take things apart and to then reassemble them or that I wouldn't just throw away a table that was "broken" (they tried to scoot it across the floor with a full tabletop and one of the legs snapped off - but it was totally fixable - yay me!). One of the girls actually told me that she didn't have to know how to assemble furniture because she always just calls her Dad - my Dad made sure I knew how to do it myself -- thanks, Dad!!
So if that wasn't enough of a beating to put my body through, yesterday was our outdoor work event and I was at work at about 6:45 am and didn't leave until about 3:30 pm. Most of my day was spent running around outside and by 10:30 am, I had already put in my daily goal of 10,000 steps and ended up with about 25,000 steps by the end of the day (that's the equivalent of 10 miles or so). Even though I applied sunscreen, I ended up with a sunburn. If that wasn't bad enough, one of the kids from the program challenged me to go through the obstacle course boot camp bounce house and then one of my staff challenged me at the end of the day. I tried telling them that they really didn't want an "old" (almost 35), fat lady to go through it but they encouraged me to be a good sport. I kept feeling as if I was loosing my pants, I struggled through it and I pulled/twisted something in my bad knee and ankle. The kids who challenged me was awesome; he kept stopping as we went through this monstrosity of a bounce house and said, "I'll wait right here for you, Ms. Gypsy so I don't beat you by too much..." I thought that was very sweet of him even though I felt like a beached whale going through the course (both times).
It was a fun (and exhausting) event and my boss came towards the end. She was thoroughly impressed with the turnout (we had just over 1000 bottles of water and ended the day with less than 300 left over) and we had a steady flow of people across the four hours of the event (with an influx of people around lunch time - the event was free and we were serving free food, too). I was very excited about how well it went and was proud of my staff who stuck it out. This was the biggest turnout we've had for an event like this and it was super hot yesterday (in the 80's which is really hot for here) and we were outside the whole time.
After the event (if that wasn't enough), I came home, flopped on my bed (I was glad I set my alarm) and I passed out for about 20 minutes. I knew I couldn't sleep for long since I had a dance gig to get ready for. The troupe was going to perform one number at the gig and I had received a frantic text message from the coordinator of the gig telling me that someone cancelled last minute and she begged me to solo as well. When I woke up, I went to head to the shower and I couldn't really walk. My knee was so stiff that I need up practically crawling to the shower and had it as scalding as I could stand from the waist down for 10 minutes (had to then cool off the water because of my sunburn). The shower helped but my knee was still pretty stiff. I took some pain meds, transformed into my other self, and headed towards the dance gig. I got part way there and got turned around by state troopers - the road was closed. I ended up taking an alternate route and arrived at the site just as the clock struck 6 (which was our call time). My solo was in the first half of the show and the troupe danced second to last of the entire show. I was hoping to be able to dance and go but was there for the entire thing.
As I began to dance my solo, I had to improvise some of it because as I was moving, my knee was becoming more and more stiff (and that was scary since she had asked me to do my sword solo). I had people tell me that I did a good job with the solo but I did have one person come up to me and asked if I was injured because they could see it on my face towards the end of my song. I was kicking myself for letting it show on my face but there's nothing I can do about it now. The troupe dance was my favorite choreography and it's our one with the most attitude so it was okay if I grimaced a time or two. I was very glad that I took today to relax (other than running a couple of errands) and my knee is feeling a little better, it's not 100% but better.
While I was disassembling and reassembling furniture at work this week, I gave some thought to the question I posed last week (who am I?) but I haven't come up with a solid conclusion yet. I am planning on giving it some more thought in this upcoming week. I think it is time for me to take some more pain meds for my knee and attempt to get some sleep tonight; tomorrow is going to be a crazy day since all of the higher-ups are coming in to my building just to check things out so everything has to be just right. I hope you all have a good week full of muchness opportunities for each of you! =)
So if that wasn't enough of a beating to put my body through, yesterday was our outdoor work event and I was at work at about 6:45 am and didn't leave until about 3:30 pm. Most of my day was spent running around outside and by 10:30 am, I had already put in my daily goal of 10,000 steps and ended up with about 25,000 steps by the end of the day (that's the equivalent of 10 miles or so). Even though I applied sunscreen, I ended up with a sunburn. If that wasn't bad enough, one of the kids from the program challenged me to go through the obstacle course boot camp bounce house and then one of my staff challenged me at the end of the day. I tried telling them that they really didn't want an "old" (almost 35), fat lady to go through it but they encouraged me to be a good sport. I kept feeling as if I was loosing my pants, I struggled through it and I pulled/twisted something in my bad knee and ankle. The kids who challenged me was awesome; he kept stopping as we went through this monstrosity of a bounce house and said, "I'll wait right here for you, Ms. Gypsy so I don't beat you by too much..." I thought that was very sweet of him even though I felt like a beached whale going through the course (both times).
