So ya'll know that I went to SJC again yesterday to facilitate their monthly JLT meeting. And, of course, when I go to the Bay Area, I just have to see someone I know - right?
I did! Yup - on the plane heading out there, my friend/former roommate Danielle's uncle was in first class! The neat guy I fondly call Uncle Jim really startled me when he reached out to grab my hand when I was passing his seat to head for my own in the back, blindly in my own world! :-)
Just so funny. All the places I go to, but I only ever see people randomly when I head to NoCal.
EXHAUSTED after that trip, though. Left house at 6 AM, got home at 10 PM. That's a long day, folks. I'm really looking forward to actually spending the night next month to (a) give me more time on the ground and with the local EEs, and (b) not give me such a freaking long work day!
Still sick. Cough has worsened. Throat feels like it was scraped raw with Brillo. Ugh. Oh, well, I guess. I'll get better when I get better. It's just so old to still feel like this after way longer than a month now.
Even despite exhaustion and sickness, it's a Wonderful Wednesday in my world - Chris has been gone to Austin since Sunday afternoon and he'll be home tonight! YAY! For some reason, I've missed him a lot more this time around than I usually do when we're apart for a night or two or three. I'll be very glad to have him home.
Hope ya'lls Wednesdays are going well! I'm off to grab a bite for lunch before tackling my afternoon meetings!
Showing posts with label Wonderful Wednesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wonderful Wednesday. Show all posts
More Bay Area Magic!
Published on
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
in:
Bay Area Magic
,
Traveling Tuesday
,
Wonderful Wednesday
Wonderful Wednesday?
Published on
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
in:
Wonderful Wednesday
So yesterday was kind of a frustrating day...
...I rushed my butt to work earlier than normal and panicked when I got to my desk 2 minutes after a meeting - across the hall from me basically - was supposed to start. So I dumped my stuff in my office and dashed to the meeting. Guess what? Meeting was cancelled. Last week. The secretary didn't send a cancellation in Outlook, and no one told me it was off. Are you kidding me? Frustrating.
...Went home a bit early (coming in early = leaving early) and instead of spending the hours writing that I wanted to last night, I was in Christmasland. See...we hadn't done our letter yet. Or set up the mail merge for addresses. Or gotten stamps. Or checked to make sure we had enough envelopes. Or ordered Christmas presents for anyone. Gee, ya think we've been busy with OTHER stuff? Frustrating.
...Chris helped out by pre-writing the letter. He did good! My non-writer of a husband put together a pretty decent letter...we only spent about an hour editing it, mostly for little grammar things, and then to get it short enough to fit on one page. So I headed upstairs to check to see how much stationery we had left from our last letter, in 2005...78 sheets. Buying a new pack would mean 150 additional sheets. We didn't want to buy a new pack. So we took our Christmas card list and started slashing. Yikes! We pared it in half, basically. I'm so sorry if you don't get a letter this year. I really am. We'll hit ya next year. All of Chris' first cousins got the ax, parents and relatives living in our general vicinity (sorry, Patti!) are off, all of my second cousins were x-ed off, no coworkers (past or present, other than a few we're pretty close to) are getting letters, APOers will have to read their letter online, and well, little surgical snips were made here and there. Got the list down to 78, from a starting point of nearly 200. Achievement!
...Until the printer started eating paper. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! So our list of 78 became our list of 73. Argh. The first 20 or so letters printed just fine. Then the damn machine got hungry. Then another 20 or so printed just fine. Then it got hungrIER! Fed the last sheets in one by one by one by one... Frustrating.
...Haha...we only had 23 envelopes left. Fabulous. Off to Office Depot. Got a pack of 50. Which makes, if you're counting, the exact right number of envelopes.
...Got a Christmas card from our old neighbor, who we'd left off the list. Damn. She doesn't get a letter. I dug out an old pack of cards. She gets a card. AND SHE WILL LIKE IT.
...Postage? Haha. We have 15 33 cent stamps left from Christmas a few years ago, 9 39 cent stamps left from a couple years ago, 10 41 cent stamps that are actually current, and 15 3 cent stamps that just don't couple with any of the other stamps very nicely. Guess where I'm going at lunchtime today? I'm hoping that since the post office that's across the street from my office is in a purely business area, it isn't as busy as say, every other post office in America this week. Wish me luck.
