Thursday, April 06, 2006

So I'm not saving the world, but it's still hard work

Work has been ridiculously busy lately. And it's not going to let up. We're working on a huge project that will go on for several months. I'm really getting into it and learning new things all the time. It's like I have night-before-an-exam brain; there's so much information in my mind, it actually feels full. Really really full.

In the tech world, we like to give everything an acronym or an abbreviation. Instead of saying Database Administrator, we say DBA. Instead of saying Asynchronous Javascript and XML, it's AJAX instead. You get the idea. Today I gave this project it's new official acronym: MOS. Massive Overhaul of Shit. That's what it is. Everything must be brutally scrutinized and analyzed and reviewed. Everything is changing. I've never been involved in something so huge. Granted, we're not changing the world. We're just changing the way thousands of people see it.

As a result of Project MOS, I'm becoming Work Girl. It's scary. Work Girl doesn't have time to clean her house. Work Girl doesn't remember to call her friends. Work Girl eats on the go. She doesn't have time to go to the bathroom, much less go for a run. I feel so guilty, too. I haven't run in two days. Oh, big deal, you might say. But for a runner who also happens to be an anal planner, it's serious.

Just to paint a picture of how my day looked, I'll give you a little play-by-play. Alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m. I sleep till 5:15. I drag my butt out of bed and eventually, out of the house by 6:00 a.m. I get to work at 6:20 (good commute time). I spend the next nine hours in a meeting. No, not meetings, a meeting. Yes, it took 7 adults 9 hours- minus the 13 minutes I spent eating my lunch at my desk while responding to email- to make decisions on Project MOS. I spent about 2 hours after the meeting trying to make sense of our decisions and then send out the notifications that were my responsibility before anyone had a chance to change their mind. You gotta jump on that crap, seriously.

I still felt like a slacker even though I worked my hiney off all day long.

The one thing that did make the day worth all the crap was this note from my boss (one of many (bosses, not notes)):

Great work today. I hope you know how important you are to this project!

But then it was followed by this:

See you at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. We need to get things in order before the weekend! Thanks!

And then I had chips and salsa and a margarita for dinner. You can't do everything perfect in one day. The world would stop rotating.



Note: I've just read Bre's post for today. Apparently, we were on the same wavelength. Let's hope it doesn't happen again, to either of us.

4 comments:

Sizzle said...

yes, let's hope!

Bre said...

yes, please please!?

Mmm a margarita sounds lovely - I made it home (finally) last night and laid down on the couch with a cold one. It pays to have a brewery around the corner!!


and my wvr is "pbrpks"... PBR packs? Blogger is supporting our drinking habits!

deepThoughts said...

I'll keep my fingers crossed for both Bre and you :)

justacoolcat said...

Take it from someone that has been part of the same tech world and massive massive total overhaul projects, you have to learn to take time for yourself.

It's the only way to keep your sanity and not burn out.