Slacker isn't a good word

Slacker isn't a good word for why I haven't been on this blog. I'm always busy and so that isn't an excuse. But, I've honestly forgotten about it. Trying to work full-time and be a part-time entrepreneur has left little room for some things...if only because the task doesn't come to the forefront of my mind.

So, what have I been doing while off this blog. Hmmm. Perhaps a couple of bullets will do:

• Dealing with furlough - yep, I've been furloughed. So, I have 11 fewer days of pay and ....in theory there are 11 fewer days of work. Except that isn't how it has gone. It has wreaked a bit of havoc on the job. We produce a lot of products and so all the schedules are all out of sync and it is creating more work.
• Taking my body back - lots of things have happened this year with health - stress, losses, scares, etc. This summer I've been diligent at swimming my laps at least twice a week and that has been wonderful amongst all the stress.
• Entrepreneurship - I've always wanted to be one, but with full-time work it is very difficult, But, http://www.nudgevillage.com is my website and I've got a few free courses on other sites that have over 500 students taking them! Pretty cool. I've paid a few coaches to teach me a few marketing principles and am finding that I know a lot about marketing. Just need to focus on what my product is, but ....hard to think on things when so much else going on.
• Moving on - time for a change. I've lived in the same place for almost 10 years and in the same area of the country for over 15 years! We'll see what happens. Maybe just a move to a different place. Who knows. Will keep you posted!
• Work - did I reference this above? Yes. It's been quite the year at work. I'm actually the "right hand woman" to a Dean that is setting up a new college in our organization. It is millions of dollars in projects and I get the joy of managing them. There have been many struggles along the way, but in the end I will be a more talented and marketable person, right? Seriously though - major lessons in leadership, management, culture, change, treating people well, risk, etc.
• Most importantly - the family - I'm trying to make time to see family amongst it all because the years are flying by. A few trips across country and even nearby. Family and friends are what it is all about, right? I'm putting my money where my mouth is and taking that time.

So, there it is - a bulleted list of what I should expound upon a bit more and with specific lessons learned and sharing. It does lack a bit of heart, but starting back into this Blogger space slowly.

Now, time to go read your blogs! It's been a while!

Where did this week go?

First, ever notice how these weeks with a Monday holiday just fly by? They are crazy.

At work we try to cram in all the meetings that we usually cram into a normal five day week.

This week is especially bad because there are two conferences coming up this month that I have to speak at which automatically means I have to spend time around the clock thinking about what to put into the PowerPoints, ensuring we have proper video footage, creating a mobile app of the presentation and signing up for some QR codes so people in the audience can just hold their phone up and snag the web address.

Fun stuff actually...to have to talk about mobile!

But, then a friend had foot surgery and instead of just dropping her off and picking her up...I spent about 30 hours with her since I'm the person who signed the form at the hospital saying "this person will be monitored for 24 hours after surgery." Yikes. Such responsibility.

However, we did talk A LOT and she was a very good patient. So, that ended up being a great use of time. A co-worker even came to the hotel we were staying in (so she wouldn't have to climb stairs) and worked with me on one of the presentations until 10:30 p.m. one night. Now, that is dedication on her part.

Today was spent on recovering, doing some work, and ensuring that I get enough rest for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in downtown DC tomorrow. I get to go with a great friend. A friend that I've gone to 5-6 Race for the Cure races here in the last 10 years or so.

So, yes, this week went fast. But, it was good.

It was spent with the right people, doing the right things and feeling like this is what a week in my life should be all about.

Full Brain as of late

My brain has been over-occupied the last few months and I really haven't desired to write even if I've had a moment. But, figured I'd catch up the three people that read my blog on the goings on in my head.

I've taken on A LOT of responsibility at work. In a way, I'm in a perfect storm. I've written about this before, but it bears repeating for context.