...The unnamed place where we ordered presents for 19 of the 23 names/couples/familes on our list sucks. I mean really and truly sucks. We basically already knew what we were ordering. Got it all set up. Wouldn't import the address list. Had to add each address individually. Had to pick each delivery date individually. Then...2 hours later...got to the payment screen, and it said that 1 or more of our delivery dates was invalid. Sent us back to Go and we definitely didn't get $200. Didn't tell us which were invalid! Had to go back through the list of 19 one by one by one. Didn't change a single date. Got back to the payment screen. It went through. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!
...Got 2 more presents ordered off another site, and it worked like a dream. Something had to. By then it was almost 1 AM!
...Last 2 presents will be purchased in person. They're the gifts for Chris' mom, and Chris' Dad and step-mom. Have NO IDEA when this will happen, but it must, it must, it must. Perhaps on Saturday after we help Mike and Mellissa move but before my in-laws roll into town. And then there's shopping for Chris' present. Hahaha. Yeah. When!?
So yeah, got the slightest bit of writing done, which means, of course, that I'll be doing nothing BUT writing tonight and tomorrow night since El Huge-O project is due on Friday. In the process of scoping out El Huge-O's second act for January and a far different timeline will be built. My wrist hurts. I guess I'm back to wearing my brace. Dang it.
Today: leaving work about 4 or 4:30...tomorrow, about the same. Friday, considering working from home. When I say that no one will be here, I'm really not exaggerating. Might as well work in my jammies. We'll see.
Hope everyone is having a GREAT week! I cannot WAIT to hand off this project on Friday and then spend the next 9 days being a lazy bum on Christmas break! Besides our trip to Beaumont 12/26-12/29, all that's on tap is relaxing, eating, relaxing some more, perhaps tweaking my Hot Kiss entry some more, relaxing, and being a lazy bum. YAHOO.
Tiffany
...I rushed my butt to work earlier than normal and panicked when I got to my desk 2 minutes after a meeting - across the hall from me basically - was supposed to start. So I dumped my stuff in my office and dashed to the meeting. Guess what? Meeting was cancelled. Last week. The secretary didn't send a cancellation in Outlook, and no one told me it was off. Are you kidding me? Frustrating.
...Went home a bit early (coming in early = leaving early) and instead of spending the hours writing that I wanted to last night, I was in Christmasland. See...we hadn't done our letter yet. Or set up the mail merge for addresses. Or gotten stamps. Or checked to make sure we had enough envelopes. Or ordered Christmas presents for anyone. Gee, ya think we've been busy with OTHER stuff? Frustrating.
...Chris helped out by pre-writing the letter. He did good! My non-writer of a husband put together a pretty decent letter...we only spent about an hour editing it, mostly for little grammar things, and then to get it short enough to fit on one page. So I headed upstairs to check to see how much stationery we had left from our last letter, in 2005...78 sheets. Buying a new pack would mean 150 additional sheets. We didn't want to buy a new pack. So we took our Christmas card list and started slashing. Yikes! We pared it in half, basically. I'm so sorry if you don't get a letter this year. I really am. We'll hit ya next year. All of Chris' first cousins got the ax, parents and relatives living in our general vicinity (sorry, Patti!) are off, all of my second cousins were x-ed off, no coworkers (past or present, other than a few we're pretty close to) are getting letters, APOers will have to read their letter online, and well, little surgical snips were made here and there. Got the list down to 78, from a starting point of nearly 200. Achievement!
...Until the printer started eating paper. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! So our list of 78 became our list of 73. Argh. The first 20 or so letters printed just fine. Then the damn machine got hungry. Then another 20 or so printed just fine. Then it got hungrIER! Fed the last sheets in one by one by one by one... Frustrating.
...Haha...we only had 23 envelopes left. Fabulous. Off to Office Depot. Got a pack of 50. Which makes, if you're counting, the exact right number of envelopes.
...Got a Christmas card from our old neighbor, who we'd left off the list. Damn. She doesn't get a letter. I dug out an old pack of cards. She gets a card. AND SHE WILL LIKE IT.
...Postage? Haha. We have 15 33 cent stamps left from Christmas a few years ago, 9 39 cent stamps left from a couple years ago, 10 41 cent stamps that are actually current, and 15 3 cent stamps that just don't couple with any of the other stamps very nicely. Guess where I'm going at lunchtime today? I'm hoping that since the post office that's across the street from my office is in a purely business area, it isn't as busy as say, every other post office in America this week. Wish me luck.
