The End of a Long Day

 

You know those days where all you really want to do is change into your pajamas and curl up on the couch while you decide which comfort food would make the best meal?

Yeah, I think I’m going to go ahead and do that.

Just Thinking

 

Just a couple of random thoughts tonight . . .

The first thing on my mind is that sometimes it’s hard to know if all the extra time both before and after a day(s) off is worth it.  So far, I’m still saying yes, but it’s only Monday!

Secondly, to revisit Robin Williams for a moment, I’ve seen a lot of video tributes this past week (as has anyone who has not been living in some sort of electronic black-out zone), but this one is so simple and sweet, it seems it should be shared.

Lastly, with every passing day, I wish more and more that I was not tied to a 9-5 office job.  I really need to win the lottery!

When it’s Time to Change

 

Having suffered through several years of hanging on to a job once the joy and satisfaction had gone, I know what it feels like when it’s time to start considering a change.  And I know that it begins with the small feelings of dread that settle into the pit of your stomach on Sunday evenings.  The part that’s not as clear is how to balance out the fact that there are still good parts to a bad situation, and how to know precisely when it’s time to stop considering a change and start making a change.  And, of course, history is not in my favor, since I stuck it out too long last time, leading to a really bad ending.  Only time will tell if I have learned anything from my past mistakes. 

The Countdown is On!

 

 

It’s a bad sign, I think, when the best thing about work is counting down to a long weekend.  Still, bad or not, that’s where I am today.  It was literally all I could do to make myself go into the office today, and I’m thrilled with the idea of looking forward to a three day weekend to celebrate my birthday. 

Don’t get me wrong, there are many good things about my job, but it’s a job, so there are also many not so good things.  I just try to remember that everything—every single thing—is a learning opportunity.  Sometimes it’s about learning how I don’t want to do something, but it still helps me to grow.   And, if (I mean when) I finally hit the lottery and decide to open my own business, I’ll know just how I want to be as an owner. 

Anyway, back, to the good part—an extra day away.  My birthday falls on a Sunday this year, so I’m treating myself to a present of the vacation.  Sure, it’s just one extra day, but I feel like it can make all the difference in the world.

Working Woes

 

I’m conflicted.  A couple of years ago, I was unemployed and just beginning to toy with the idea of returning to school.  Then I buckled down, learned a new trade, and got myself a new job, because that’s what we’re supposed to do, right?  I mean, I do want to contribute to our household, and to society if I can.  Especially now, when hubby and I are making serious plans about retirement in the not-so-distant future and the work it’s going to take to get to that day.

On the other hand, I can’t deny that I enjoyed that summer with no job.  Once I moved past the depression of having lost my job, I mean.  But, really, I could work out every day, any time I wanted.  I could write, read, watch TV, go for a walk.  Brian and I got to have dinner together every night, something that pretty much only happens on the weekends these days.  Honestly, though I’m grateful to be working, there is a lot to be said for unemployment.  If only I could figure out some way to pay my bills!

Snapshot Sunday (Sort Of), March 30

 

 

 

  So, a cheat for a snapshot, but this is what’s on my mind this weekend.  It could be a time of big changes in the household, and it’s all revolving around the suit.  You see, Brian has a job interview tomorrow—his first “real” interview in almost twenty-nine years.  That’s how long he’s been working at the local AFB, and though he’s changed positions there a few times—and had some interviews to go with those new positions—he’s now seriously considering leaving the security of federal employment and venturing back into the private sector.

And, yeah, even having lived through a few furloughs during his tenure, there’s still no denying that working for the fed is much more stable than working out in the real world.  But, stability often comes at a price, and in this situation, the price is working at a job that is simply no longer satisfying.

Anyway, that’s where the suit comes in.  Brian’s not really a suit guy, and has managed through his lifetime owning pretty much just one of them.  As you might imagine, it’s not exactly in-style these days, so we went shopping last week for a nice, basic suit.  We found a decent one for a reasonable price, and the tailoring was finished today, just in time for the big day tomorrow.

