Thread Drift

[Crankin]

I definitely will, Mimi. We will not be unpacking and building the bikes for our 2 days there, though... so it will be a social visit! We'll be in Seattle on a Thursday and Friday, flying back on Saturday.

[NbyNW]

Hey Crankin!

That sounds like an awesome vacation. Remember to bring your passport, because you may be tempted to do a daytrip to some of the Canadian Islands!

I'm actually spending this week in Friday Harbor. It's a sweet little town, I'll let you know if we come across any must see/do/eat while we're here.

[lph]

This has nothing to do with anything, but it was hilarious. Anyone needing flame fuel against sexist advertising could do worse than look here:

http://gizmodo.com/5873804/please-ke...ut-of-my-email

[indysteel]

Awesome! Now we have off-color spammers (in the thread about funny conversations with non-cyclists)!

[salsabike]

This has nothing to do with anything, but it was hilarious. Anyone needing flame fuel against sexist advertising could do worse than look here:

http://gizmodo.com/5873804/please-ke...ut-of-my-email

Oh man, that's funny!

[indysteel]

I'm going crazy trying to keep my calendar from blowing up. I have two days a week that I meet with a personal trainer over my lunch hour. I have a third day each week that I almost always have lunch with one of my best friends whom I would otherwise never get to see. The other two lunch hours are often filled with meetings. I'm used to that, but suddenly, everybody and their brother wants to schedule a lunchtime meeting. I'm already well into March, and I don't have a single free lunch hour. I know that sounds like no big deal, but it sometimes nice to just sit at my desk and read TE.

But today was emblematic of what really drives me crazy. I scheduled a meeting for today about a month ago with the volunteer coordinator at the YMCA. Last week, an issue came up at work that required a meeting for today, so I rescheduled my Y meeting for Thursday--which meant that I had to cancel lunch with my girlfriend. Then my work meeting got cancelled so suddenly today was open again. Last night, I got an email from the woman at the Y saying that she had to cancel Thursday's meeting. I asked if she could meet today--the day we were originally scheduled to meet. Fine; she say. That'll work. Then this morning she cancelled on me because of a conflict that just arose on her end.

Did you follow all that? Likely, you didn't because even my head is still swimming. See, I contort my calendar only to then have everything cancel at the last minute anyway. It's maddening.

So, now I'm moving onto breakfast meetings. I hate breakfast meetings, but if it means my lunchtime calendar is less crazy, then so be it.

[bmccasland]

Indy - my head is spinning from your lunch meetings.

I actually block time on my calendar for lunch. That way it looks like I'm busy, but in reality keeps people from scheduling meetings through lunch - because they don't include actually eating.

[Catrin]

Yikes Indy, I thought my week schedule was wild! I hope things calm for you soon, part of our lunch breaks are to unwind a touch for the rest of the day and you aren't getting that chance at all

bmccasland - good idea, when things get too wild at work I will do that myself.

[Crankin]

Gee, my schedule is full of things like 7 year olds with suicidal intent, a family of 8 getting their washer and dryer allowance taken away by the housing authority at the same time their 10year old daughter is refusing to go to school because of increasing anxiety, and deciding how I am going to help tell the 14 year old sister of my client that her dad is never coming home because he molested their little brother.
I'm not complaining. But, I try to keep my lunch time free so I can sit at my desk and look at TE before I go back to reality....

[indysteel]

Gee, my schedule is full of things like 7 year olds with suicidal intent, a family of 8 getting their washer and dryer allowance taken away by the housing authority at the same time their 10year old daughter is refusing to go to school because of increasing anxiety, and deciding how I am going to help tell the 14 year old sister of my client that her dad is never coming home because he molested their little brother.
I'm not complaining. But, I try to keep my lunch time free so I can sit at my desk and look at TE before I go back to reality....

Well, that puts a lot into perspective. That is some heavy stuff. My job offers its own reality checks, they're not nearly as stark as yours.

