It's like, you know, whatever...

Last night someone I had just met told me that she feels like she knows me. I started to say that I have one of those faces (because I do - seriously - I look like that girl you went to 2nd grade with), but before I could say anything she added, "Because of the Follies. I had fun watching you in the Follies, and I feel like I know you." (first of all, wow! really?)

"Great," I said facetiously, "You know me as Zuzu [a clueless ditz]. That's not good."

And she said, "But I like you!"

We were coming from a meeting at which I managed to have an overwhelming coughing fit and had to leave the room just as the meeting was starting, and when I got back and everyone (EVERYONE) inquired whether I was okay, I said, "I'm just trying to get out of participating." Am I clever or what?

Don't say "Or what," because you'll hurt my feelings. Unless you're being funny. Then you'll only mock-hurt my feelings.

Back on track: It's been a long time since anyone outside of the Follies 2010 Writing Team has mentioned Zuzu (not counting my kids) or me in the Follies at all. It was cool of her to say something because, frankly, the glow was starting to wear off for me. Sure, I'm all participatey in the writing of the Next Big Show with all my funny suggestions and whatnot (at least 2 of my ideas are definitely IN the show in October), and that's cool and creative and those 6 people on the team with me appreciate me, but with all the other stuff, the house not selling, me messing up Lulu's educational future, the dog costing $80,000,000,000 and not having anything wrong with her, I haven't seen my mom in forever and she's only an hour away, etc., etc., etc... WHIIINE... Where was I? Oh, right. It was nice to feel special for a moment.

And isn't it weird that she was so affected by my performance that she remembers it even now, 5 months later? Maybe not weird, but... you know.

My Meeting

When I worked in Big Bank Land, I didn't like meetings because... well, do you like meetings? Really? This morning, though, I had a meeting (that I scheduled) with the principal to talk about the upcoming year and what we wanted to do and everything. I was nervous. Because I am always nervous in new situations. And because she is The Principal, you know. THE Principal. And now it's over, and I am not nervous anymore because it went great! But I have a ton of things to do. But we agreed that one of the things I was trying to do would be too much for this year and it has been tabled in favor of several smaller things. I'm so excited.

Another thing about Big Bank Land: The work that I was most proud of and that I really enjoyed doing was the stuff that was outside of my job description, you know, special projects. Like creating things and planning things and stuff. I realized in the car on the way home from my meeting that this PTA thing that I've taken on and that has been worrying me a little more than it should be, I think, is full of those types of things. Today I have to create a form and a parent survey and plan the first morning coffee and investigate spaghetti dinners. Just imagine what they'll say when those things are finished and are wonderful! "[Mommy's Nintendo] did that! Good job, [Mommy's Nintendo]!"

And then that part of me that signs me up for stuff that other part of me doesn't think I can handle can say, "Ppbblllttt!" to the other part and I can do something even more wonderful for the next time.

The...(gasp!)...BUS! AAAIIIEEEEE!!!!

Okay. I only sort of feel that way. A little bit of a lot, as Pete would say. I think Pete is too little to ride the bus, but at the same time I think she is big enough, but also she's not. But she's going to. When I talked to the assistant principal at Pete's school last week - she handles all the bus stuff - she commented that she had children, PreK children even, who were getting on the bus more than two hours before school starts!! That's more than two hours on the bus because they don't pick them up that early and take them right to school!!! And some of them are 4 years old!!!! Poor kids! I told Pete that we would still look into letting her ride the bus because she's wanted to ride a school bus since she was a toddler and first noticed those big yellow cars on her way to preschool. The one year we sent her to a real private school she was very disappointed that they didn't even have an activity bus for field trips (I was a little surprised by that too, actually, considering how much it cost to go there), and when we went on her offsite meeting last year, we took an activity bus and she loved it. So I asked the AP to look into a bus stop for us, and I told her that if the bus came for Pete more than an hour before school started we weren't interested. And here's what she found out: the bus will pick Pete up 6 minutes before we would normally leave for her school in the morning and drop her off 4 minutes later than we would normally get home in the afternoon. We can't pass that up. But she's so little. But she's sooooooo excited. We can always change our minds. Right?

More About My Bosses

My bosses can be really childish and sort of naïve sometimes. That's actually what keeps me here. If they weren't like that, I'm sure I'd still be trapped in Big Bank Land with bosses who are "professional" (a.k.a. "political"), drumming my fingers through conference calls and gritting my teeth through "team-building" luncheons and dreading the rush-hour drive home. I adore my bosses. Everyone has their little traits that make them interesting. Childish and naïve, in this case, are a couple of the least bothersome traits any of my bosses have had.

Off-Site Meeting (part 2)

Boss 1's daytime office had their off-site meeting last Friday. It was an educational team-building sort of thing. The whole thing was outdoors, and it was chilly (it was 90º two days before!) and misting, but it held off really raining until it was time to leave.

I was with a little group that included Boss 1 and some of her daytime co-workers. On the bus ride there, you could tell everyone was psyched to be out of the office for the day. When we got there, we started by having lunch first, which I think was a good idea because then we didn't have to worry about stopping to eat. The facility had the whole day planned out for us. When they were listing all the things we had to do, I didn't think it sounded like we had quite enough time. We were supposed to be back at the office by 2:00 because Boss 1 and her co-workers had an afternoon appointment, but they wound up missing that. Nobody seemed to really mind.

We had a good time, though. There were several agricultural exhibits that included planting and care of livestock (of all things!). And we took a tour of the facility. Then we were helping with harvesting when it started to really rain and we had to run back to the buses.

The bus ride home was less chaotic than the ride there, and it still seemed to take forever. I'm glad I wasn't driving! When we got back, Boss 1 cut out early and came back to the office with me. Boss 2 had had a temp helping her, and it looked like they'd had a quiet day so that was nice.

Off-site meetings are sure exhausting! But the change of pace was nice.

Working the Weekend

We had a crazy weekend! We had a bunch of meetings scheduled, starting Friday evening. Some of it was team-building stuff that was fun so I guess it could have been worse. At least they weren't conference calls!

Friday was the first team-building meeting. The place where Boss 1 has her swimming lessons has a night once a month or so where you can just come and use the pool. Boss 1 had me sign us all up. So Boss 1, Boss 2, Mr. Co-Worker, and I all went together (we carpooled!) and spent an hour and a half just hanging out in the pool. Has your work ever done that? It was really nice and kind of relaxing. I hadn't been swimming for years! And Boss 2, who had only ever been swimming once, was a little nervous at first but wound up having a great time.

Then on Saturday, we had an exhibition downtown. That didn't turn out to be what we were expecting. It was more just a festival, but it was really fun, and again, we all went together. Int he afternoon, Boss 1 had a meeting with some folks from her daytime office. The Saturday things overlapped, but we made it to both with time for lunch in between.

Then Sunday Boss 1 and I had an appointment with one of our temps. That one was catered!

Whew! We were all super busy. Did you ever think you'd be waiting for Monday morning so you could take a break?

Morning Meeting

Almost every morning, Boss 2 and I meet for a one-on-one. We review literature on topics like teamwork and skill-building and vocabulary and problem solving and even appearance and do team-building exercises in a quiet environment. This morning, we read about perseverance and listened to music. Boss 2 usually takes a siesta afterward. I like that I work with bosses who take rests when they need to.

Off-Site Meeting (probably part 1)

Boss 1's daytime office has scheduled an offsite meeting in a couple of weeks and they asked me to go along. Woo hoo!