It was a fun (and exhausting) event and my boss came towards the end. She was thoroughly impressed with the turnout (we had just over 1000 bottles of water and ended the day with less than 300 left over) and we had a steady flow of people across the four hours of the event (with an influx of people around lunch time - the event was free and we were serving free food, too). I was very excited about how well it went and was proud of my staff who stuck it out. This was the biggest turnout we've had for an event like this and it was super hot yesterday (in the 80's which is really hot for here) and we were outside the whole time.
After the event (if that wasn't enough), I came home, flopped on my bed (I was glad I set my alarm) and I passed out for about 20 minutes. I knew I couldn't sleep for long since I had a dance gig to get ready for. The troupe was going to perform one number at the gig and I had received a frantic text message from the coordinator of the gig telling me that someone cancelled last minute and she begged me to solo as well. When I woke up, I went to head to the shower and I couldn't really walk. My knee was so stiff that I need up practically crawling to the shower and had it as scalding as I could stand from the waist down for 10 minutes (had to then cool off the water because of my sunburn). The shower helped but my knee was still pretty stiff. I took some pain meds, transformed into my other self, and headed towards the dance gig. I got part way there and got turned around by state troopers - the road was closed. I ended up taking an alternate route and arrived at the site just as the clock struck 6 (which was our call time). My solo was in the first half of the show and the troupe danced second to last of the entire show. I was hoping to be able to dance and go but was there for the entire thing.
As I began to dance my solo, I had to improvise some of it because as I was moving, my knee was becoming more and more stiff (and that was scary since she had asked me to do my sword solo). I had people tell me that I did a good job with the solo but I did have one person come up to me and asked if I was injured because they could see it on my face towards the end of my song. I was kicking myself for letting it show on my face but there's nothing I can do about it now. The troupe dance was my favorite choreography and it's our one with the most attitude so it was okay if I grimaced a time or two. I was very glad that I took today to relax (other than running a couple of errands) and my knee is feeling a little better, it's not 100% but better.
While I was disassembling and reassembling furniture at work this week, I gave some thought to the question I posed last week (who am I?) but I haven't come up with a solid conclusion yet. I am planning on giving it some more thought in this upcoming week. I think it is time for me to take some more pain meds for my knee and attempt to get some sleep tonight; tomorrow is going to be a crazy day since all of the higher-ups are coming in to my building just to check things out so everything has to be just right. I hope you all have a good week full of muchness opportunities for each of you! =)
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Who am I?
This song (Who am I?) from one of my favorite musicals, Les Miserables, has been resonating with me recently. If you don't know the song or the musical, in this song, the main character is questioning different facets of his life. He's also questioning who he is as a man based on a critical decision he is faced with. Now granted, I have never been faced with the life or death decision/situation that Jean Valjean (the main character) but I can understand the questioning of who you are.
I've heard the phrase, "just be you - life is too hard for you to be anyone else" and it also stuck with me this past week. I have definitely been working on trying to figure out who I am and what I want to do with my life but I haven't fully decided that yet. I have been debating for awhile now about going back to school (even if it's online) but I'm questioning if adding one more thing to my life right now would be the right move. Because I am a perfectionist, I don't want to set myself up for failure by adding way too much on to my plate (and to do it to myself).
I had felt refreshed coming back from my conference but things have begun to pile up at work again so I feel some of that feeling of being refreshed melting away. And while I have a bit of a break coming up, I don't know how restful it's going to be... In just under a month, I get to make a whirlwind trip back to see the family (YAY!) but in that whirlwind trip, it's for my sister's wedding. I will be leaving here on a Wednesday night, getting there Thursday morning, wedding is Saturday and I will be flying back Tuesday (to be back at work Wednesday). Don't get me wrong - I love my sister - but adding one more whirlwind to my life right now is overwhelming. I am trying very hard not to let this overly stress me since it's her wedding, but realistically this is the first wedding I will be attending since my divorce and I'm a bridesmaid in it and I'm just feeling.... I don't know how I'm feeling about it all... I will be there for her, her new husband and her two kids but I'm sure, on some level, I believe it will be weird and painful...
I didn't realize I was feeling this way towards her wedding until just now when I wrote it. I know that at some point, I really do need to move past my divorce and all of the ickiness that's associated with it but this is the first wedding I've been to since it all happened and I'm not exactly sure what emotions it's going to bring back to the surface. I don't want to work myself into a point where I'm making a bigger deal about this than I need for it to be but I want to prepare myself for it so it doesn't sneak up on me where I either blow up or I shut down. Maybe I'm making a bigger deal about this in my head than it will be but I'm not sure about that - really only time will tell...
