Frog and Goat

I went out to run an errand at lunch and it is absolutely gorgeous outside. The sky is blue, the trees are green or in full bloom–some of the dogwood are fantastic–and then there are the azaleas and tulips. Spring, in the capital city.

If I were sneakier, I would have kept driving instead of coming back to work. It helps that there are only a handful of people on the floor today. Fridays are ghost town days at work and I’m sure as the warm weather persists it’s only going to get worse. The bonus for me is the quiet and less people wandering around like zombies.

I had my end of graduate program meeting with my advisor last night. It’s always so nice talking to him. We talked about Very Serious Things and digressed more than once–I think I’m the one who introduced Graceland to the conversation. Aside from writing a paper, going to two more classes and giving a client presentation, I’m done…still seems like a lot to do, but in the scheme of things–not so much. 23 days until graduation.

So I had this interview with a company the other day to do some freelance work. I thought things were going well and that I’d booked the job because that’s what they said. Starting out it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to be doing but there were promises to move on up to the deluxe apartment in the sky. Then I got home, got the sample assignment and a note from the owner who said don’t hurry to get the sample done because we have other candidates who are also interested. Mmm, it took me about 45 minutes to get home from the meeting and in that time other candidates popped up? For what amounts to a typing job? Awesome. I completed the project this morning at o’dark 30 (thanks to snoring and high-pitched whistling on someone’s part) and sent it back. I’ve crafted an email that basically says I’m an experienced instructional designer and when you get to that point in the project please keep me in mind but I’m not interested in freelance work if all it entails is typing someone else’s words…where’s the stretch in skills with that work?

In other news, my school team knocked our practice presentation out of the park last night. We received some good feedback on tweaks to our presentation but we’re ready to roll for our formal presentation next week.

Tonight we’re having a little Jamaican feast. I whipped up a jerk marinade this morning for chicken. And, I’ll be making peas and rice to go with the jerk chicken. We had peas and rice when we went to the Bahamas and the dish is similar to red beans and rice. The dish we had in the Bahamas used pigeon peas but today I’m using small red beans because that’s what we have. I guess the biggest difference in peas and rice and red beans and rice are the spices used and the addition of coconut milk. I haven’t figured out the vegetable dish, but the day is long yet.

This week is quite busy with meetings for school–regular class times and then meetings after class. The semester is winding down and that means lots of meetings so I can get my diploma. I’m really hoping we don’t spend hours hashing out things tomorrow night because in all honesty after about 8pm on a school night I’m pretty well toast. I hope our meeting is quick and to the point because I know I’ll just degrade the longer the meeting lasts. So what is billed as stressful will just turn into useless the longer we meet.

I’m annoyed with myself. I’m way too irritated by people lately and I seem to be getting in my own way. I need to take a couple of days off. I think I’ll talk to my supervisor about doing just that. I have to take one day the last week of April for my school presentation but I need one or two next week too. In fact, I should just cash in my sick leave and take off all of May. Tempting but just not practical.

The other night we were getting ready for dinner and I was making some noises, hopping around, etc. Who knows. Anyway, the better-half asked me what was going on and I said I’m being goofy because I can’t do that at work. Seriously, I’ve never worked somewhere that was so serious. Granted we can get off some funny and sarcastic comments but playing? No. When I worked for a buttoned down bank we had more fun. I guess in addition to a host of other things that’s something I’m missing in my work life–a sense of play.

My FL sister is coming this weekend for a whirlwind visit–it’s been 3 years? since she’s been in town. People are going to go wild. It will be good to see her.

I’ve been exhausted lately. I haven’t been sleeping well and I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by all the crap I have to do. And, to cap it off I sat in a training room today and aside from moving around to stop myself from falling asleep there was no interaction ALL DAY. That breaks about 500 tenets of adult learning.

This song makes me feel better so I’m posting it: