Work Eating Me

I slept until 535am. Looked like another clear day ahead. I whipped out sit-ups and curls then poured a cup of coffee. It was another cool start, only 52 degrees. Expecting a high near 80 later. Looks like a beautiful weekend in the offing – sunny and in the 80s through Sunday. Sweet!

Played around online for the next 20 minutes. Walked away to meditate near 615am. I know ,I’ve been slackin’ on pulling away from the computer for a quite a while now. I really need to get that in check. Had upstairs to wake Mindy with the usual, coffee with hazelnut creamer, whipped cream and cinnamon. After a quick hug I headed back downstairs to stretch and then dress for a run.

Stretching felt great. I also took three Advil. For some reason, I’ve had a dull headache for two days running. I put on my pullover fleece for my run. It was pretty but relatively chilly. Like most workdays, I ran 4.1 miles. It was an easy run and went by quickly. Was back at home in the blink of an eye.

At home I leashed up the dog then headed out for our walk. Walked east a ways then across the street and back. Eiknarf and I have never taken that route, but Sparky used to frequently. Mindy had fried eggs waiting for me in the microwave. I poured the last of the OJ from the Simply Orange jug. Bella frowned. But there was a new jug inside the fridge. I got it out, topped off my own then poured some for Bella. She bellyached about it not being Simply Orange. Instead, it was Tropicana. Our daughter is already falling for TV marketing, a very powerful tool. She’s convinced only Simply orange has pure orange juice. Mindy soon headed off to work sharing that she’d almost certainly be coming home mid-day to look after Jacob, who was once again staying home ill. To my knowledge, we didn’t have a thing planned for the evening. We discussed dinner options but were noncommittal.

I was off to the shower around 735am. I dressed extra nice, this being another customer-facing meeting day, only this time downtown. Headed to the bus stop with Bella at 808am. Chrissy met me there crying the blues. Seems her and Kenny have been going at it like married couples sometimes do. She was noticeably bummed. I gave her a hug and listened. The bus was late again by at least 5 minutes. On the surface, that might not seem like a whole lot but on a work day morning every minute counts.

Back at the house I enjoyed another cup of coffee before heading downtown. Arrived as early as I had any time previously. No traffic snarls anywhere, even getting off at Neil Ave near Nationwide Arena. Parked on the 7th floor of the Arena Grand parking garage and made my way down an eventually into their building entering off Marconi. I met a peer in the lobby then waited on a few others while he headed in to start the meeting.

This would be my last meeting with the team as I am moving on to other accounts aligned in what we're referring to as the retail vertical. I'd never personally met my replacement before, though I've talked with him several times on the phone. I waited in the lobby until he and his boss arrived.

The meeting was a bit contentious but ended OK. I felt small when the customer perceived my exit from the account as a reactive change to help improve the relationship. Oh boy! The meeting went a little long too. Didn't get out of there until 10am, and then we spent a few minutes chit-chatting in the parking garage before heading separate ways.
My peer was going to ride back to the office with me while his boss headed to another Columbus account team meeting in New Albany, but the plans changed abruptly when she realized she'd have to back track several miles to pick him up at our office before the headed back to Cleveland.

I stopped at Lowes before heading into the office. There I bought two narrow planters and herbs for Mindy. Picked up a 4-pack of solar rechargeable batteries too, hoping they'll resolve the issues we're having with three of the four color-changing solar powered landscape lights I bought Mindy for Easter.

Made it in to the office near 11am. My boss stopped in around 1130am to chat. I thought he'd be at the New Albany meeting but he wasn't. We talked for a while about some of the customer reporting one of my two new customers is requesting. More specifically, I questioned whether it made sense for me to dedicate the effort to get the detail they're apparently after. We'll see where this ends up.

My day got really busy in a hurry, and just when I thought I might have two easy days ahead of me. Within the next hour I had three ugly issues I had to help one of my customers with. And all three ended up consuming the rest of my day. In fact, I ended up at the office until almost 6pm.

Mindy phoned a time or two, eventually calling my office desk phone. I answered while dialing out on another line, but had to tell her how busy I was and needed to go. I wasn't in a very pleasant state of mind - a bit frantic even.

Took work home with me because two of the three issues I was dealing with were still going on. Mindy, meanwhile, had left work early to spend the afternoon at home with Jacob. She made a run to the Arlington Whole Foods and bought some fish to grill for dinner along with some White Rajah. She was a bit bummed that I was running behind.

Not only did Mindy grill some fish, but she had everything set-up to eat on the deck. Said they didn't have the Chilean sea bass we love so she bought halibut, something we hadn't tried before. It was good, but no mistaking it for Chilean sea bass. It was fresh & flaky. Tastes a lot like fish you might get on a good fish sandwich. With the halibut, we had a garden salad and grilled zucchini. Everything was good.

I had a hard time letting go of work, knowing, feeling like I had to follow-up again right after dinner. Mindy asked me to stay seated after we finished just so we could spend some quiet time together. By then it was just her and I since Bella ran off to play with friends. But my mind was racing with work. I managed to sit tight for 5-10 minutes but got moving after that. I whizzed through dinner clean-up then headed outside to water flowers. They all needed it, and I figured that would help calm me down. I hurried through the watering, spending only about 20 minutes front and back.

I headed inside to follow-up on that work issue. Ended up spending another couple hours going back and forth with one of the NOCs supporting my customer, and then even got a call from my boss asking for clarification. During all of that the four of us watched Idol elimination night where after the results only two would remain leading into next week's finale. In the end, Joshua was sent packing.

Mindy & Jacob peeled off for bed right after Idol. Bella and I remained up watching Touch, just as the two of us have for the past couple of weeks. I like the fact that she enjoys programs like Touch, programs that challenge conventional thinking. I stayed up after Touch but only for another 20 minutes or so until I got really sleepy. I headed upstairs with the pug dropping her off in Bella's room before leaping into bed. Can't wait for the weekend!