Sunny-Side Up

My brain feels like it's an egg, frying in a hot pan, edges burning. That reminds me of that corny afterschool-special commercial from the '80's (this is your brain...this is your brain on drugs).

I really thought this week was going to be easy. Most of the senior execs are out of the office, recharging for 2010. They are playing with their kids, relaxing with their family, and even vacationing in warm places.

Me? I'm stuck in my office, staring at the government grant writing opportunity with an aching brain and bleeding eyes.

It's SO tough. It's not the grant itself. That part is easy. It's trying to understand the upper echelons of the Muppet system and senior corporate execs' reasoning behind certain decisions and cultural changes in the system. I don't expect anyone to understand what I'm talking about, but I need to communicate how complex this thinking is. I'm cutting teeth and it hurts. The painful part of the grant is the thinking behind the words I write. I cannot write about huge, system wide endeavors until I completely understand them.

Is *that* why I've had five migraines in the last week?

Despite the fact that Admin is nearly empty this week, I'm still in my office, toiling until it's all finished. The grant is only 1/4 of it. I also have a surgery workflow brainstorm to get to the corporate project manager, an HR project to analyze and write for Elvis, and a second heavy academic article to draft for the process improvement gurus. While it certainly helps to have received the validation I did yesterday, it seems as though the bar is even higher, the expectations even greater.

P.S., A heartfelt "thank you" goes out to Mom D, who showered me with Starbucks coffee items (amongst lots of other things) this Christmas. Those Energy-Coffee Mochas area really keeping me going!

Sssshhhhhhhhh!

I received some great, awesome, wonderful career news today but I can't tell you what it is. Don't you hate that? But I cannot say anything yet. Maybe not for a few months.

I'm recording this day so I can reference back to it in the future. Three things are for certain...one, that God has a tremendous sense of humor (and I think He times these things just to spite my weak faith). Two, that none of my work or stress has been in vain (and neither are the stomach ulcers or now-permanent acid indigestion). Three, that the people who need to know I'm busting my rear definitely know I'm busting my rear and are talking to others about my rear-busting (did I mention the rear-busting?).


You're totally confused now, aren't you?! For the first time in my fellowship, I'm NOT!

IcyHot

I hope everyone had a very, merry Christmas. Our Christmas was very typical, in that, we all attended mass, ate ourselves silly with homemade Polish fare, drank several bottles of vino, and exchanged small, thoughtful, inexpensive gifts.

Yeah, then Jack bought me a Wii. With accessories.

I felt like a kid again when I unwrapped the box on Christmas Eve. It completely surprised me and he sat there, laughing the entire time. However, that didn't stop him from hooking it up for me, right then and there, at 1 a.m. on Christmas morning! We played several games of tennis, boxed a couple rounds, and tried the water skiing game. The last time I received a game system was the original Nintendo on Christmas Day, 1989. I've always been a dedicated admirer of Mario and Luigi, so the Wii definitely intrigued me. Jack completely went against our agreement to spend the usual $50 on each other, but he figured that it's a gift that keeps on giving.

Agreed.

Case in point, we took said Wii to my folks' house on Christmas Day. At one point, we had all 10 of us playing Wii 100-pin bowling, taking turns. We eventually played Frisbee, tennis, archery, and even skydiving...and before we knew it, it was midnight.

Before I even went to bed on Christmas night, I was sore. My shoulders ached, my forearms were sore, and my calves ached. I thought I was in shape! It doesn't surprise me that such vigorous tennis matches made me sore. I did slather on the IcyHot before resuming my tennis training schedule Sunday afternoon!

Nothing says "newborn Savior" like some Wii-ing with your family!

Christmas Break

Joy to the World!

...I remember those days of grade school and high school, where I had two weeks off from the world. Then in college, I had four or five weeks off, during which I could pick up extra shifts at work, go ice-skating and skiing with friends, or just be a kid and stay up late every night. Ever since I've joined the corporate world, my time off for Christmas shrinks to the afternoon of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, leaving me 1.5 days to celebrate. Luckily, this year, Christmas Day falls on a Friday, giving me four glorious days away from the hospital.

Four glorious days to recharge and rekindle the true meaning of Christmas and to have fun and enjoy the wonder of the season.

Merry Christmas!

Keeping Christmas

From "Keeping Christmas" by Henry Van Dyke:

"Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground; to see that your fellow-men are just as real as you are, and try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy; to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness—are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas."

No Go on the Easy Bake

During my tenure as an administrator wannabe in Chicagoland, I've cut a few corners in the kitchen. I've started eating frozen veggies, drinking V8 Fusion to get my fruits, and living on convenience foods. When even these dishes become too cumbersome, I resort to those Warm Delights that I pilfer from our home. Warm Delights are those plastic bowls of pre-measured cake batter, to which one adds 3.68 teaspoons of water, and then squeezes the enclosed foil packet of fudge across the little black bowl of lumpy batter. After 30 seconds in the microwave, it's a perfect little cake. Sure, it is slightly reminiscent of the smell of dog food, but when one's hungry, short on time, and sleep deprived, it'll do, right? Please, hold your nutritional comments until the end!

