It was the worst of times, it was….well, interesting. I actually love to fly and so that part was pretty fun, except for a couple of rather rough landings. (Flight attendant upon a damned bumpy Boise morning landing: “Now that you’re awake…”) Also interesting was getting to know my (new) boss whom I’ve “known” since I’ve worked at our company (she’s the associate director of marketing for the whole firm), but when you spend many many hours with someone, you definitely get to know that person! I get such a kick out of her. She’s somewhat like my beloved Ms. Jodie Foster, but at 90 mph. Where Ms. Foster is laid back, genteel, shrewd, warm, but also strong — this gal is, well, 90 mph. But also very shrewd and warm and strong (but not at all laid back). She’s also a hoot! I guess I need to come up with a “name” for her! Hmm, need to give that some thought.
What is interesting is that this gal, we’ll call her “D” for now, has her master’s degree in communications (she’s in her late 30s), and she started out as a marketing coordinator doing what I’ve been doing all these years. But she quickly ascended the ranks, and it’s clear why — she has such an outgoing personality and is a natural leader. So…she hasn’t been in the trenches for a while. This huge proposal undertaking was led by a very typical engineer in the Boise office. Anal, ADD, and even OCD. I have dealt with this exact combination for years, and yes, they are horrific to deal with! But this guy got on D’s every last nerve! A lot of it had to do with his obvious lack of respect toward us, which is another thing I’m accustomed to (but she is not!) It was not a pleasant experience, that’s for sure, but I also didn’t freak out because I totally recognized the pattern. Aside from this guy’s frustrating micromanagement, I also knew that the sensation/worry that the proposal would NEVER gel, would NEVER stop being balls juggling in the air that absolutely could not hit the ground, that an end to the awfulness would NEVER be in sight—eventually would come together. Because it had to. Same thing for every proposal I’ve ever worked on. It’s a frantic feeling in the midst of it all. And the truth is, you do wonder: “Is this the time it really falls apart?”
So my boss was fit to be tied. She stewed. She vented. She was uber-frustrated. And I was actually glad to see it. Her angst kept me in check. I just marched on, probably because I felt her support and her realization about how awful this aspect of the job can be. You can’t appreciate the difficulty of a job without seeing or experiencing it firsthand. Ultimately, it did finally come together, but not until late in our last day there. (We’d kept the option open to stay another day, but really wanted to avoid that because we didn’t want to miss our quarterly marketing meeting — plus we personally wanted to get home to see our families and pets and stuff!)
We did have an excellent (very late) dinner at our hotel restaurant; I had a filet and D had prime rib. To absolutely-die-for. (Plus some wine!) But after dinner we went to our respective hotel rooms and worked until midnight, then got up the next morning at 5:30 to head back into the office. Worked through lunch both days. It really was nuts.
Then, at the airport to head home, we were told that our 6:10 flight had been cancelled due to a mechanical issue with the plane and there wouldn’t be another flight until 9:30. I thought D was going to break down sobbing. It would mean not getting to Seattle until after 10:30, plus she would have another hour-and-a-half drive to get home! They were finally able to put us on a flight that did make a landing in another Idaho town, and then went on to Seattle, taking an extra hour than planned, but still much better than the 9:30 flight. And, lucky for us, that flight provided us two free beers! (heh heh)
It felt strange driving back to the office today, so soon! We had our quarterly meeting that involved “getting into groups” (whoever came up with that concept oughta be shot), and I actually had to get up in front of everyone and speak, not knowing beforehand that I’d be doing that! Not my comfort zone, let-me-tell-you. And yet, I did OK. (I was even complimented!) After the fact, my knees knocked.
Good news: I get to take this coming Monday off! It’s my birthday! And JDub is taking all next week off, so we’ll have another 3-day weekend at Harstine! (Weather’s supposed to be nice again, too!)
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Get a load of this! My birthday present from JDub arrived today, and he was excited for me to open it (so I did). You might remember that last year he installed this marvelous tile in our kitchen:
We’ve been looking ever since (over a year now!) for a cool contemporary glass or pottery art piece to hang in that space over the stove top. We hadn’t had any success. And then he found this:
He held it up over that spot and it’s going to be beautiful there! Here, I took the picture of it on the hardwood floor and of course Bailey had to check it out to see if there might be food involved. He’ll hang it next week, since he’ll have that week off ! Oh, it’s so beautiful! (Makes me think of Chihuly!)