Needless to say, he’s a little bit nervous.  He’s feeling out of his element in a whole lot of ways, and I think having to put on a suit and tie is somehow serving as a tangible reminder that he’s stepping far outside his comfort zone.  Of course, it’s really a job he’s perfect for, but we all know people don’t always get the jobs they’re perfect for.  He’s had plenty of experience with that working for Uncle Sam.  Personally, I think glaring oversights happen less frequently in the private sector, so I have a pretty good feeling about the job, but he’s not really interested in a bunch of platitudes, so my current unease mostly has to do with not really knowing how to help calm his. 

And, after the interview will come the waiting, so the sense of unease will continue for a while, but sometimes you just have to make yourself do things that aren’t comfortable, if that’s what it takes to help move into a situation that makes you happy.  Even if it means wearing a suit.

Trial by Jury

So, I was in a bit of a stupor last night. I did start writing this post, then, I guess, drifted off.  I don't have too much actual memory of that, but I vaguely recall that maybe Letterman was on when I turned off the TV and trudged off to bed.  Or maybe it was Ferguson.  It's sort of a blur.

Anyway, I think I mentioned that I was participating in my first trial this week.  There will still likely be more said about that later, but for now the thing that is all-consuming is that we lost.  Honestly, by the time the jury returned with the verdict, I wasn't surprised, since I didn't think the proceedings went all that well, but it was still disappointing.

Disappointing for me, but mostly for our client.  You know, in a lot of ways, I think our society has become too litigious, and I think that makes the average person very wary of anyone's claims.  The days of juries awarding money at the drop of a hat are probably gone.  But, unfortunately, that means that sometimes people who have legitimate claims bear the brunt of today's cynicism, and it's easy to assume that everyone is somehow trying to play the system and is out for whatever they can get.  That's too bad, really, when I still firmly believe that most people are good, decent folks who tell the truth about what happened to them.

Of course, that's the problem with an adversarial justice system, right?  That if you believe most people are telling the truth, it's a difficult thing when two sides are saying different things.  Surely one of them must be lying.  Trials force people to decide things in black or white, when there's almost always a lot of gray in the situation.  And there are real people stuck in that gray, who suffer when they're forced into one area or the other.  All in all, I think it can be a really sad thing. 

Overload

 

Something had to give.  In truth, a lot of things had to give recently, but visiting here at the blog was the one I missed the most.  It’s strange the way life just sneaks up on you sometimes, and you suddenly just find yourself just going with the flow—or raging current—with little to no control.

It started simply enough; I wasn’t feeling too swell one evening.  By the next morning, I was really just feeling sort of “off”, and by end of shift, I was ready to make a stop at the walk-in clinic.  They ended up sending me over to the ER, and by half-way through my visit to the hospital, I was feeling pretty miserable.

The really stupid part of the whole thing?  Nothing too drastically wrong with me, just a pretty bad case of vertigo. (Not that I’m asking for a more serious diagnosis; don’t get me wrong about that!)  Turns out vertigo is not particularly uncommon after a respiratory infection, which I’d dealt with a week or two before that.  What is uncommon, though, at least for me, is not being able to stand for more than a few minutes, or move my head too quickly, even when sitting still, because doing so just about causes a blackout.  It was totally stupid. 

That was a Wednesday night, and I pretty much stayed in bed for the next four days, moving as little as possible.  I think it was at least Saturday before I realized I hadn’t been posting to the blog.  Oops.  I blame it on the medication.  But, Saturday—or maybe Sunday—when I realized I hadn’t been posting, then I made the conscious decision that I couldn’t do it.  I was still feeling pretty cruddy, and I just couldn’t fathom the idea of sitting at a computer even long enough to tap out a short piece, much less actually think of something to tap out.

Monday I dragged myself back to work, but was far from recovered, so had to take a few hours to to drive back to town and see my own doctor to figure out why I wasn’t getting any better.  (And, yeah, driving was undoubtedly a risky proposition at the time, but I managed it, thank God.)

The problem with being sick enough to miss work, of course, is that the work doesn’t care if you’re there today; it’ll just be waiting for you when you make it back.  The first couple of days back, I had no choice but to take it sort of easy, though that just meant getting further and further behind on the work.  By Wednesday, I was finally starting to feel a bit better, but that meant working crazy long hours to try to get caught up again—which still hasn’t happened yet, by the way.

