The Marci Rating System

Oh, it sure is a work day Wednesday! One pair of headphones is recharged (after causing me Some Small Amount of Panic yesterday), and I should be able to charge the others at the office while I'm in boring meetings.

Yesterday I had ZERO meetings, which was 1) great, and 2) I got so much done. Today I have THREE meetings, and although I have some plans to keep things great (mostly involving maximizing my enjoyment of free food and coffee at the office), I expect 'getting so much done' will be a bridge too far. Get something done? One thing? Sure, let's go with that.

It has come to my attention (aka I spent some time thinking about it) that while I have tried to avoid making my job a huge part of my sense of self, I haven't really managed it. And also that 'being good at my job' and 'doing a good job at my job' are, uh, actually pretty big parts of what's been getting me through.

And now I've been given this different work, which I am not good at (because it's new, I do get that I'll get better at it eventually) and I'm not doing a good job at (because it's all on top of the previous work I was already doing).

It's been... not great.

Throwing myself at the work in an attempt to get good at it and meet the wildly unrealistic expectations isn't working, and -- let's be real, it's a corporate workplace -- would only lead to worse things even if I could do it in the short term.

So this morning I thought to myself, 'okay, so what can I do today (not work-related) that I can be good at?' Still working on an answer, but it seems like the right question for the moment.

I feel like the 'going through something' icon really encapsulates the current work experience. WE SURE ARE GOING THROUGH SOMETHING.

Last week, out of the blue, my adobe pro stopped working. Couldn't open any pdfs. Error messages everywhere. Contacted IT, they got the same error messages. (A relief, honestly. Always a toss-up whether it's worth it to contact IT.)

After several minutes, IT suggested (somewhat apologetically) that the 'easiest' way to resolve the issue would be to uninstall and reinstall adobe. 'Sure,' I said, because that's what you say to IT.

More error messages ensued. IT asked me a bunch of questions like 'do you use creative cloud,' and all of my answers made me sound like a complete fool. (Typical of my conversations with IT.)

IT was unable to uninstall the program. Finally they said that they would just get me a new laptop. Honestly, that seemed like overkill to me, but again, I said 'sure,' because that's what you say to IT. It'll take a week, they said. (I said 'sure.')

The next day, everything worked fine. Has ever since. I am scared to report this update to IT, and instead plan on handing over my seemingly completely-functional laptop to them next week in exchange for a new one.

(cost-saving initiative for the company: maybe ask IT to be less intimidating)

*the 9 am work meeting yesterday was CANCELLED, WHAT???

*I mean, yay! Huzzah! But also hey, I tried really hard to be on time for that, and it was all for naught!

*felt so grumpy by the time I got through the remaining work meetings that I wrote a thousand words of fanfic

*spite = my primary motivation to do most things, honestly

*and now it's Tuesday!

WHAT A WEEK.

Soooooo... In December, my workplace had a toy drive, which didn't get much attention, and ultimately only collected two things. (Crucially, one of those things was a bag of lego toys donated by me, which is why I was paying attention.)

And those things were collected in a small room near the entrance, so they were super visible. (If one was looking for them. Which I was.) Because they were still sitting there yesterday, clearly NOT donated, and I finally worked up the ire to ask about it.

(Because yeah, I'm a big proponent of the 'once you give a gift, the giftee can do whatever they want with it,' but also if you say you're going to donate things and then you just don't, that seems not cool.)

ANYWAY I got a whole story about it, which was relatively interesting, but probably not interesting enough to retell here. And I was all 'right, okay, here's the thing -- can I just take my donation back and give it to my local library instead? because I was happy to support the workplace community, but I'd be even happier to support my local community.'

And THAT'S why my December toy drive donation is now back in my hands! (WHAT EVEN)

nooooooooooooo! (aka: gotta go back to the office today, after several very nice weeks of working fully from home, which means I got up an hour earlier than usual and I'm all 'what is daylight' right now)

But I get to start a new audiobook on my drive in, AND it's a new author (to me), which counts for a library bingo square!

(And when I'm done with that one, Libby just offered me up the first hockey boys book, so I'll get to read about Scott and the smoothie guy!)

(Yeah, I'm not really super keen on the work part of my day, but I do appreciate that I'm allowed to wear headphones almost all the time. Sometimes people come up to me and are like 'oh, are you on a call?' and I'm like 'no, it's storytime.')

*Shoutout to the business along my commute route with the Giant Christmas Inflatables. It's your brontosaurus eating a candy cane that's motivating me to get out the door this morning!

Honorable mentions to the following, also providing me workaday motivation:

*I'll be starting the hockey boys audiobook this morning, carplay willing. After an entire day of thinking about it, the anticipation is really building!

*It's holiday lunch day at work. So, free lunch! Hooray! In honor of the event, I'm wearing my cozy holiday sweatshirt. (It has Christmas trees on it.)

*VERY IMPORTANT prologue: it is not snowing yet!

*work has released us from having to drive to the office today, hooray!

*SHOUTOUT to the people who brought this up at the 9 am meeting yesterday morning (I'm not in that meeting, but I heard about it later)

*NO SHOUTOUT to the people who didn't share the actual executive decision with anyone not at the 9 am meeting until AFTER 2 PM (not cool)

*so am I going to be tucked up safely at home, working remotely and staying off the roads???

*NO I AM NOT

*because I was supposed to get snow tires on my car last week, except the tires didn't arrive in time, and then the appointment was moved to TODAY and now it IS today and yes, I clearly left this task too late this year, so it goes

*BUT the appointment is for 8:30 in the morning, and (VERY IMPORTANT!) it is not snowing yet!

*LET'S DO THIS

Now that the work week includes two office days, it feels like this:

Monday = Monday
Tuesday = Office Monday
Wednesday = Office Friday
Thursday = ????? (THIS DAY SHOULD OBVIOUSLY BE FRIDAY; THAT'S THE PATTERN)
Friday = Friday

Somehow, it is not Friday?!?!?!? Tomorrow is Friday?!?!?!?! Inconceivable.