I've been training two managers to take over some of my previous role. I'm leading the efforts to design two new systems - one is an online development tool in conjunction with some other organizations. One is for games and simulations specifically associated with training adults. Additionally, I'm leading the day-to-day operations of a large contract team. Ok, well, not that large yet, but it will be about 18-20 people. I also get to lead efforts to re-design our processes and standards. Think business process re-engineering, CMMI, web 2.0, content management, and learning strategies all wrapped into one.

Bottom line: exciting and tiring. Lots of people, lots of processes, lots of systems and no time to really focus on any one thing.

Yes, there are issues. Yes, my brain is full. Yes, I'm about five pages of to do lists behind.

But, it's been invigorating.

It's taken 3-4 months, but I'm finally at a point where the two managers are able to take on some of my projects and run with them. The emails for the new roles are going up while the emails from the old responsibilities are going down.

I'm experiencing the joy of passing on responsibilities to someone else knowing that I did the best I could do, but that they have talents and skills to take it to the next step. I'm not jealous. I feel like a proud teacher. They will succeed and I will move on and succeed in my endeavors. My goal isn't to become indispensable in a position. My goal is to become an indispensable forward thinker and strategic leader. But, I can ensure others become indispensable in their areas of expertise. However, at times it is difficult to let go of something when you put so much work into "getting it right." I sometimes forget that there are multiple ways to get something right and things will move on without me.

One of the most frustrating thing about being busy with the real world of implementing, is that I haven't taken time to stay up late reading books that I enjoy. Granted, I can listen to scriptures on my phone, but I haven't taken the time to download any other business, finance, or leadership books and I'd really like to do so. Then again, I'm living and breathing what the books talk about every day and doesn't that account for more than reading about it?

Regardless, life has been full. It's been tough. My personal life needs improvement and sometimes I just don't have the energy to improve it.

At church I sit behind a piano for two hours playing songs for the kids. It has it's pros and cons, but I'm realizing that every time I have a lot going on my in personal and professional life, I get a piano playing calling at church. Interesting. At least I'm given only what I can handle.

What would I do if life calmed down? I don't know. It hasn't been calm for such a long time that I think it would throw me off. The constant challenge keeps me invigorated and forward thinking.

On the other hand, personal relationships need to come more to the forefront because that is what really matters.

As usual, I'm realizing through writing this that I'm in a constant state of imbalance, but always learning from the process.

I just realized that I'm rambling and should probably get off the computer and get ready for another day at the office. Or, should I go in a little late and contact a friend? In light of what I just wrote about, perhaps it is time to write a note to someone.

Overwhelmed and Overworked

It feels like forever since I've blogged. In some ways, I forgot that I had all of these blogs. Unfortunately, that isn't a good thing since I'm someone that has to write stuff down to decompress.

Right now it is 4:30 a.m.

I cannot sleep.

I have about 6-7 pages of "to dos" from work that I haven't been able to get to for two weeks. Partially, because I took care of my sister's six kids for a few days and partially because I'm experiencing "meeting mania." Literately, I've had about five meetings a day and I've had to lead most of them. So, it's hard to multi-task when you are engaged in leading a meeting.

Yesterday was the last straw. My first meeting was at 8:00 a.m. (which I arrived late to because traffic was bad and it took me 1.5 hours to get to work) and the last ended at 6:00 p.m. The two prior days were filled with meetings as well. All the energy is being sucked from me!

It wouldn't bug me, but I had just worked 20 hours the prior weekend to get through about 700 emails and different projects only to find myself overwhelmed again.

Really, right now is the perfect storm. I'm training two production managers, trying to lead a new contract that has tons of important initiatives attached to it and trying to pass along old responsibilities while gathering an entire slew of new responsibilities under my belt.

Why? Why am I doing this?

Right now I have to in order to move forward, get the salary increases, etc.

However, and this is a big however, I cannot sustain this way of living. What bothers me most is that I haven't had that time to think, ponder, and get inspiration. I must be in bionic mode all day and make split second decisions for people to move forward on implementing new processes, systems, partnerships, etc.

That being said, I am grateful. Grateful that I have a good job that is stable. Grateful that I'm entrusted with this responsibility. Grateful that I'm growing my talents.

Now it's 4:46 a.m. and I've got plenty of time to get ahead of the game. Plus, I get to be at home most of the day today and so I might even be able to have some laundry going on in the background and get a few minutes in on the treadmill.

So, I'm going to get off this blog and get to work.

First Job - Lemonade Stand

Click to enlarge

Yet another sidetracking while I keep looking for a particular photo.

My first major production of selling lemonade. I'm the person setting up shop in the upper left. My little sister is enjoying a drink on the right and below. Look at all the little neighborhood customers on the bottom right.

I think we drank more than we sold that day. I feel like a failure. An entrepreneur at eight years old and here I am slaving away at a desk 30 years later.

Tales from the Cube - Tall Desks

My days of having a large office are over. They were actually over the past few months. I'm now in a cube farm...in a basement. Who would have thought it would all come to this? However, I cannot complain too much. I have the largest cube of them all and so my lips remain sealed, kind of.

If I were to wear the fashionable heels of the day, my afro hair would grace the ceiling. One does not want to grace parts of this ceiling because spiders like it.

At least these basement cubes are new and at least I get a cool desk.

I can stand up while I work, or sit down or even bring in a bean bag to lounge on the floor. Yep, the desk plugs into the wall and throughout the day I can move it up and down according to my needs.

It moves and takes the laptop and flat screen monitor with it.

Folks, this makes all the difference. My life is complete.

Or so they think.

For inquiring minds, here's a demo - http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3vuwEfxNxCvCug1okWp61Q?authkey=Gv1sRgCIqMyd2N1avyHg&feat=directlink

Power Suits

This is the least important item on my mind this week, but the easiest to write about - power suits.

I've never been a big fan of suits, but I do have a lot of them. In fact, I have over 10 of them all nice and built for tall ladies like me. However, most of them have been sitting in my closet untouched for the last couple of years.

About a month ago I decided to start wearing them again to work. After all, I do need to look a little more professional on a daily basis.

It feels pretty good. They are comfortable and I think people do treat you a little different when you are in a suit. For the first time, I'm actually enjoying them...and it's nice to know that my closet is full of options since I won't be buying any new clothing anytime soon.

So, here's to the power suit. Let's hope it brings more power. Ok, maybe I'll just go for higher work self-esteem and some more money.

Steward our Energy

A friend sent me a link about being an introvert and being a church member (of any church). It was rather interesting to see that a lot of people are spiritually devoted, but sometimes have issues fitting in to congregations of their various religions.

Somehow I followed a list of links and got to this website.

http://www.introvertenergy.com/introvertenergizer/introvertenergizer-02-07.php

The woman writing on this site brought up an interesting term that she attributed to the Dalai Lama.

Basically, it's taking care of ourselves when we need to - get rest when we are tired, walk when we need to think and/or exercise, read a book when we feel the need, etc.

With all the work I've been doing for work, home, church, people, and personal projects I'm realizing that I'm forever being a poor steward of my energy. I've gotten better in the last couple of years, but that is only because I have far less energy than when I was like 28 years old, or 30 years old or even 35 years old.

Anyway, this is one of those little terms that I am going to remember to implement into practice.

So, I'm going to keep writing because it's getting all of this out of my head so I can rest better.

Task Interference

Ok, so the names are strategically covered up on this, but this is how many interruptions I had just during the 9-5 part of the day at work one day last week.

This does not count people walking by the office and saying "hi" who took less than 1/2 a minute of time. This includes only people that came in with questions, wanting to talk and/or providing additional information. It is no wonder it is hard for us to take phone calls or answer emails. With this amount of traffic, how does one accomplish anything? At least it is recorded for historical documentation. (-;

I'm sorry

These are the words I've had to say a few times this week.

I'm sorry.

Sigh.

Sometimes everything in my head just comes out of my head wrong. On the one hand, I feel like I've been more than helpful and accommodating to certain people that drive me crazy in my life. On the other hand...there are people that might not be in the right frame of mind to handle some of my direct and factual comments.

So, if I've done this to you I am sorry.

I'll share just one because it is amusing ...in a way.

We had a meeting at work this week to discuss gaming and simulation implementation into our current product development efforts. There is a new person from who knows where that will be working on some projects. We were going through a list of simulations we are going to purchase and one was about "emotional intelligence." The guy kind of laughed it off like it was some random thing while asking what it was. I quipped that "emotional intelligence is a major topic in most business corporations today" and did it in a way that was a little flippant. Yikes. He kind of shut up a bit after that.

If you don't know what emotional intelligence is...I demonstrated what it was not. Do a google search to find the info, but it is the soft skills as well as business savvy that can make or break you as a boss, co-worker or CEO.

He pretty much got an "I'm sorry" email today because I do have emotional intelligence. It just happens to be of the delayed kind.

Despite what an old co-worker used to say (never say you are sorry because you will never make it to management), I have found that the higher I move up in responsibility the more important it is to say it.

And on that note I will end...to stifle any more words that will get me in trouble.

Meeting Mania

I have literally been in 6-7 hours of meetings every day this week. If they were all one big meeting that would be exhausting. But, no, they are a series of one hour meetings all in different buildings with different combinations of people and with me in charge of leading about 1/3 to 1/2 of the time. This is when exhaustion becomes exhaustion and craziness!

This is partly why I wrote the blog entry below about my personality type - INTJ. I need a lot of alone time to catch up from these things and when I don't get that time I lose the ability to think straight. So, I have to look up some of my default behaviors and remind myself what NOT to do when I get tired and stressed from too much people interaction.

Let me tell you though - when I get more alone time - I might just write about all of these meetings because some could put The Office episodes to shame. There is a reason why these shows and Dilbert exist! I experience it every single day, except that sometimes those comedies look tame.

Ok, I've now exhausted my ability to even converse with a computer.

Signing off physically and mentally.

Weekend of Friends

Every three months I get a bombardment of phone calls and emails from friends saying something to the effect of "we haven't talked in so long, let's do dinner" or breakfast or lunch or whatever. So, I'll have a turbo weekend of great conversations and meals followed by a lull of a few months and it will start up again. In a way it's good this way because life moves fast, but sometimes it would be good to get everyone on a different cycle so more time can be spent with each.

Either way, I'm not complaining because I always have a wonderful time.

This week has been difficult. Work has been very stressful, the weather has been drab and a lot of people are going through tough times. Sometimes you don't want to meet up with friends when you just want to hide.

However...it's usually the pick up that is needed.

My friend Julie called me on Wednesday and said that her husband had given her a gift of a surprise trip to DC for a few days. What a great husband! We were able to get together last night and do the talk and eat thing. I hadn't seen them in years, but we had gone through fun, and sometimes heartbreaking times out in Provo, UT. It was so great to catch up and talk about life, family, friends, decisions, successes, etc. They are doing very well and I'm so proud to have friends that are so successful with their families, with their jobs and that are just plain living right. It inspires me to do a little better and that if I keep trying to move forward I might be able to achieve the same success.

(A little part of me always wonders why I'm so "delayed" in some areas, but maybe it provides high self-esteem to someone to know that I am still struggling through this thing called life)

(Brett and Julie)

Today - I just got back from breakfast with Angela and had a great conversation about Crucial Conversations (based on the book) and about incorporating web 2.0 into e-learning and training in today's environment. This afternoon I am having lunch with a friend from work and another friend and I decided we were trying to keep up with too many friends today and we can both wait to see each other on another night.