But that’s the sort of thing that starts the George Jetson treadmill going.  Then, the next thing you know, school is being neglected, the PTK weekend event that’s been planned for months is suddenly looming, seemingly unexpectedly, and, oh yeah, at the office, we’re suddenly preparing for trial next week.  So, you get through the week as best you can, muddle through the weekend on a total of about 7 or 8 hours sleep, then drag yourself into the office to do it all again Monday morning. 

As I said, something (besides sleep) had to give.  So, part of the PTK event weekend was missed; an assignment got turned in a few hours late, and my office looks like a cyclone tore through.  And, of course, I didn’t stop to write. 

I’m not happy about any of those sacrifices, but I’m most discouraged by being away from the blog for two weeks.  It was, as I mentioned, a conscious decision (once the meds wore off, you know), so I suppose there’s no one to blame by myself, but a careful analysis of the situation said there was just no way to make it happen.  I think my choice was well-reasoned, and in the same circumstances, I imagine that’s how I ‘d handle it again, but I can’t deny that I felt a little emptiness inside.  So, tonight, I made it home from the office just after ten, ate a quick chicken sandwich while watching the news (it’s amazing how quickly you can feel really out of touch these days), and now I’m here.  I think the treadmill is still running, but maybe something else needs to give for a while.

At the Office

 

So, I ran across this prompt recently that said, “Write about your company”, and instructed that it be done in 100 words or less.  hmm.  I can probably make that work, even though I had sort of a crappy day today courtesy of my company.  I’m not sure if that makes the assignment harder or easier, but we’ll see . . .

My office is a downtown law firm, but don’t think of fancy offices in skyscrapers, filled with dozens of important people in power suits going about their important tasks. 

We’re a small firm—less than fifteen people total—in a a non-descript, one-story building.  And power suits?  Only on rare court days; you’re more likely to find us in jeans and sneakers.

We work hard, we get along (mostly), and we do our best for our clients.  We’re not like the fancy law firms you see on TV, but I think we are doing exactly what legal folks should be doing.

Monday Daydreams

 

It occurs to me that Mondays are much more manageable—enjoyable, even—when I don’t have to work.  Though I have to go in really early tomorrow, and probably stay a bit late, making this short work week a little less short.  I really need to win the lottery so I can have a lot more non-working Mondays.

Actually, Brian has this thought in his head that he would like to retire from his job and start an independent consulting/training business, and I’d be all for helping him make that happen, serving in some sort of administrative capacity.  We just need to do some serious research and planning to determine if that’s even a real possibility.  And, of course, some closer examination of finances to determine exactly what it would take to survive.

Really, that’s all the more reason to keep fingers crossed for the lottery, and I’m not giving up on that idea.

Bigger Not Always Better

 

I had a brief thought today about the difference in working for a small company rather than a large corporation.  It crossed my mind because I needed to do just a bit of work from home, and though I had a hard copy of the necessary document, I decided electronic was really the way to go.  So, I logged in to my work computer via LogMeIn and did what I needed to do.  But slowly.  It’s so mind-numbingly painstakingly slow to do anything through that connection.  It made me wish for the technology of my last job, and its true remote server access, and how you might even have a dedicated laptop already loaded with company software.  The only thing slowing you down then was whatever ISP you happened to be using at the time.  Oh, those were the days.

But then I remembered all the bad things that came along with access to that technology.  Starting with the idea that that sort of access was necessary because people needed to do work from home a lot.  Now, I stay late at my current job pretty frequently, and sometimes I even go in early, but it’s pretty darn rare that I still end up with carry-home work.  My last job I also stayed late and went in early, but it wasn’t at all unusual to still have work at least on my days off, and sometimes even just in between leaving one shift and going back the next day.  I don’t miss that part of it.