...The unnamed place where we ordered presents for 19 of the 23 names/couples/familes on our list sucks. I mean really and truly sucks. We basically already knew what we were ordering. Got it all set up. Wouldn't import the address list. Had to add each address individually. Had to pick each delivery date individually. Then...2 hours later...got to the payment screen, and it said that 1 or more of our delivery dates was invalid. Sent us back to Go and we definitely didn't get $200. Didn't tell us which were invalid! Had to go back through the list of 19 one by one by one. Didn't change a single date. Got back to the payment screen. It went through. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!
...Got 2 more presents ordered off another site, and it worked like a dream. Something had to. By then it was almost 1 AM!
...Last 2 presents will be purchased in person. They're the gifts for Chris' mom, and Chris' Dad and step-mom. Have NO IDEA when this will happen, but it must, it must, it must. Perhaps on Saturday after we help Mike and Mellissa move but before my in-laws roll into town. And then there's shopping for Chris' present. Hahaha. Yeah. When!?
So yeah, got the slightest bit of writing done, which means, of course, that I'll be doing nothing BUT writing tonight and tomorrow night since El Huge-O project is due on Friday. In the process of scoping out El Huge-O's second act for January and a far different timeline will be built. My wrist hurts. I guess I'm back to wearing my brace. Dang it.
Today: leaving work about 4 or 4:30...tomorrow, about the same. Friday, considering working from home. When I say that no one will be here, I'm really not exaggerating. Might as well work in my jammies. We'll see.
Hope everyone is having a GREAT week! I cannot WAIT to hand off this project on Friday and then spend the next 9 days being a lazy bum on Christmas break! Besides our trip to Beaumont 12/26-12/29, all that's on tap is relaxing, eating, relaxing some more, perhaps tweaking my Hot Kiss entry some more, relaxing, and being a lazy bum. YAHOO.
Tiffany
Wonderful Wednesday
Published on
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
in:
Faith
,
Time to Write
,
Wonderful Wednesday
,
Work
My church has a program called Wonderful Wednesdays for Women. It's held every Wednesday morning from something like 8:30 to noon...so obviously it's aimed at housewives and stay-at-home moms, neither of which am I. But I had the opportunity, while unemployed three years ago, to attend a few times, and although I was a generation younger than most of the women there, it was very fun and fulfilling. I was thinking about that this morning, while on the way to work: needing to get more church back into my life.
There was a time, growing up, that I never, ever missed a week at church. I was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition (with an occasional Presbyterian service thrown in, a la my mother) and by the time I hit high school, I was nearly fanatical in my beliefs - I literally went to church several times per week (ok, I also went to a Catholic high school, so some of it was mandated) and come the holidays - Christmas and Easter - I'd go every day straight for weeks. In college, I dropped back to simply 2-3 times per week - every Wednesday at 7 AM at the Catholic Campus Ministry house and once or twice on Sundays. I was the pianist for the Sunday evening college-focused service at the local RC Church in Bloomsburg, and also went in the morning in Scranton if I was awake enough after getting out of my overnight shift at AAA.
After I moved to Texas, I joined a Methodist church. As I've often explained, I did not do so because I have any major beef with the Roman Catholic church. Rather, I lived with the parents of the guy I was dating at the time for about two months after I moved here, while I was settling into my first post-college job and finding an apartment in a strange area and such. Granted, I'd been here before to meet his parents and do job interviews and such, but it was a tremendous help to have somewhere to stay until I could figure out where to live...and get my all-important first professional paycheck, to boot!
The McAlears attended this fabulous church in Southlake, and to be polite, I attended with them each time I visited Texas and then on each Sunday while I lived in their house. After I moved into my own place, I continued to attend...I told myself that I was simply continuing to be polite, and "on the side", I also visited a number of RC churches in the area, trying to find one to call home. After awhile, I realized that none of the dozen or so Catholic churches I attended felt nearly as homey as the Methodist church that I was visiting every week. And so, my accidental conversion. I threw myself into church life - joined a newbie Bible study and joined the choir, which met every Wednesday night.
Has anyone noticed the continuing theme of Wednesdays, yet? Wonderful Wednesdays with Women, Wednesday masses in college, Wednesday night choir...weird!
In any case, I attended every single week I was in town...until about 4 months after I got married! Then...it just starting seeming almost like a chore to get up on Sunday mornings to go to church. I wasn't singing in the choir or playing my violin in the orchestra any longer. It just kind of...fell off. In the past year, we've been to church perhaps 10 times. Pitiful. And I miss it.