Yep, I'm already tired. But, I'm happy and grateful for so many wonderful friends.

What's in a comment?

I've been looking at a lot of blogs lately and I can't figure this out.

What makes people "post a comment" for some entries and not for others? There are some blogs that have amazing information and no one comments while others will write a seemingly basic entry and all kinds of comments show up. I haven't found the relationship between the two yet and it's not important to my personal blog.But, I would like to know since I have started a wiki and will be starting a blog at work for some of the information our department.

Perhaps I'll make a little study to see if it has to do with the person who wrote it, how personal the entry is, how interesting the topic appears or if it just has to do with the moods of people reading the entries.

Any thoughts? (Ha, maybe this the key - asking for something in the last line)

A "Me" Day

Today is one of those days where I feel like "me." I had the day off work and slept in until 7:30 a.m. It felt so good to just lie on the floor (it feels better on my back right now) and get in some extra zzzzzs.

Got up, had some breakfast, read some inspirational thoughts (Ensign article) and started to work. Yep, sometimes not going into work still means the work must be done at home. I actually don't mind because I focus better here. My boss sent a very complimentary email of all of my project managing efforts followed up with an email saying that when we move back to our former office building there will be lack of space and so I will either have to share an office or have an office about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of my prior office. Joy. At least at home I can set up my office the way that like it - at the kitchen table with all of my gadgets.

That weird thing in the corner is left over German chocolate cake that I had as part of a 2nd breakfast (I know, German chocolate cake anonymous here we come).

I put in a load of laundry, took out the garbage, and went on a walk. What a beautiful day in Northern Virginia! It was around 70 degrees and the clouds and blue sky were perfect-o. I took an entire hour just to walk around the various areas of Penderbrook to enjoy the fresh air, colorful trees, Canadian Geese and the variety of golfers taking the day off work.

All good things must come to an end and so I came home and went out to eat lunch with my man before he heads out of town for a few days. Ok, so this isn't a picture of us today, but thought I would put it in anyway. We went to Famous Daves and ate a lot of meat!

I had to get outside again and so I took my camera out with me on another walk in an attempt to capture some of the colors. Soo beautiful! I also had that epic movie type of music playing on my iPOD at the same time and so I felt like I was experiencing my own surround sound movie with all of the beautiful scenery.

So, I just realized that these thumbnails aren't actually working.

Here's a slideshow:

Now, it's time to hit the rest of the to do list for the evening - a little more scanning, a little more cleaning, a little more work and a little more....food. Maybe I'll take just a couple more bites of that German chocolate cake. (P.S. Just for informational purposes - none of my cooking is worth mentioning. In fact, after tasting what I create most people have a heightened sense of self esteem)

It's good to have time to just breath, think about life and dream. 

So, seriously, this video is so real it's almost unbelievable...except to those that have worked for perfectly operating organizations. For the rest of us, it's just our own version of "The Office." I put this on my Blogger Pickles site, but just had to put it here too. Thanks for posting it to your blog Heidi.

glumbert - Stop Sign Re-Design

Just a post

Well, I just decided to post because I'm tired of seeing my own Mary Kay pictures posted every time I go to the page. Ha. However, it is a good way to find out what people thought about the different hair styles. As a result, I'm actually going to cut some of my bangs just a little shorter and swing them to the side just to see if the style actually looks good. Hey, all it took was three blog comments for me to take action. Perhaps I should put other decisions up here that I need help making.

Otherwise, this has just been a week. I've been tired...even though I've actually slept about seven hours a night and I never sleep seven hours a night. I've made the carpool every day and we even got to work at 6 a.m. one day instead of 6:30 a.m. It was a good day, but not sure I can keep that up! Luckily, I enjoy my carpool and the time always seems to go pretty fast. 