And then there was the stress.  I think I might’ve said before that our senior partner is very firmly planted in the “A Type” column, so he can be demanding—and sometimes downright cranky—more often than he probably needs to be.  I’ve seen him make more than one employee cry on more than one occasion, and people walk on egg shells hoping they’re not the ones who’ll have to give him bad news on any given day (Last week I had to break the news that we lost a summary judgment; yuck.).  And then there are the clients with crazy questions and sometimes crying of their own.  And all the rules—who ever knew there were so many rules to follow when you’re suing someone?  I mean, even the font type and size?  Please, how much can it possibly matter?  But it’s all critically important if you want to do your very best for your client.  So, in a nutshell, there’s a lot going on on an given day.  But I still say that when it comes to stress, the worst day I’ve had here is better than the best day at my old job.  That might not all be because of big employers vs. small, but I think it has a lot to do with it.

And why does that matter?  I think it’s because I always feel like a person at my small firm.  With my larger employer, I mostly felt like a number, and, honestly, that’s not such a good feeling.

Truly, the only place the big company wins is money.  There’s no denying that larger companies, by and large, have a greater ability to pay a decent wage.  I’m currently working for not quite half of what I made at the larger company, and you gotta admit, that’s a pretty hefty percentage to give up.

But, you know what?  It’s worth it.

Monday Malady

 

We’ve discussed my feelings about Mondays before.  And, try as I might to put a positive spin on them and consciously force myself to believe that they’re just another day, they still seem to wear me down.  Actually, though, for an office Monday, today wasn’t too bad.  Just normal work and keeping busy all day long, which is really my preference.

No, that bad part about today is that this crud I’ve been fighting finally reared its ugly head yesterday, then really kicked it into high gear today.  I went through just about an entire box of Kleenex, and only have a clown nose to show for it.  Can’t breathe, and can’t stop my head from feeling like it’s going to explode.  After being stuck in traffic for over forty-five minutes on my way home and then feeling more exhausted than seemed normal, I decided I should go ahead and stop by the after-hours clinic.

The good news is there’s no flu or strep; the bad news is it’s a random upper respiratory infection—thus the extreme difficulty breathing.  Doc said I’d be doing folks a favor to stay away from them tomorrow and give the antibiotics a chance to render me harmless, so the best thing to come out of today is that I’ve already notified the office I won’t be in tomorrow.  A sick day isn’t exactly a ton of fun, but I’m here to tell you that right about now, staying in bed for at least twelve or fifteen hours straight sounds like just what the doctor ordered.

I think I’ll go start working on getting that particular prescription filled right now, and go ahead and put this Monday to bed.

Back to the Grind

Tomorrow marks my first return to work since last year.  And I have to say, even with a rained out vacation and the stress of exam-taking, I’ve quite enjoyed the past three weeks.  I used to think that I would never be happy if I wasn’t working, but the older I get, the more I think I was probably wrong about that.  Even now that I’ve found a career that will likely interest me for a really long time, I think I could walk away pretty darn easily.  If only the bills could be dealt with as easily.

Feel Good Friday, December 27

 

Oh, it’s the very best Feel Good Friday in a while, because it’s totally and selfishly about me.  After a long and exhausting day at the office, I walked out the door knowing I wouldn’t have to walk back in for three whole weeks.  That’s right; it’s vacation time!  How could you not feel good about that?

Of course, the last week of my “break” will be spent taking my certification exam, and good portions of the preceding two weeks will be spent studying for said exam, but, still, I don’t have to go to work.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I have a job, and it’s even a job I (mostly) enjoy, but that doesn’t mean I’m not ready for a bit of a break. 

So, yes, I’m worn to a nub at the end of this day that seemed like it might never end, but I haven’t felt this good in a while.  So, I’m going start my vacation by going to bed early and sleeping late and basically just having a totally relaxing weekend.  I hope you can do the same.

Snapshot Sunday, December 22

 

It’s not that I’m bored with the Photo a Day challenge already.  I mean, not exactly.  I’m taking the pictures, but they’re not particularly inspired.  I think the problem is that all the prompts are holiday related.  Well, they don’t have to be, of course, but I think it’s safe to assume that’s the intent, when you’ve got things like “tree”, “on the door”, and “sparkly”, all during the month of December.  And the problem with that is that I have a harder and harder time getting into the holiday spirit as I age.  I don’t like it, but it’s true.  Thus, uninspired photos that aren’t really worth sharing.