I definitely want to give more consideration in this upcoming week in regards to the question I posed as this posts title. Last night, when I couldn't sleep, I was flipping through my movies and came across Gypsy (the movie which inspired my writing pseudonym) and I watched it. As I watched Gypsy's transformation, I began to feel a little rekindling happen. I also felt a little dance rekindling as I was the substitute dance teacher today - there were three relatively new dancers in the class and the three other dancers have been dancing for a bit but are still "baby" dancers due to performance inexperience. We played with veils this morning (not something that is typically my "go to" prop) and we worked on our "dancer's walk." It was so refreshing to have the dancers tell me how much fun they had in class and how much they learned in the hour and a half I spent with them. I will have to try and remember that feeling as I go into this upcoming work week.
Speaking of the upcoming work week, I should probably bring this to a close so I can think about heading to bed. I have a week filled with meetings and planning and an additional work day - we have an all day event on Saturday and then like a dummy, I have a planned dance gig that evening. I'm going to be tired... I hope you have a muchness filled week and I will see you on the flip side - hopefully then, I'll have a slight hold on who I am... =)
I've heard the phrase, "just be you - life is too hard for you to be anyone else" and it also stuck with me this past week. I have definitely been working on trying to figure out who I am and what I want to do with my life but I haven't fully decided that yet. I have been debating for awhile now about going back to school (even if it's online) but I'm questioning if adding one more thing to my life right now would be the right move. Because I am a perfectionist, I don't want to set myself up for failure by adding way too much on to my plate (and to do it to myself).
I had felt refreshed coming back from my conference but things have begun to pile up at work again so I feel some of that feeling of being refreshed melting away. And while I have a bit of a break coming up, I don't know how restful it's going to be... In just under a month, I get to make a whirlwind trip back to see the family (YAY!) but in that whirlwind trip, it's for my sister's wedding. I will be leaving here on a Wednesday night, getting there Thursday morning, wedding is Saturday and I will be flying back Tuesday (to be back at work Wednesday). Don't get me wrong - I love my sister - but adding one more whirlwind to my life right now is overwhelming. I am trying very hard not to let this overly stress me since it's her wedding, but realistically this is the first wedding I will be attending since my divorce and I'm a bridesmaid in it and I'm just feeling.... I don't know how I'm feeling about it all... I will be there for her, her new husband and her two kids but I'm sure, on some level, I believe it will be weird and painful...
I didn't realize I was feeling this way towards her wedding until just now when I wrote it. I know that at some point, I really do need to move past my divorce and all of the ickiness that's associated with it but this is the first wedding I've been to since it all happened and I'm not exactly sure what emotions it's going to bring back to the surface. I don't want to work myself into a point where I'm making a bigger deal about this than I need for it to be but I want to prepare myself for it so it doesn't sneak up on me where I either blow up or I shut down. Maybe I'm making a bigger deal about this in my head than it will be but I'm not sure about that - really only time will tell...
I definitely want to give more consideration in this upcoming week in regards to the question I posed as this posts title. Last night, when I couldn't sleep, I was flipping through my movies and came across Gypsy (the movie which inspired my writing pseudonym) and I watched it. As I watched Gypsy's transformation, I began to feel a little rekindling happen. I also felt a little dance rekindling as I was the substitute dance teacher today - there were three relatively new dancers in the class and the three other dancers have been dancing for a bit but are still "baby" dancers due to performance inexperience. We played with veils this morning (not something that is typically my "go to" prop) and we worked on our "dancer's walk." It was so refreshing to have the dancers tell me how much fun they had in class and how much they learned in the hour and a half I spent with them. I will have to try and remember that feeling as I go into this upcoming work week.
Speaking of the upcoming work week, I should probably bring this to a close so I can think about heading to bed. I have a week filled with meetings and planning and an additional work day - we have an all day event on Saturday and then like a dummy, I have a planned dance gig that evening. I'm going to be tired... I hope you have a muchness filled week and I will see you on the flip side - hopefully then, I'll have a slight hold on who I am... =)
Monday, September 7, 2015
exhaustion...
After my conference, I went back to work this week with grandiose ideas that I would not get stressed or overwork myself... yeah, that so didn't work... I had to dive right back in with both feet and hope that I didn't get swept away by rip currents or drown in the undertow. All I can do is keep trying to keep moving and continue to do the best I can on any given day. Even though I tried, I found myself getting more and more exhausted each day.
