Thursday, July 21, 2005

My Redhead Leaves Me, So I'll Sleep With a Blonde

We left The Odd One at the office and the car ride home was spent with a tear-filled daughter, already missing her mom. Now we are working on dinner and it is harder than it has to be. Considering what little time I have I had to resort to some prefab meal, and then I read where I have to first use a sauce blend and then mix a topping for later--but the two packets are unmarked and either contents could qualify as the other.

Not bad enough, two times I have rushed back into the kitchen when I hear food spilling onto the burner, only to find no such incident. Visit three reveals our psycho kitten was getting wild with plastic shopping bags under the dining table. OW told me to give the cats kisses because she couldn't tell them goodbye. My response was, "Ain't gonna happen." Amazing: two short months ago I rescued this feline from probable doom, and now when it gets wild and wakes us up in the middle of the night I am plotting her death.

The workload and pace of our office is insane right now, and that is not because I'm a neophyte at this game. Everyone is stretched, most are working 12+ hours a day, and we all share in that 1000 yard stare at times. A few in the office--and TOW especially--have looked my way to see how I'm faring, but I seem to be holding my end of the deal. Friday morning will see 2/3 of the staff away on the business trip, including our department head (The Odd Wife), and another desk will be empty as one more person is pulled away to help another department, leaving just one person to run our end of things.

Me.

Some people achieve competency, others have it thrust upon them.

One day already this week I was working on 2 or 3 files that had to close in a day, then a new one was brought in that had, Had to close. After that I was given another job, from another department and which I had never done, that HAD to be finished and rushed out Fedex with a short deadline. One person commented that they were surprised I wasn't running around in a panic, but all I could do was laugh at it all. Everyone's job is a priority, every file has to close yesterday, and at some point I had to see it for the surreal nature that it was. When everything is a crisis how do you prioritize? It is also fun to watch people as they react to the way I diffuse the tension. Most are serious and don't expect to hear me cracking wise in the middle of the fury. I'm also keeping PEZ dispensers on my desk. Hey, it works for me.

It is impressive though to watch my bride operate in the workplace. She is so natural at it and has an aptitude for things that I envy. She knows intuitively how to interact and speaks the lexicon fluidly, and she is whip smart on the computer. Once already however she was training me and getting frustrated and I told her, "OK, put the claws away. I'll get it." She has admitted that she is short on patience when people don't grasp technology as fast as she does. Mostly though I love working with her. Especially during the furor it is great to be able to look over at her and share a glance and a smile, and even though we have to eat and work we can have one or the other make lunch and relax together for a brief spell.

I have 48 hours now without my wife nearby. Ironically it is always odd when I lack The Odd Wife. She's my tether around here and when she takes a trip I end up laying about late at night with no real reason. I'm not scared to sleep alone, it just means that her absence is palpable and I end up reading or watching movies before forcing myself to cut off the lights around 2:00 in the am. Guaranteed though, there won't be a lack of cuddling in bed, albeit forced. I have to make a point of giving the 90 lb. blonde Labrador a bath tonight because once he spies that expanse of unused bed he will claim his swath with all the subtlety of a monster truck at a rally in Shreveport.

'Night all

Posted by Anonymous :: 9:12 PM :: | ---------------------------------------