It's been a really long week. Actually a long few weeks. I am so glad the weekend finally arrived. Work has been really busy and really stressful. (Hence being MIA on the blog-front). Lots of new projects are starting up and I have been unable to finish up my current projects.
I started a report last week that was due
last week and I've yet to finish. It's terrible writing for 7 hours a day. It's like being a student again except I don't have the freedom to work for short spurts at a time.
I don't do well at anything abstract and we've had a series of four meetings the past two weeks on "strategic planning" for the future direction of our department. The epitome of abstract mission-writing type stuff. Needless to say these meetings kill a little piece of my soul.
I had two meetings this week for which I was supposed to produce some maps, which prolonged being able to get back to my
Analysis Plan write-up. I worked on prepping the data, creating the maps, and tweaking the layouts until the last minute and was super stressed rushing around the office and to the meetings.
I live less than a half mile from work and on numerous occasions I had stressful drives home. Yes, when it's cold or rainy or I have meetings, I drive. Seriously though? Stress shouldn't even be possible in that short distance, but Rhode Island drivers manage to prove that it's possible.
I tried to go to the gym one night this week to sign up for the Planet Fitness $10 a month gig, but between pouring down rain and no parking, I gave up and went home frustrated without getting out of the car.
Did I mention that my insurance company gave me 30 days to transfer my vehicle registration to Rhode Island which involves jumping through a hundred
flaming hoops?
On Wednesday I had a meeting at the Department of Health (DOH). They seem to have a couple hundred more employees than parking and it always turns out to be a trick finding parking. Afternoon meetings aren't terrible because a lot of people have left or gone to other meetings and the lots are freed up, but 9:30 meetings are the pinnacle of horrible timing for parking.
I miss the appropriate ramp on one of those fun exits with three forking directions and drive 15 minutes out of the way. Note: this is pretty impossible in Rhode Island. 15 minutes usually gets you to Connecticut or Massachusetts. Well, I finally make my way to the DOH and discover that there is some sort of a police meeting as well.
Great, there goes parking at the non-metered meters. I should explain, for some reason all over Providence are sporadic metered spots with the meters missing. From what I've been taught since there is no meter to pay you can park there and not get ticketed. Doesn't seem legal, but it seems to work.
Well, of course I circle the lot, no spots. Circle the buildings and on-street parking, no free meters. Okay, guess I'll have to do the ethical thing and pay a meter. Oh wait, I don't have any quarters they are all at home in my laundry stash so I can pay $2 a load. So I drive home (don't worry, it's less than 2 miles) in a frustrated rage, get quarters and drive back to my meeting. Late. Welcome to my week. Late, late, late for everything.
Hanging over my head is laundry, laundry, laundry. It needs to be done desperately. No time, no energy, no desire. Part of this is my fault, I've been addicted to an online "novel" (details to follow later).
Well as if awkward tension at meetings, traffic, rushing everywhere, being late for meetings, too much to get done in a work day, etc. isn't enough I got a whammy dropped on me.
A friend from church from Brown University's Public Health Department emailed me to ask if I was going to attend a GIS health conference in Providence in June. I responded that I was actually working on a poster with the Department of Health (DOH) for the conference and was hoping that I would at least be able to attend some of it. A few minutes later she responded and said, "Actually, you're leading a breakout session." WHAT?! This is the first I am hearing of this. Sure enough, I look up the conference website to find that I am apparently presenting a poster one evening and leading a session with someone from the DOH another morning. 1) He never told me that I was doing a breakout session 2) I know nothing about attending a conference like this let alone leading it 3) I am a novice to this whole world of professionals and 4) It turns out that he didn't know we were doing this either! Wow. Just thinking about it stresses me out! I feel totally inadequate and unprepared for this prestigious task. People pay good money to learn from experts. I like to think I'm brilliant, but even I admit, I'm not.
Fortunately, I have a positive perspective on all of this. You may find it hard to believe since I just complained about all of the stresses of my week, but I was just trying to provide context. Honestly. So my week has been more stressful than I'd like, work has been busier than I can easily handle, and my free time has been less relaxing than I would desire. So what?
I am so thankful to have a job, and one that is getting busier at that.
I'm not fighting a disease or dealing with sickness like a few of my family members are.
I didn't just return home from a mission trip to Africa only to be hospitalized with malaria--I'm so sorry you're sick
Ann:(
And I'm not recovering from a
plane crash that burned 80% of my body.
This has been my addiction over the past week. Reading the
before and
after blogs of a woman who survived a plane crash in Aug 2008 and her
sister who raised her
children while she and her husband laid in a coma in the hospital.
Now in light of all the bigger stresses out there I've got it pretty good. I love my job (most of the time), I have health and happiness, my family and friends are wonderful, the weather is warming up and the sun stays out until after 6:00 pm now.
What more does a girl need?