One of the things I'm still struggling with is one of the people who works in my building who seems determined to find faults in how I'm doing things, point those things out to my staff and then tries to find reasons to have the staff bond with him instead of me. I have been trying to counteract this but it is something I struggle with - I want to come across as genuine but because I don't have a "bubbly personality," I don't know if it comes across as fake or not. My fear is that I am coming across as fake and that's definitely something that I need to figure out...
Something that was positive from the past week at work is we received our official word from our national accreditation agency and the results for our building were expedited (which means we had no findings and nothing that they wanted us to explain more before they gave us our results). This was news that I was definitely excited about since it was my first accreditation and expedited results are rare. With all of the long hours and hard work I put into this process I was definitely glad to receive this news. I have actually had someone that I met at the conference contact me this past week for assistance on this process since his building will be going through it before too long so it feels good to be able to pass the knowledge along to him and his staff.
This weekend was filled with dancing so I am feeling sore tonight. Yesterday we danced/walked in a parade that was about a mile long and then we danced a 15 minute set. For whatever reason, the parade kept starting/stopping so we ended up dancing for quite some time along the parade route (and I was one of the dancers who opted to walk it). When we got to the stage performance, the stage looked nice and smooth so another dancer and I kicked off our shoes -- BIG mistake! The stage was so hot I knew kicking my shoes off was a bad idea about 15 seconds into the 15 minute set but there was nothing I could do about it at that point. The gig today was at the Fair (on of our biggest gigs of the year) and we had an hour long gig - I danced all except the few other solos people had, including my own sword solo. My sword cooperated today and it stayed put and I think I did pretty well; I picked up my sword a little sooner than I usually do but I was able to improvise with it so it worked out. The sun was really beating down so when we were done on-stage, I treated myself to a cup of gelato (yum, yum, yum!).
Because the weekend was so busy, I am so glad to have tomorrow off of work. I still haven't fully caught up from being at my week-long conference (I still have some laundry to catch up on - ugh) so I'll be doing that tomorrow as well as grocery shopping and all of that fun stuff. I brought home a relatively new work manual so I might take a look through at it tomorrow but I haven't decided yet. I may let it wait until Tuesday and look at it at work since I have a long work day (we have a staff meeting Tuesday night after work) - we'll see where I end up...
Well my dear readers, I think I'm going to bring this to a close for tonight. I hope you have a muchness filled week and can do things for you. Thank you for joining me along my quest! =)
One of the things I'm still struggling with is one of the people who works in my building who seems determined to find faults in how I'm doing things, point those things out to my staff and then tries to find reasons to have the staff bond with him instead of me. I have been trying to counteract this but it is something I struggle with - I want to come across as genuine but because I don't have a "bubbly personality," I don't know if it comes across as fake or not. My fear is that I am coming across as fake and that's definitely something that I need to figure out...
Something that was positive from the past week at work is we received our official word from our national accreditation agency and the results for our building were expedited (which means we had no findings and nothing that they wanted us to explain more before they gave us our results). This was news that I was definitely excited about since it was my first accreditation and expedited results are rare. With all of the long hours and hard work I put into this process I was definitely glad to receive this news. I have actually had someone that I met at the conference contact me this past week for assistance on this process since his building will be going through it before too long so it feels good to be able to pass the knowledge along to him and his staff.
This weekend was filled with dancing so I am feeling sore tonight. Yesterday we danced/walked in a parade that was about a mile long and then we danced a 15 minute set. For whatever reason, the parade kept starting/stopping so we ended up dancing for quite some time along the parade route (and I was one of the dancers who opted to walk it). When we got to the stage performance, the stage looked nice and smooth so another dancer and I kicked off our shoes -- BIG mistake! The stage was so hot I knew kicking my shoes off was a bad idea about 15 seconds into the 15 minute set but there was nothing I could do about it at that point. The gig today was at the Fair (on of our biggest gigs of the year) and we had an hour long gig - I danced all except the few other solos people had, including my own sword solo. My sword cooperated today and it stayed put and I think I did pretty well; I picked up my sword a little sooner than I usually do but I was able to improvise with it so it worked out. The sun was really beating down so when we were done on-stage, I treated myself to a cup of gelato (yum, yum, yum!).
Because the weekend was so busy, I am so glad to have tomorrow off of work. I still haven't fully caught up from being at my week-long conference (I still have some laundry to catch up on - ugh) so I'll be doing that tomorrow as well as grocery shopping and all of that fun stuff. I brought home a relatively new work manual so I might take a look through at it tomorrow but I haven't decided yet. I may let it wait until Tuesday and look at it at work since I have a long work day (we have a staff meeting Tuesday night after work) - we'll see where I end up...
Well my dear readers, I think I'm going to bring this to a close for tonight. I hope you have a muchness filled week and can do things for you. Thank you for joining me along my quest! =)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
