Let it go... let it go...

I decided to take this weekend off - off from dance, off from singing in the choir - just off.  I didn't end up having to work for my Sports Coordinator yesterday (the softball team she coaches had been in the playoffs and they lost during the week so they didn't play in the championships yesterday - I felt bad they lost but was glad that I didn't have to work) and I opted not to go to the dance studio.  I made the decision to take a break.  I did the same thing with singing in the church choir this morning - I took a break.  I had been wanting to take a break the last couple of weeks but the director had reasons why they needed me there those weeks; I told him at Thursday's rehearsal that he wasn't going to guilt me into it again.  I didn't have anything spectacular that I needed to do; I just needed some me time.  My next challenge to myself is taking a day or two off of work for me time.

This past week was pretty interesting at work...  We had a staff meeting on Tuesday and surprise to me, the boss of my boss attended.  She and I talked for a bit and she had nothing but praise for the building.  On Wednesday I got a phone call from my boss saying that the head boss was displeased by the state of my office - I'm in the middle of several huge projects, building accreditation and preparing for an inspection so my work table and desk were covered with work.  In the phone call, I was told to drop everything I was working on and to not do anything until my office was clean.  I wasn't happy about it but I did what I was told.

I guess one of the things that frustrated me most about it is I had to put away everything that I was working on only to get it back out to work on it.  I was instructed to only get out what information I'm working on and then to put it back as soon as I'm done.  These instructions came because this is how she (the boss of my boss) prefers to work and to maintain her office.  I know you sometimes just have to play the work game but it still is frustrating to me.

What I need to learn is how to not let things frustrate me or if they do frustrate me, I need to learn how to let them go (without the solution just to be breaking into the "Let it Go" song).  ...  Something just happened that will allow me to attempt to practice this - I just checked my work email (what possessed me to do that?!?) and I have an email from an employee telling me she has a doctor's note excusing her for the next two weeks (and she had a doctor's note for this past week) - what am I going to do??  This week is the last week of school and next week is the first week of summer programming and I need all hands on deck.  Oh, well.  I guess I don't have an option really...  I don't have a choice but to make it all work.

Something that does make it difficult for me is to make things work when I don't feel as if I have the means to do so.  Being down this staff member when I'm already short-staffed (the person who had been working in my kitchen had his last day on Friday; his wife got orders so they're moving) is going to be complicated and I might have to put in extra hours myself - I might have to be in programming myself and then put in extra time to get my office work accomplished.  I do enjoy spending time in the program but I'm going to have to find a way to balance everything.  I am sympathetic to her situation but I have to keep the building running somehow.  Maybe I should wear my running shoes to work tomorrow just to be on the safe side...

On the plus side, I took the opportunity to call to my Grandma today (hi, Grandma!).  I haven't talked to her in quite some time and I decided to try calling her out of the blue today.  We had a very nice talk and then I called and talked to my Mom.  What's nice about talking to both of them is they offer me different ways to look at situations and support me regardless of my choices.  The three of us are very much alike and when we get together we finish one another's thoughts/sentences and it's difficult for anyone else to get a word in edge wise - always fun.

Well, my dear readers, I think I should probably bring this to a close since I have some things to figure out going into the next few weeks of work being down a staff member.  Or, what I might do instead is get as much rest/relaxation tonight as I can since the next couple of weeks (and going into summer) is going to get a little (or a lot) hectic.  Thanks for joining me on my quest again and I hope we have opportunities for muchness this week!  =)

Dormant

I went and got my haircut today (took me some time but I finally found someone who can cut my hair - most people look at the curls and I see them become defeated before they start by the look on their face).  So after I got my haircut, I snapped some photos and posted them online.  Shortly there after, I checked back and friends were commenting; saying that it looks good/different and they were glad to see this "new" side of me.  After thinking about it, this isn't a "new" side of me, this side of me has just been dormant for awhile and I'm letting her back out.

It has been a long/emotional week for me and getting this haircut was a nice release.  I've actually wanted to have a version of this hairstyle for awhile now but I've either settled on the stylists interpretation of it or I've just done a shorter version of how I'd been wearing it.  It's a style that I had a version of (short sides/back and longer on top) but I've had it cut so I have a few options - I can either turn the top into a faux mohawk or leave it just messy/curly on top.  Since I often have difficulty finding the "right" product for my hair, I actually asked the stylists opinion - I was presently surprised when she called in another stylist for his input.  Between the two of them, they gave me suggestions for some really nice (yet affordable) products for both styles.

Why was it a long/emotional week you may ask?  I ended up working Monday - Saturday this past week (I worked on Saturday so my Sports Coordinator could have the day off; and I'll be doing it again this upcoming Saturday for her) and clocked just over 60 hours.  If I'm working doctor's hours, I wish I was making a doctor's salary; I myself am a salary employee, however I only get paid for the first 40 hours I worked.  We are gearing up for two pretty major inspections and I was putting in some work towards those as well as preparing for summer programming.  I'm probably at 75% for both of the inspections in preparing the required documentation and I'm pleased with that accomplishment.  On the other hand, I also had to have a pretty intense conversation with one of my coworkers that just left me drained...

There was a situation that came up this week where this particular coworker felt as if I intentionally left them out of the loop.  Their feelings were hurt because they didn't think their was communication between us so in order to air things out we had a conversation that lasted just over two hours.  I didn't mind that the conversation itself happened but it was frustrating that it was a two hour+ conversation.  Oh, well.  It happened, it's over, we move on (hopefully...).  If nothing else, it will probably be a good thing that this week is a 4-day work week...

To help continue to bring out the "dormant me," I am going to come up with a plan that helps make that happen.  I'm sure it's going to take some time/effort to create this plan but I know that I need to do something.  Since I have tomorrow off of work, I am going to begin the plan tomorrow I think.  Since I just realized how late it is, it's probably a good thing that I get tomorrow off of work because I'm not sure when I'm going to be falling asleep tonight (since it's about midnight and I'm still wide awake).  I probably should bring this to a close so I can start the process of heading to bed.  I hope that each of you have a great week ahead my dear readers and we can all work on improving ourselves.  Thanks for reading!  =)