Dee74

last part here:
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...rt-8-a-20.html

D

Briar

Hi guys. I had a nice day with my family out in the country. My daughter loves it out there, so much delightful dirt, mud, creeks, toads, lizards, everything a little kid loves. My brother and his girlfriend have a farm stand and a huge garden where they grow their produce. We got to pick carrots with them today, which was a lot of fun. It was good for me to get outside in the sun and do something real like that. I felt pretty good today, tired and occasionally a little overwhelmed, but I took that as an opportunity to practice quieting down for a minute and kind of resetting myself.

Speaking of that, I was talking with my brother's girlfriend, and she was telling me about how my brother never plans very many things in a single day because he gets overwhelmed easily and needs to take his time. Not that he's lazy or inefficient, quite the opposite, he just needs his time and space to work and gets frustrated and upset when rushed. I realized I'm exactly the same way, and when I try to cram too much into my life on top of my stressful job, I lose it. So that was a valuable thing to think about, learning what my limits are and how to work within them.

V - I'm so sorry you're still not feeling well. That sounds awful. I agree it would be a good idea for you to see a doctor. One time when my husband was very sick, I took him to urgent care just so they could give him some IV fluids. After that he felt much better and recovered quickly, it made a huge difference.

Conquest - I hope your date went well. Very exciting! Been about 12 years since my last 2nd date, but I remember that feeling. Enjoy it!

Phoebe - good to hear from you. Thank you for your well wishes, sorry my self-indulgent drama gave you a very long string of posts to catch up on. Ugh. I know exactly that "no one will ever know" line. I hear that one a lot. My husband has a work thing tomorrow night and will be staying in a hotel, so my daughter and I are going to have a slumber party in my room. She'll be sleeping on his side of the bed.

Arbor - I'm sorry your little one has a cough. I feel so bad for sick kids because they don't understand what's happening. I also feel bad for the parents because ain't nobody sleeping in that house! Mine gets that nasty cough every year and seems to have it all through the cold season. For whatever reason she's prone to pneumonia, so at least once a year she ends up on the albuterol and inhaled steroids which is just such a pain. I hope she will grow out of it soon.

FAD - sounds like you got a lot done outside. You can come do my place next.

Back to work tomorrow. Already panicking over the impossible condition of my desk, and trying to figure out how I'm going to carve out enough time to return the no fewer than 30 calls I have leftover from last week, plus whatever came in over the weekend. Just thinking about it makes it kind of hard to breathe. I'm going to really try not to freak out this week, though. That didn't serve me very well last week.

Dee74

I know you're good at your job Briar - it may take a few days to get on top of it, but I have no doubt you will.

Can you delegate any of the work at all?

D

venuscat

Briar, so glad to hear about your lovely day. And your insights...I am the same as your brother, and I have learned to cut myself a break. I guess I am just not one of those Type A personalities. I like my down time. I like to work and rest.

With regards to your huge workload, this may sound silly, but can you go in a half hour early? Or is that too hard with your little one? I have found that starting a bit earlier makes all of the difference for me. Just a thought.

I am starting to feel better; think the worst is over here.

venuscat

(If I could have a dollar for all of the times that Dee and I post within a minute or two (or three) of each other....well, I could buy a new car...almost. )

Briar

Dee - I had a person helping me 4 hours a day for several months, which was wonderful, but she was reassigned about two weeks ago when another employee went on leave. I probably won't get her back because her position is temporary and ends next month. Budget constraints are such that we probably can't afford to extend the position. They have given me an intern to help with a special project, which I appreciate, but working with interns requires an investment of time to train them, and the return on that investment is pretty small as they usually only give us 120 hours. I mean, I'm grateful for whatever I can get, but a permanent half time person would be a dream come true. I've been doing my job for six years, and in that time the job has grown significantly, but the staff hasn't. I've been struggling the past couple of weeks because I suddenly lost my help, realized she was grossly behind on her work, and then spent 10 hours I didn't have to spare on training an intern. It has just been a lot to manage. Hopefully the coming week won't be as challenging. At least now I think I have a pretty good idea of the full scope of what I'm dealing with and am past the phase of discovering millions of things I need to get done, like, a month ago.

Briar

V - I'm so glad to hear you're feeling better! That's the best news!

Unfortunately, I work for the government, and they are very strict about employees staying within their eight hours and designated times. So flexing my schedule or doing overtime isn't an option.

The upside of working for the government, however, is that it's virtually impossible to get fired. So actually, why am I trying so hard to be a good worker?...

venuscat

Because you have an excellent work ethic. And self respect. And you care about the work.

Sorry that my idea isn't going to work...

Briar

Well, your idea is a very good one, and I would certainly do it if I could. My husband goes into work very early for that reason, it is so much easier to work when the office is quiet and the emails aren't pouring in and the phone isn't ringing and I'm not getting paged on the overhead. A few times when I've lost weekdays to care for my sick daughter or been sick myself, I've been allowed to flex days and work a Saturday instead. It was HEAVEN! Maybe I should try to work out that situation more often!

Do you have anything fun to watch tonight?

venuscat

Of course.

I am the download queen. Watching a show called Chasing Life right now...and I have a movie by the author of The Notebook. And James Marsden stars....he is so dreamy. Called "The Best of Me".

If only I had a degree in television....sigh.

venuscat

Hope tomorrow is a good day for you Briar...and all of us.
Thank you all for being so supportive when I'm sick. I really appreciate it.

Briar

Haha! You should be a consultant for people wanting to get into watching TV. You could analyze their personality profiles and recommend shows and movies they would like. Get them all set up with NetFlix or whatever, work out all that stuff...seriously, I don't do it mainly because it all sounds like a daunting task for someone who came of age with a VCR and a TV with a clotheshanger antenna.

Dee74

I empathise, lol

I try to prioritise and I try to do what I can without knocking myself out or sending me gaga.

I've worked in government and it's true you're probably your own worst taskmaster...most of my bosses never cared what I did.

it's important work for sure but we all have our limits...don't knock yourself out

D

Briar

It's true, Dee, the worst boss I've ever had is me. Good work habits are very tricky.

venuscat

Well, I have HD TV working through a ribbon antenna (from the 60s/70s) that I have hooked up through an old VCR to make a better receiver....daughter of an engineer. So the coat hanger thing is not lost on me. I make do.

Sleep well Briar. ♥

Briar

I love it, V!

Good night.

BrighterDayz

The new ride is a Jeep Patriot, slate (dark grey), it was time, Honda was 12 years old with 214,000 miles. Sure does feel good to drive a new car again!

Feel better V. Conquest, loved the link! Good for you. Briar, take a deep breath LOL.

Conquest

Quick hello!

My date was aaaaaawesoooooome. Details later

Venus, I hope you're feeling better today. I post a link by copying the link I'm using, hi lighting the text that I want it to link to in the post, clicking the icon that looks like an earth with a paper clip (?), a window pops up and you insert the link to use... I wish I was there because it'd be much easier just to show ya! But I hope that helps.

Keep it sober, peeps! Much love

Mark1014

Unusual for me to sign in from work, but not feeling comfy in my own skin today. I think it'll help just having SR hand out a bit with me this morning.

Briar

Hey FAD, your morning going all right?