So, instead, I’ll share with you some pics from a couple of events of this week: a dress-up day at work and an ice storm that blew through the area this weekend.

First, the office silliness.  Apparently, in days past, the office has done an ugly sweater day, but our office manager decide that was becoming old hat.  Instead, she decided we should have a TuTu Cute Christmas day, wherein we would all dress as a holiday character, but accessorized with a tutu.  It was silly, and I really could’ve better spent my time on things other than making a tutu, but it was still fun.  We had everything from a snowman to Rudolph to Charlie Brown, and all sorts of things in between, including my gingerbread man.

And then there was the ice.  It came in Friday evening, and it’s still here.  We’ve lost a lot of trees, though fortunately none that have come crashing onto our house.  The up side of things is that the roads have miraculously stayed clear all weekend long—probably because we’d had several unseasonably warm days before the storm. As I commented yesterday, the ice really is pretty; it’s just too bad it tears things up the way it does.

And that’s it for this week’s Snapshot Sunday.  Maybe by next week I’ll feel better about the daily pictures again.  Or maybe not.  We’ll see. 

Here’s hoping you all have a great Monday and a wonderful week.

A Moment of Fear

 

Just so you know, there’s no real point to the following story, just a little slice of life from my day . . .

Have I mentioned before that I think my office is haunted?  Yeah.  I’m frequently the last one at work in the evening, and there have been a couple of times I could have sworn I heard voices, even though no one else was there.  Kinda creepy.  But I don’t think spirits had anything to do with the scare I had today. 

I was once again alone at the office, trying to finish a project while dealing with computers that were not functioning properly after a power surge that happened right at 5:00.  Anyway, somewhere around 5:30/6:00, I thought I heard something up on the roof.  Now, our parking lot is on the roof, but like I said, I was the only one in our office, and the neighbors who share our roof-top parking are government employees, so I was quite certain I wasn’t hearing them at such a late hour.  So I wandered down our hallway, trying to get a better understanding of what I was hearing, when I realized I wasn’t hearing somebody on the roof, but rather, in the ceiling.  You know, like up in the attic space where all the ductwork is and all.  That sort of freaked me out, since I knew we weren’t having any work done, and I still thought it was kind of weird to be having any sort of activity after business hours.  But I just kept hearing somebody doing something up in the ceiling.  Finally, after about ten or fifteen minutes of hearing these random noises, I decided I should set the alarm to make myself feel better.  Not that the alarm would do much good if crazed criminals decided to bust down through the ceiling tiles, of course, but it did make me feel better.

And, just shortly after setting the alarm, the noises died down.  I convinced myself that it was just coincidence, not that I’d scared anybody off with the rather noisy process of getting the alarm system armed.  After all, I knew I was still going to be there a while, and then I’d have to walk out onto that rooftop parking lot all by myself; I didn’t want to think about somebody being up in the rafters. 

So, the clock keeps ticking, I finish my project, and finally, about 645, I was ready to go home.  I gather up my stuff and make a stop in the break room to fill my water glass, and I realize I’m really not looking forward to the trek to my car.  I decide I’m going to call Brian while I’m walking out, and I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to juggle my purse, water glass, and keys, along with the manila envelope I’ve got to take to the mailbox, all while walking up a flight of stairs and talking on my cell phone. Not to mention I’ve got to disarm the alarm, and then set it again as I head out.  I’m not sure I’ve got that kind of coordination.  It was one of the few times I’ve ever wished I had jumped on the Bluetooth headphone craze.

Anyway, as I’m pondering how I’m going to pull off this feat, the silence is suddenly shattered by the ear-splitting sound of the alarm siren blaring through the building.  It is such a fortunate thing I had made a trip to the bathroom just a few minutes earlier, or I probably would have peed my pants.  Oh my gosh, my heart was suddenly pounding a million miles an hour, and my brain was racing about what I should do, though the rest of me was pretty much frozen in place. 