Work is ok. The meetings are picking up and it's the end of the fiscal year. So, an unreasonable amount of time is spent creating "charts" and I'm not talking about amazing excel spreadsheet packed with equations that are exported into another workbook page type of charts or anything like that...No, we like to put every possible kind of status into Powerpoint which renders it useful only for "briefings" and not for any practical data sorting, updating, etc. on a day-to-day basis. Yes, we have this urge to be Powerpoint Rangers. Wait, why am I writing about work on this blog? 

As far as friends are concerned, it's been a good week. About four friends have had babies in the last week, or I should say last two weeks. One even had twins. I've got a couple of boxes of diapers in the car to give to them. That is my standard gift now because it's just plain practical! Now, hopefully the unexpected heat this week won't melt the diaper tabs together. I'd better check on that.

Another friend is realizing her life mission is to help people perfect their personal appearance through personal coaching, training and working for Nordstroms. (-: I'm confident she will quickly move up the food chain. I am hoping I gain the confidence she has to move forward on a dream. But, they always say that you will end up making just as much doing what you love, right?

I am awaiting some photo books I created over the weekend from http://www.mypublisher.com  and that would be my little confidence building activity for the last few days.

Ok, well, like I said...this is "just a post" and so I should probably think about going to bed even if it's just a thought. Plus, mission accomplished...the MaryKay photos are now lower down on the page.

Good-night, r

Restless and cancelled appointment

Today I cancelled an appointment that I had made at a clinic that supposedly does every kind of test on you in one day. You know, kind of like those body scan places, except this is supposed to be for executives and the membership is good for a year. I was going to shell out a few thousand bucks and find out every possible thing that is wrong with me. When they sent me the packet for my visit it only showed them doing a couple of scans that I could easily get done through a doctor AND for a lot less! I cancelled the appointment and asked if they would spell out everything they were actually going to do like they had on the website. I haven't heard back from them yet. I must be one of those people they just write off. That's not a good idea. After all, I am blogging about it right now. I won't share the name until I give them a chance to explain themselves.

So, as a result of this appointment, I wasn't actually supposed to be at work today. I went in anyway. After two meetings and finishing 6-7 tasks that I had on my to do list....I just left the office around 1 p.m. It's a good thing that I didn't ride with the carpool today.

I'd been gone for over four hours and so the bug bombs I had put around my house had enough time to sink into the nooks and crannies. (I found one of those thousand leg bugs last night and I have no tolerance for little living creatures in my home). It is giving me a little bit of a headache though.

I've checked emails a couple of times and now I'm going on a walk. Sometimes I just need a mental break. It's just too much of the same every single day. Ugh. I've never been in the same job this long. But, it's stable and I should be grateful for that. Now it feels like this is an entry that should be about my job complaining blog (you have to ask me specifically for that address - it's hidden).

My boss may be surprised that I've taken some sick time this week, but I've got a few hundred hours saved up and I'm sure we are allowed to use some for unsettled minds, necessary relaxation and escape from Meyers-Briggs personalities that start with an E.

We'll see how it goes.

Modeling and stock photo people

Ok, I know I wrote about how I have been identified as being the lead cast of the Forever Strong movie (http://rebeckeronline.blogspot.com/2008/08/my-debut-in-lead-cast-of-hollywood.html) - but, now it's not acting that I'm being identified with, but rather modeling. You know like fashion models, except this isn't for anything fashionable. If I had wanted to be a model, I would be living and working in a different place, eating the actual serving size identified on food labels, working out until there was nothing left on me to work out and actually look at fashion magazines for beauty tips. None of the above will ever happen and I will do all in my power to avoid it.

Apparently, that doesn't seem to work.

