Happy Easter. . . And everything else

So, what have I been up to? Trouble. . . No good. . . Fun!

Okay, so I went out with one of my favorite girlfriends tonight for some fun and to celebrate her birthday -- that tends to put me in a good mood (Happy Birthday Kim!!). As for the rest of it: I was gone to Bellingham all last week to meet with a consultant from Microsoft (Steve Pontello). Steve was AWESOME and I learned a ton. . . Enough that by Easter Sunday I was exhausted, could no longer formulate thoughts, and was feeling quasi-anti-social. Monday I couldn't think enough to remember my name, Tuesday I felt a bit Attention-Deficit, and yesterday I was able to complete simple tasks. Today I'm back to functioning semi-normal. I can tell you that I arrived in our conference room about 7:15 each day, we started the discussion at 8 AM, took a hour lunch, and worked until 5 PM (with a debrief until nearly 5:30 each night). Throw in the 6 hours to drive there on Monday and the 7 hour drive home Friday, with meetings on Monday and meeting with Steve until after noon on Friday and it was a VERY full week. Awesome, but also busy. Ryan (my cohort) and I agree that the meeting with Steve probably set us ahead in our work about 2 years. Seriously awesome.

Then, Easter weekend was spent at Mom & Dad's in Stayton watching movies with the kids on Saturday night and then getting waaayyy too little sleep! Sunday morning Faith snuck into our room about 7 AM and said "Happy Easter! Wake up, wake up, wake up!!!" Very cute. . . Way too early! We had a fun time, went to mass, hunted for Easter eggs, and had a good dinner with family. Me? I dozed on the couch during the conversations (did I mention that the week had taken a lot out of me?). We headed home early in the evening and spent the evening watching some shows recorded on the DVR.

As for today, I took a deep breath and opted to have courage in talking with my manager about my frustrations at work. I'd written a letter to God beforehand so that I could try to formulate my thoughts and reflect on why I was frustrated (I also prayed that the meeting would go well). Fortunately Darian was very receptive and a good listener. Essentially, I've been feeling like I'm driving in 3rd gear on the interstate; extremely frustrated. In trying to narrow identify why, I explained that I'm a production/hands-on kind of person. . . We're developing new architecture for our OLAP cubes and I'm needing to get into it. Over the past several months we've been slowly working our way into it and we've had MANY conversations about what might work best and trying to make good design decisions and we've made a couple of cubes. I'm now ready to dive in!

I've got a long "To Do" list at work but it's primarily "mini-tasks" with things like documentation, effort tracking, typing up notes, etc. But I'm craving more "build" work. I'm a multi-tasker by nature and I like to have different types of things to work on to make the most of my energy level and mental-prowess at any given point in time ;-).

I also explained that I'm a Gemini and a bit of a split personality: I recognize that I have a social side to me that can be very abstract random, take in all sorts of stimulus (non-verbal cues, tone of voice) and process what we're discussing. It's the skills that I use to find compromise in meetings and the ability to participate in long training sessions. However, there's also a very linear, structured side to me: This is how I behave when writing and structuring my thoughts. . . This is also how I operate when programming and doing architecture work -- very logical. I told Darian that it can be difficult to transition between the two skill sets. Admittedly, last week during the training with the consultant, I would do fine listening, processing, and taking notes. Then when it was my turn to present and do the hands-on programming work, I'd stumble for a few minutes, ask for a second to collect my thoughts, and then would slip on my programming hat. . . Today Darian seemed to appreciate the explanation for my behaviors.

Also, I don't like to talk on the phone much . . . This has been a interesting challenge when my OLAP partner works in Bellingham and my manager is in Bellingham. How best to communicate? Here's today's action items:

- I told Darian that I need to establish timelines for myself; it gives me something to aim for while realizing that the timelines may need to be adjusted due to illness or a sudden high-priority request. The important piece here is that I need to set the timelines for myself but have Darian aware of them. . .
- I also told Darian that I'll do best if I can send him a email at the end of the week with a list of what I've accomplished throughout the week and what I plan to work on during the following week. . . This is more for me to reflect on my work in a logical/linear way and to gather my tasks for the upcoming week (especially since it's so difficult to remember where I left off come Monday morning). He's good with that.
- I also asked for an additional/lower priority cube to work on. . . Something to balance the high priority work, the 30 minutes-to-an-hour tasks, and everything else. It gives me something to do while my mind subconsciously trouble-shoots problems I may be having with the high-priority work.
- And, I told him that, knowing that I have to consciously transition between social and logical/linear, I try to schedule all my meetings close together and then schedule chunks of time to do my programming work. This is how I work best. This includes needing a telework day occasionally so that I can get through big chunks of work at a time so that I feel caught up.

. . . So, it's been a few weeks of self-discovery and trying to get back on track.

As for the rest of it: I'm not checking my personal email and computer nearly often enough -- my doctor recommended that I avoid my computer in the evenings because it makes it more difficult for me to fall asleep at night. I'm trying to hold myself to it. . . but tonight I felt the need to process my thoughts was more important than needing to avoid my computer. :-)

And, as always, I'm trying to balance it all: Work, Friends, Family, . . . Date time with Joel, TV (and discussion) time with the boys, Being Mommy for Faith, Trying to pick up (and spring clean) the house, and . . . trying to take time for myself. . . . Oh, and God fits in there too. . . And exercise. . . And. . . Well, you know how it goes. . .

Best wishes to you all and I pray that you're all weathering the turbulence of our times as well as can be expected. God bless!