After a few (eternal) seconds, I realized that no crazed criminals had come rushing down the hallway, so I was probably still alone in the office, alarm clamoring notwithstanding.  And then I realized that even if someone had come through one of the alarmed doors, the system should not have alerted immediately like it did, because I hadn’t set it to do that.  Maybe this was the ghosts after all.  Or maybe just a malfunctioning security system.  So, I forced myself to walk over to the control panel and shut off the noise, then listened for more seconds to make sure I really was still alone.  And though it seemed I was, my heart was still pounding, and I was actually shaking just a little.  Wow.  I can’t believe how immediately and truly terrified I was.

I did manage to clear my befuddled brain enough to make a phone call to the boss’ wife to let her know what was going on, since I knew the alarm company would be calling her soon, and I explained that I really didn’t know why the alarm went off; I’m hoping maybe tomorrow she’ll have someone out to look at it.  Like I said, I’m frequently alone at the office, and I’d really rather not have another of those terrifying moments any time soon.  Of course, if it really was the office ghosts, then a repairman might not be much help, but I’ve got my fingers crossed for a more earthly explanation.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I finally decided I really wasn’t coordinated enough to get out with all my stuff, and I absolutely was not making two trips out to that roof, so I opted to sacrifice my water glass in exchange for being able to call Brian on my way out.  And, I typically park toward the far end of our parking lot, just to squeeze in a few extra steps every day, though after slowly opening that outside door tonight (and why do we not have a peep hole, btw?), and seeing my car so very far away, I may have to rethink that practice going forward. 

Anyway, since I’m sitting here telling you all about my scaredy-cat moment, it’s obvious that there were no lurking loonies waiting in the dark, and I made it to my car safely.  Still, tomorrow I might have to think about leaving with the crowd.

 

Snapshot Sunday, December 15

 

Generally speaking, when I’m snapping pictures for the photo a day challenge, I use my phone.  Even though I have “real cameras”, as Brian likes to call them, the phone usually wins the job simply by virtue of convenience; it is never far from my hand.

Unfortunately, I think that convenience may have had a detrimental effect on the phone itself.  For a while now—maybe a couple of weeks—I’ve been getting a message that it could no longer conduct a backup because it was too full.  And then for the past day or so, the camera has not been working as it should.  The app would frequently force close, meaning I’d have to take a shot multiple times before it would actually capture a picture.  It was really annoying.  So, today, I finally decided I had to take the time to clear up some memory space and see if that was the cause of the problem.  The good news is that it may have solved the camera problem:  the app didn’t force close even once during multiple test shots, and images were captured on the first try, just like they should be.  The bad news, though, is that as my memory has been filling up, my phone has been filing photos away in random places rather than in sequential folders like it normally does.  I was sort of keeping up with them while they were on the device, but now that I’ve moved them all to a computer file, it’s a big jumble.

And what does all that have to do with Snapshot Sunday?  Well, of course, that means that my daily photos are now needles in a digital haystack, and I haven’t had the time today to dig them out and make sense of it all.  So, today’s pictures will instead be just a couple of snaps from the company Christmas party from last night, taken with one of the “real” cameras.

 

  We had a totally scrumptious dinner at a place called Twelve Oaks.  According to their website, the owner had always wanted to own a restaurant, and a couple of decades ago or so, he bought this beautiful house, had it moved to a remote and peaceful location, and turned it into his dream.  It’s cozy and just a little bit fancy all at once.  And did I mention the food was scrumptious?   

 

More than the food, though, the really great thing is to be working at a place where employees are mostly valued.  It’s been a long time since I’ve had that, and it’s truly something to celebrate.  Not that the office doesn’t have its issues—what office doesn’t?  But for the most part, everyone gets along, tries to help each other, and we laugh every day.  That’s more important than you might think.

Happy upcoming Monday to you all. 

A Rocky Start

 

So, you know that thing where you wake up feeling like crap all over, and you know you can’t drag yourself to work because you’ve got a bit of a fever and you can’t stray too far from a bathroom for too long?  But you argue with yourself, because you’d hate for anyone at the office to think you just had a rough weekend and are making excuses.  (Do people think that about 50 year old women?  I don’t know, but I know I hate calling in at all, but especially on a Monday.)