[Sky King]

When I was a marketing rep all my lunches were meetings so I started blocking out 3:30 to 5, 3 days a week and went to spinning class. I had several evening events so never felt guilty about taking an hour and a half for myself. Now that I work at Bike Touring News, downstairs from my house I miss those meetings but will say I love being my own boss

[indysteel]

When I was a marketing rep all my lunches were meetings so I started blocking out 3:30 to 5, 3 days a week and went to spinning class. I had several evening events so never felt guilty about taking an hour and a half for myself. Now that I work at Bike Touring News, downstairs from my house I miss those meetings but will say I love being my own boss

Oh, I wish I could do that. Few of my lunch time meetings are actually work related, so I can't balance out my work day like that. Most of them, instead, relate to volunteer/civic things I'm involved with.

I'll admit that I further complicate my schedule because, minus yoga one day a week, I try to go straight home after work, at least during the winter. I have some night vision issues and a 25-milie commute, so I like to get home before dark. Come March, it gets easier to schedule things because of Daylight Savings Time, but during the winter, I find myself having to cram a lot into my work day. Ironically, work itself is really slow right now; it's my lunch hour that's nuts.

But Crankin offered a dose of perspective. Plus, I do like to be busy most of the time. I just hate when things have to get rescheduled over and over again.

[Wahine]

Wow, Crankin. EEK! I couldn't do it. No. Way. The little bit of emotional overflow from life issues etc at my job drains me like crazy. I can't imagine having a day full of that stuff.

[Crankin]

I guess I have the ability to compartmentalize really well . Seriously, if you can't do this, you wouldn't make it in this field and be healthy. But, at times, when I was a teacher, other teachers told me "I thought like a man." OK, but teaching was super stressful, too. The key for me is not to make it my whole life. Like, today, I just came back from my cycling group, where we went on a 6 mile hike. It was close to my house and I don't have a client until 3. The outdoor activity keeps me sane.That and the fact my DH is very supportive. Really, the only one of the things I listed that is on my mind, is the first one. The kid is seeing the psychiatrist at my clinic tomorrow for her meds and together we will decide if she needs to be hospitalized. I just didn't feel like I needed to have an assessment done right away, but there's always that nagging thought.

[indysteel]

Wow; it's not often that I totally lose my cool with something, but today I did. We were scheduled to have windows installed in our basement this coming week. The contractor doing the work is the same one that we used last year for the rest of our windows. The work itself was done very well, but we used them again with a lot of hesitation because the saleman we have to deal with is a bit of a jerk. Among other issues, he jacked us around last year because the guys who were set to do the work (it was a 4-day job) do snow removal on the side. This was not revealed ahead of time to us when we scheduled the work. On the day they were set to start, we got a snowstorm and they insisted they had to reschedule--after we had taken days off work. Being generally nice people, we accommodated them. When we went to schedule the current job, the saleman gave us his usual song and dance about how they can't give us a firm date, blah, blah, blah.

Fast forward to this last night and this morning. My husband found out last night that his best friend's father is within 12 to 36 hours of passing away. He's been ill for the last two months, but the family decided to remove life support earlier in the week and he is, at the age of 67, not long for this world. My husband has known this family since he was five, and he's very upset about it. It doesn't help that his friend's mother is in the advanced stages of metasticized breast cancer herself and is also not long for this world. It's a sad situation.

Anyway, we anticipate needing to travel out-of-state to the funeral sometime in the next few days. DH contacted the salesman as soon as we learned this, and he had the inhumanity to give my husband quite a bit of grief about having to reschedule the work. My husband forwarded their email exchange to me, and I went ballistic.

I called the salesman myself at this point. I have sensed in dealing with him that I scare him. People like him are often intimidated by attorneys and, frankly, I use that to my advantage. I was calm and polite about it, but I made it clear that the only correct response was: "I am so sorry for your loss. We will work with you to reschedule." End of story.
He backpedaled a lot and apologized profusely. Then he had the audacity to blame his boss for putting him under pressure to get jobs schdeduled and completed. To which I replied: "You have your boss call me if he has a problem rescheduling work when customer loses a close friend or family member, and I'll tell him what I think of that type of 'customer service.' Need I remind the both of you that we accommodated your crew last year so that they could plow snow? Is your boss going to tell me that's more important than a funeral?"

I realize it's a hassle for contractors when something like this happens, but for the love of God; have some respect. This'll teach me to use a contractor for whom I have misgivings.