...and I just finished what passed for dinner (Spinach, which I oversalted in my haste). And for whatever reason, here I sit in front of my slowly dying laptop, trying to mentally unwind abit before I take care of the list of about eighteen things that need to happen between now and Sunday.
I have a love-hate relationship with my computer. I won't pretend I don't know how to waste an evening surfing youtube or blogs or whatnot, or that all my time on the computer is productive. I'm not much good without the damn thing, though; it keeps me connected to the world and, well, to my life.
But I am on it way too much. I'll go blind one of these days. I'm hoping writing a bit will settle my mind, and ranting is just about as good as anything else, and I don't even have other people to villanize my rants (oh ye winds of change!).
I'm a bit stressed out at the moment. My 40-hour-a-week 9-to-5 job has turned into 9-till-you're-finished, which today was 8:30. Today was print deadline; all of the 40 fabulous sessions you find on our website had to be sent, in two languages, to the printer's in Spain. We're busy calling our list of unconfirmed speakers, trying to find out who's coming and who's not. We have half an hour to do all the reports from the database, and of course there are glitches. I do my 40 sessions and find out I have to redo about half of them because the "rules" have changed, and meanwhile people are confirming or declining or changing their presentations, and meanwhile I keep getting phone calls from someone in England who wants to discuss his presentation with me (the presentaiton he will not be giving, because he can't come, a fact I discovered only after four conversaitons with his secreatary and two days of call-backs) and from my boss, who wants to email these documents--that I haven't finished--to spain. Ai yi yi.
But we got it done. I think the Spanish sessions aren't 100% identical to the English ones, but we identified the discrepancies and the translator there will fix them. The website (my normal domain) has been updated (after I discovered about fifteen broken links), everything printed, filed, and organised.
Otherwise, I am trying to keep what passes for my life together. I'm trying to turn in three huge papers this week, except I am in the unfortunate position of depending on other people to correct them-- and "a lack of prior planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part" really does mean I have to sit down, shut up, and wait. And these kindhearted people are doing their best and I already have one and ahalf papers back to me.
The nice man at the international office signed and stamped a form I needed, so one more thing off of my list. Now, in my spare time (hah!) I have to find out how to get home from the airport at 11 PM on a friday night, how to get to France without spending 200€ apiece and where to stay when I get there. And I have people coming for dinner friday night, assuming I don't have to stay all night at work (grrrr). It's still relatively inconvenient but I have rainchecked twice and don't want to again--I ahven't seen these people in weeks. Somewhere in there I have to pack for a 3-week trip covering half of central and southern Europe, get things sorted out for my registration for the next two (!) semesters, prepare for the subsequent semester, somehow meet my new language exchange partner, clean my appartment, and not go crazy in between. If I've forgotten anything, please let me know...
So, back to work. I can sleep when I'm dead. Or on the bus/plane/train/bus from FR to Sevilla.
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1 comment:
Remember the number one rule of stress management. Prioritize what has to be done, and when, and ruthlessly postpone or cancel as needed. Get rid of everything optional. And remember, this, too, shall pass. See you soon, lucky me. mom P.s. We don't have to get to Freiburg from Basel until sometime Saturday. It wouldn't be the first airport we've slept in.
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