Pictures with Words

It's been a while since I've updated Bloggoville with any regularly. Part of me hasn't felt like it. The other part was staying up too late and getting up too early to prevent my ever-growing mountain of work from consuming me like a big, green monster. Luckily, I'm learning more about where my career is going (and where it's not going) and on which projects I should truly focus. Or delegate. Or strategically procrastinate on because I'm not feeling it or not sold on the business purpose behind such projects.

Do you like that term, "strategically procrastinate?"

It's almost as good as saying Costco stores are the "cathedrals of consumerism."

[haha, right?]

So while work's been work and I continue to juggle a dozen beach balls, I have a better sense of where I'm headed. This is good. While I've been surfing the waves of conflict and stress, Jack's been keeping busy in the kitchen (while making me fat).

After we finished Mom's lamb cake from Easter,

Jack bought a couple packages of Puff Pastry. It's more like, "Puff the Magic Pastry." He made fruit tarts and the glistening finish comes from warm apricot jam that sets the fruit in place.

When Jack finished the tarts, he handed them to me on top of my latest HBR that had just arrived in the mail.

Which I thought looked hilarious. Steve Jobs points at the tarts.


Later that day, Jack whipped up a tailgate dream: Manwich and cheddar-stuffed Puff pastry.

Our day of Puff was amazing. Until we realized that puff pastry is 98% butter and each bite packs about 100 calories.

***************

While my fat settled, I returned to the treadmill of work and attended another Franciscan Leadership retreat last weekend. Quickly praying to God for a sign about my career, I slowly drove up the convent grounds and came face-to-face (face-to-car?) with the chairperson of our system's board, standing in the middle of the road.

God usually doesn't answer me like that. "God, can I have a sign?" "BOOM, here's a sign."

Except that I realized the chairperson was practicing her turkey calls, communicating with a broad (flock?) of turkeys on the hillside.

Hmm. Maybe I'm the turkey.

The retreat was INTENSE and one of our instructors, a professor from Harvard, graced us with 12 hours of upper-level Ecclesiology and the formation of doctrine and dogma. The retreat participants struggled through the material and my geeky self was in theological hog heaven with all the talk of the Magisterium's authority and infallibility.

[Just post an "L" on my forehead!]

However, I worked too late before leaving the night before the retreat and was in severe danger of being late to the convent. One must arrive before 9 p.m. or face being locked out of the grounds. I didn't have time to stop on the highway for a quick burger; I arrived at 8:58 p.m. that evening, sighing with relief and shaking with hunger.

In my room, rifling through my bags for any hint of nutrition, I stumbled upon a little bag of peanuts from Southwest Airlines the last time I used my luggage in January.

Hey, that 1 oz bag of nuts stabilized my blood sugar and shut my stomach up enough to sleep.

*************

Returning to the treadmill again, I resumed my discernment struggles and stress. Because of the retreat and family stuff, I completely forgot about the management bakesale sponsored by the hospital's leadership on Tuesday. Late Monday evening, I ran to a nearby gourmet bakery and picked up $20 worth of cookies for the bakesale.

I know, it's the epitome of sad laziness. But I do try to honor my word, even if it means a stash of storebought goodies. And my laziness did not stop me from digging into the box on my drive home:

Tuesday was rough. Rough enough that when I finally got into my car at 8:30 pm, I found this "card" from Jack, who snuck into my car mid-day to leave it for me:

And when I got home, I found a box on my porch. I looked closer and noticed it was from Lush. I thought to myself, "wow, did I order Lush in my sleep again?" Nope, it was my dear, amazing, wonderful, generous, friend, Nurse Starbucks, surprising me with a whole box of fun and smelly Lush stuff.

Between Nurse Starbucks' and Jack's gestures and three employees individually seeking me out to thank me for my work, I somehow made it through the week.

Plus, we cracked open a bottle of this last night:

It's a great feeling to survive a couple weeks like these and kick back with your hubby on a Friday night...just to conk out cold at 8:30, without even having finished your Manhattan!

Oh well, there's always next Friday night!

I'm grateful for my opportunities, my friends, and Jack. Thank you for getting me through this time (and for not yelling at me for buying store bought cookies!!)