There and Back Again

Listening: Camping Next to Water (Badly Drawn Boy)
Pondering: You must be the change you wish to see in the world. (Mohandas K. Gandhi)

This week is a short one due to Monday’s Martin Luther King holiday. It is also too short a week to do all the things I need to do for work so naturally I’m cramming.

Last Tuesday, I was so immersed on what I was trying to accomplish that I lost track of time, skipped lunch in the process (except for a handful of edemame given to me by a colleague), and missed a meeting. I was running back and forth between my desk finalizing job announcements, counseling a manager on an employee relations case, working on test materials and the conference next door to provide support for our on-going management training on outcome-based management. When I got home, I had a quick dinner and continued to work on a few more projects before allowing myself to enjoy the first episode of this year’s American Idol. I was Superwoman!

Then yesterday took me away from work altogether to teach a class on effective interviewing with my colleague, Heather. I thought the class went pretty well - we got raving reviews though we went overtime - supposed to let participants go by 4PM but ended instead at 5 PM - because the video-taped interviews with each participant took longer than expected. I wanted to go back to do a little bit of desk work but decided against it. Went home straight instead and worked from home some more before catching another American Idol and my favorite episode of Alias this season.

Today I was at my office in the morning and running around the library all afternoon, facilitating two screenings, meeting about new recruitments with the library assistant director, and catching a phone conference with our online application system vendors. When I got back to the office I spent the remainder of my afternoon troubleshooting an applicant’s problem with her online applications and working with Scott, our online application system representative on the said candidate’s problem. Before I knew it, it was time to get ready for home (I carpooled so staying late was not an option).

The short week totally screwed up my work flow so that I think I’ll be working this weekend as a result. A couple of times this week as I tried to make sense of my schedule, I caught myself looking at the date of March 26 — that’s when I go on vacation again. It seems so far away but thinking of it gives me the energy to go on.