Well, the Warm Delights pack 400-500 calories. That's an awful lot for a quickie dessert (dinner). I voiced this concern to Jack and he promptly located Mini Delights in the store. Armed with my Mini's, I went back to Chicagoland where they awaited my craving for almost 2 weeks.

I have to tell you, I just whipped up a Mini Delight and I'm a bit crushed. I added the requisite 1.3954 teaspoons of water, stirred the teeny, bitsy bowl with a toothpick, and nuked it for 28.93 seconds. While I appreciated the fact that it only packs 150 calories, this thing was smaller than a typical Easy Bake concoction. In fact, I think Easy Bake puts these things to shame. After eating my Mini Delight (in 3 bites, I might add), I returned to the cupboard and polished off a granola bar, a handful of chocolate trail mix, and several chocolate-covered pretzels.

So much for that calorie savings.

And now that you've wasted 2 minutes of your life reading this blog, please heed my advice and don't ever buy Warm Delights. Spring for the Easy Bake and relive your childhood memories instead!

Peace? What's THAT?!

$*#$&(@*#&$!!! I feel so utterly, completely, superbly stressed lately. The family expectations of Christmas perfection are weighing heavily on my heart. Before I can even leave the hospital to partake in the Christmas joy that my family insists on packing into 28 hours over Christmas Eve and Day, I needed to do a rush shop for Admin people. Because I make peanuts (well, compared to the top execs), I sort of thought I was exempt from the politically-tinged gift-giving on Christmas. Then Nurse Jackie hit me up for a contribution toward Elvis' gift. And then I realized that I probably *do* need to remember everyone…and the secretaries and assistants…and the people who've really made my life easier since moving to St. Fozzie's. Can everyone just accept Starbucks gift cards? Puh-lease?
#$*&@&#^&^

I had to hit the mall again tonight. At least the stores were all open late to accommodate last minute slackers like me. Sigh. I wonder if anyone saw me on the highway, blowing past everyone during rush hour, with my Guns N Roses blaring from my cd player?

What a difference 10 hours makes!!!

Finding Peace

This morning, I had my first snowy, Chicagoan commute on the Interstate. I knew traffic would be running slowly, but I was shocked at a few things.

First, I cleaned off my car like a big girl. Jack has been giving me the garage at home the last (gulp) 8 years of our marriage. And we had covered parking spots at Muppet Corporate…so I've rarely had to clean the snow off my car. Watch out world, I'm becoming independent!

Second, the interstate drive was actually peaceful. Everyone was taking their time, allowing others to change lanes, and not cutting people off. That, in itself, was a Christmas miracle.

Despite the scary snow decreasing visibility, it looked pretty. I admit it. The. Snow. Looked. Pretty. Happy, Therese?!

Finally, I had "O Holy Night" playing on cd, from a wonderfully-harmonic choir. For some reason, these factors combined to make me feel very peaceful about my life, the course its taking (seemingly without my control), and the wonders of Christmas. Ahh, beautiful Christmas.

Random!

Yoshi, my cousin, emailed me the other day that she wasn't feeling well. Not feeling well at all. In fact, she seemed to be emailing me as a distraction from her queasy stomach. At the end of the conversation, she asked me if I knew if there was a "barfing" emoticon.

I wrote back "How about :X?"

She responded, "No, I think that one means 'zip your lip.' It's already taken."

After a few tries, I realized that maybe there isn't a barfing emoticon.

So Jack and I were at dinner that same night, catching up on the week's drama. I asked him about the barfing emoticon (yes, our conversation is that deep). He scrolled a few screens on his phone and found a barfing emoticon. There's also emoticons for beer, hearts, and coffee. There's also a little dude in sunglasses.

In case you're wondering, the barfing emoticon is :& and you should try it when you're feeling green.

On the "Light" Side

Just an FYI- the blog posts over the next few weeks may be lighter than those I usually post. Work's been absolutely killing me and while I still have to work the next three days (the next two are the last two killers of the year), I am taking long weekends for both Christmas and New Year's.

I've struggled with this lately....one of my friends, an aspiring lawyer, knows that it's the general expectation to not take a single day off until one is made partner. I echo this sentiment, believing that one must prove their dedication and commitment to the corporation of choice. Yet, in a corporate-wide paid time-off policy change at Muppet Headquarters, Jim Henson himself proclaimed that employees must take time off to remain happy and healthy. So I'm torn...do I play the martyr and work through the holidays, or do I take time off and spend time with my family, recharging for the coming year?

[thinking about this for a whole, whopping five seconds]

Yes, I'm taking those long weekends!

I've already started posting some light entries about the approaching holidays. I hope they've given you a few laughs. I plan to use these next two weeks to work short weeks, get as much done as I can (for the execs are taking a lot of time off), and stop taking things so seriously.

After all, if the things I'm doing aren't getting me closer to where I want to be, why am I doing them?