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03-09-2000 Back to all Archives Back to 2000: January - March Archives Back to Current Entry list |
6am: The alarm clock goes off. The only radio station I was able to get to come in reliably was the gospel channel. Call it a really good incentive to wake up and turn it off quick. The phone rings almost immediately. Do I know that there is a conference call at 7am? Um....no. I guess I do now. Half awake, I'm pulling things out of my suitcase. I grab the shoes that go with my outfit and hear bells. Tangled in the shoelaces are two bright pink pompoms tied together with a short length of leather and a bell in the middle. It's Azrael's favorite toy, and just picturing my little black puffball wrestling with toy and shoe makes me laugh. 7am: Conference call. Those of us in the room together are bleary-eyed and half-awake. We go over issues that were already closed. Mmm. Productive. 8am: I fire off urgent messages to the DBA back home. Someone escalated an issue that never should have *been* an issue in the first place, and so on top of everything else I have been doing this week I was dragged into long and painful discussions of why it was that IT made this decision. The DBA replies. Our decision stands as we recommended. I admit I'm feeling smug. I don't doubt the issue will resurface again. I don't doubt that it will get any less time consuming to discuss it either. 10am: Groups are separating to deal with final design issues for this project. How did my name get dumped into the globalization group? Was anyone going to tell me, because seeing my name on that list was the first I'd heard of it. I'm scheduled to go to Singapore to babysit a database next week. Now they're debating whether I should go. Call me cynical - I hadn't bought tickets yet. 1pm: Back to normal meetings. How many times will one thing come up and have to be explained? We're all tired. Eyes are glazed. People are repeating themselves. We're supposed to be in meetings til 7pm Friday, but people are on the phone, changing reservations, figuring out how to escape early. 2pm: Singapore is on again. Yes, I can buy tickets and be certain. 4pm: Ah, it resurfaces. Yes. This time to a different group. Was this a good decision? Is this the best approach? It is done. It is over. The poor horse is dead. Why do we keep beating it? 5:30pm: I reconvene with my fellow coworkers from IT. There's something comforting about the fact that they, too, are bleary-eyed and drained. Tired to the point of being punchy. Our manager tells us that we're getting more work, and at the same time, people are being temporarily reassigned to work with other things. It's funny. No, really. We're all giggling so hard we're practically in tears. People walk by and give us odd looks. 7pm: Escape. Dinner. We eat Thai food and avoid discussing work. We pretend we're not exhausted. We decide to go shopping. Baby stores are too much fun to avoid when you're an aunt. 9:30 pm: Back to the hotel. Check email. Stare blankly at the screen and ponder attempting to decipher the notes from the day. 10pm: Give up. Go to sleep |