So, sitting here this morning, contemplating this Wonderful Wednesday, I'm realizing that I've spent so much time trying to budget my hours to fit in work and writing and activities that I've forgotten what is far more important - my faith. It is said that faith conquers all, and I happen to believe that to be the absolute truth. So instead of worrying about how everything fits together, I'm realizing that I instead need to worry about getting my priorities straight. Whether I produce 15 freelance articles per week versus 10 is far less important than whether I live a life that is true to my beliefs. Sleeping an extra hour or two on a Sunday morning doesn't compare to the wonderful glow of hearing the passionate pastor at my church preach. And using my husband as an excuse (he works nights and often does not arrive home on Sunday mornings until 5 AM, so I tell myself that I can't drag him out of bed so shortly thereafter and shouldn't go without him) is just contemptible.
So on this Wonderful Wednesday, as I look at blocking out a schedule to establish for at least the winter while my mother-in-law is visiting so that all can still be accomplished in our lives, I am reminded that instead of fitting in as many activities as I can, I instead need to fit in the things that most matter: God, family, then anything else.
Hope you all have a Wonderful Wednesday!
Tiffany
There was a time, growing up, that I never, ever missed a week at church. I was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition (with an occasional Presbyterian service thrown in, a la my mother) and by the time I hit high school, I was nearly fanatical in my beliefs - I literally went to church several times per week (ok, I also went to a Catholic high school, so some of it was mandated) and come the holidays - Christmas and Easter - I'd go every day straight for weeks. In college, I dropped back to simply 2-3 times per week - every Wednesday at 7 AM at the Catholic Campus Ministry house and once or twice on Sundays. I was the pianist for the Sunday evening college-focused service at the local RC Church in Bloomsburg, and also went in the morning in Scranton if I was awake enough after getting out of my overnight shift at AAA.
After I moved to Texas, I joined a Methodist church. As I've often explained, I did not do so because I have any major beef with the Roman Catholic church. Rather, I lived with the parents of the guy I was dating at the time for about two months after I moved here, while I was settling into my first post-college job and finding an apartment in a strange area and such. Granted, I'd been here before to meet his parents and do job interviews and such, but it was a tremendous help to have somewhere to stay until I could figure out where to live...and get my all-important first professional paycheck, to boot!
The McAlears attended this fabulous church in Southlake, and to be polite, I attended with them each time I visited Texas and then on each Sunday while I lived in their house. After I moved into my own place, I continued to attend...I told myself that I was simply continuing to be polite, and "on the side", I also visited a number of RC churches in the area, trying to find one to call home. After awhile, I realized that none of the dozen or so Catholic churches I attended felt nearly as homey as the Methodist church that I was visiting every week. And so, my accidental conversion. I threw myself into church life - joined a newbie Bible study and joined the choir, which met every Wednesday night.
Has anyone noticed the continuing theme of Wednesdays, yet? Wonderful Wednesdays with Women, Wednesday masses in college, Wednesday night choir...weird!
In any case, I attended every single week I was in town...until about 4 months after I got married! Then...it just starting seeming almost like a chore to get up on Sunday mornings to go to church. I wasn't singing in the choir or playing my violin in the orchestra any longer. It just kind of...fell off. In the past year, we've been to church perhaps 10 times. Pitiful. And I miss it.
So, sitting here this morning, contemplating this Wonderful Wednesday, I'm realizing that I've spent so much time trying to budget my hours to fit in work and writing and activities that I've forgotten what is far more important - my faith. It is said that faith conquers all, and I happen to believe that to be the absolute truth. So instead of worrying about how everything fits together, I'm realizing that I instead need to worry about getting my priorities straight. Whether I produce 15 freelance articles per week versus 10 is far less important than whether I live a life that is true to my beliefs. Sleeping an extra hour or two on a Sunday morning doesn't compare to the wonderful glow of hearing the passionate pastor at my church preach. And using my husband as an excuse (he works nights and often does not arrive home on Sunday mornings until 5 AM, so I tell myself that I can't drag him out of bed so shortly thereafter and shouldn't go without him) is just contemptible.
So on this Wonderful Wednesday, as I look at blocking out a schedule to establish for at least the winter while my mother-in-law is visiting so that all can still be accomplished in our lives, I am reminded that instead of fitting in as many activities as I can, I instead need to fit in the things that most matter: God, family, then anything else.
Hope you all have a Wonderful Wednesday!
Tiffany