And after all that debate, you finally just accept that you’ve got to stay home, so then how you sleep on and off all day, just wanting to shake whatever bug is making its home inside you? 

And, then, how nighttime rolls around, and you don’t really feel good, but you don’t really feel tired because you slept so much during the day?  Are you with me so far?

Well, after all that, add in the fact that you’ve not only got a lot of work to do the next day, but a final exam the next evening, and I’ll be glad to tell you that it pretty much sucks. 

However, I did see a random Facebook post today that reminded me of a gift idea I’d had for someone earlier and then totally forgotten I wanted to get them, so that’s good—assuming I remember it long enough to actually buy it. 

Either way, color me not thrilled with this week so far.

 

Monday, Monday

 

 

There isn’t really much to say today, except that it was a Monday, ya know?  Just an all-round, things-not quite-right-feel surrounding just about everything.  Even this post was supposed to be an easy-peasy thing—get it done and hit the hay.  That was almost three hours ago, before I fell asleep on the couch, laptop open, cursor blinking at me.  Now I’ve got a few hours’ sleep, a couple of lines written, and a big ol’ crick in my neck.  Joy.  I’m going to blame in on falling asleep before midnight, while it was still technically Monday.

Still, it was a fairly productive day at work, and I crossed quite a few things off my to-do list (I really enjoy it when the attorneys are out of the office), even if it did seem like things were slightly off-kilter.  I made it to class just in time for lecture, even though I was stuck in ridiculous traffic that caused it to take over twenty minutes to go about four miles (and most of that time was spent in the first three blocks).  And, I got to spend a short amount of time visiting with some fellow PTK members while we staffed a table waiting for canned good donations for our food drive, though we only had one actual donation in the time I was sitting there. 

Still, every single donation counts, and this particular gentleman waited quietly in the background while we talked with some other people about our goals, then timidly came forward to hand us a ten dollar bill.  We weren’t really set up to take cash donations—and it’s technically against school rules—but I wasn’t about to turn him down.  Especially when he looked like he didn’t have too many ten dollar bills to spare.  I thought it was a particularly kind gesture, and he looked very pleased when we took his name down and assured him we’d put his money to good use for fellow students. 

Come to think of it, maybe it wasn’t such a bad Monday after all.

More Than a Game

 

I’ve been thinking about yesterday’s football game, and I’ve decided that six words just aren’t enough to dedicate to the afternoon, so I’m going to chat about it just a little bit more today.

First, let me just say that I was totally overwhelmed to simply have the tickets given to me, particularly by my boss.  Well, okay, technically by my boss’ wife, but still.  They’re a couple, there were two tickets, you gotta figure they at least halfway came from my boss.  Anyway, I thought it was very nice, especially since I still feel like something of an outsider at the office, even after almost six months.  So it was nice.

And, as I believe I may have mentioned, they were excellent seats.  Brian kept saying he was sure someone was going to realize we didn’t really belong and come kick us out.  Silly man.  But he really enjoyed the location.  And it really was a different perspective than from the cheap seats we usually inhabit.

But, besides the normal football playing, we got to see a couple of other things during the game, as well.  For one thing, there was the goofball who decided to run out onto the field during a commercial break.  Who ever knows what people are thinking when they do such foolishness, but the fans gave a roar of appreciation for the highway patrolman who brought the guy down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of more significance, though, was an event that happened earlier in the game.  You know those surprise military reunions that make the rounds of news clips and YouTube posts?  Well, we were treated to seeing one live, and if you ever think those videos are doctored or something to make them more emotional, I’m here to say that they are not. 

At each home game, OU has a military recognition moment; whether an active duty or vet, they recognize someone who has served.  So it didn’t seem all that strange when they were recognizing a man who was still serving in Afghanistan.  His family was on the field to accept on his behalf, and he had a taped message to play on the big screen.  But then the Sooner Schooner was coming out onto the field, and the crowd—and his family—realized what was happening.  It was great to see and there were giant smiles and misty eyes all over that stadium.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, all in all, free tickets and great seats weren’t anywhere near the best things about the day, and I’m really glad we were there to take it all in.