A few months ago the work photographers said they wanted me to pose for a picture because it was associated with e-learning. Since I'm in charge of development for one of our e-learning product lines...they wanted me in the picture. I fought tooth and nail (ok, actually it was a war of words) to say that I am not photogenic and that I did not want to be in the picture. Plus, the 130,000 people that access the products we create don't really care who I am - they would rather see a sleek stock photo lady in a crisp navy blue power suit, light purple oxford shirt and those fashionable reading glasses. You know the people - we all have a few at work that could be photographed at a moments notice because their suit, hair, make-up or whatever is immaculate. I don't even think the immaculate version of me would be appropriate for a stock photo.

I even dressed down the day they said that they may come over and take the shot and I didn't do my hair. Surely this would deter them. Alas, no, they said it made me even more realistic (what?) and took the pictures anyway.

(Ok, people who know me know I like solid colors and I typical don't like purple. So, now etched in history is me in a purple shirt that I think is completely ugly and not my style - that I quickly donated to the goodwill. Also, could they at least photoshop the permanent wrinkles out of my neck and the pimple on my cheek?)

This picture is part of a huge wall mural in the chief learning officers main office where all kinds of generals, high rollers (at least they think they are), and other folks from multiple agencies sit and wait to meet with our president. Joy.

On to this week...
I'm talking to some developers and they say that they saw me in a course that is going to go live in a few months. Oh really? I pulled that string a little further and found out a couple of pictures taken of me about six months ago were indeed turned into a character in a massive online course. Again, over 100,000 people have the possibility of seeing this. I went and took a look and yet again...they got the "as is" state of me and didn't even try to improve a thing.

(I think I was actually sitting just like this in a chair when they took a picture of me. The cool thing is that they gave me the biggest office in the scenario and made me be the person in charge. Not going to argue with that.)

(Ok, could they have improved my hair for this picture. Yes, my shirt was not tucked in that day because I like that look. However, couldn't they have hidden that fact? I mean, they gave Ben a mustache - he's the brown shirt guy in this picture, but he's in the photo at the top of the blog with me as well.)

Lessons learned - Always look basically nice if you are under 40 years old and work in an environment where everyone has membership in the AARP. They think I'm "young" and therefore would be willing to do this type of thing I guess. I'm a slow learner, but I'm realizing that it is probably a good idea to always try to look basically nice wherever and whenever so that no undesirable pictures crop up in obscure places. If you happen to be a work photographer...just stick with stock photos please and let the rest of us do our work. That being said, I actually do want to become a photographer so I can be on the other end of the camera at all times.

New Office

I see another episode of the office coming. We have seven of us in one room temporarily while they work on our building. So, we are housed in the basement of another building. It should be an interesting experience. So far, so good. Ok, I didn't notice some of my co-workers were making faces at the camera while I was taking the picture. Ha.

I'm in the far back right hand corner. Yes, I bump my head on the ceiling if I stand up in the corner, but my desk is sitting slightly past it so I'm fine most of the time.

Some of us are quiet, and some aren't. Sometimes people talk and sometimes they don't. Sometimes I join in the conversations and sometimes I don't. We are all still trying to figure each other out. But, I'm thinking it will draw us a little closer. We should probably start our own taping of the office soon because I'm sure this setting will bring out all kinds of oddities. We've all had our own offices until this time and so it's kind of taking a step back to my ATSI days where we shared space as well as each others joys, sorrows, laughs, etc.

Good times a coming...

Blogging Items

I may be the only person that does this, but I've taken to writing down items at work that I want to blog about. Now, there are a couple of reasons for doing this.

1.) I don't have access to my blog at work. I could email my own blog and have it post, but so far I haven't done so.

2.) There is no time to write at work and plus - that's why I'm paid the big bucks, right? To work?

3.) The action of writing down the topics to write about is therapeutic. It allows me to get down the item that is bothering/enlightening me on to paper. I then feel empowered to move my thoughts on to whatever should be my focus. So, it's almost as good as the time spent creating the entry later. I've often taken this approach with my journal writing as well. That way I have all the key events listed out for when I finally sit down and focus on writing.

Anyway, it may seem weird, but since it is simple and it works, I will keep using it.