Tracking Time

Last week, from an "hours-worked" standpoint, had to be in the top five all-time.

- On Monday, I went to bed at 2am.
- On Tuesday, I went to bed at 5am.
- On Wednesday, I didn't go to bed at all.

My days were full of meetings, my nights were spent trying to make headway on the presentations due the following day, three days in a row. A perfect storm or something...

I'm glad it's over now, and I sometimes really question my career choices. I'm 43 after all... and still pulling all-nighters. Not smart. And yet, in an odd way, it was a slightly satisfying experience. The particular variety of work I was missing sleep for is a kind that I'm good at. Do I want to be? Not sure... but it is what it is. Each project miraculously came together in time for the meeting and the clients were happy. Perhaps more unbelievable... I managed to keep my internal whining to a minimum. See, people can change.

Or can they?

Concurrent with my personal work-a-thon, I also waited for my iPad 2 to finally arrive. While I barely slept, my "magical" gizmo took it's sweet time seeing the world. I tracked every step. It took a six day, three city tour of China.. then Korea... next Alaska and finally... Louisville. Yes Louisville. Apparently they flew the device directly over my head some 1500 miles east where it sat for an extra day. Apparently it had tickets to the Kentucky Derby or something. All in all, my iPad had a much better ten days than I did. Did I cry about it? Sort of.

Late Night Stupid

Utah is weather-tarded around this time of year... pretty much every year. It's almost May and we're still getting snow at least twice a week. Above, a photo from a few nights ago. Coming upstairs from a late night's work... I figured I'd document the spring storm with my still new flash. Standing on the edge of the deck in my pajamas and bare feet, I click off a few largely uninteresting images. The fun began when our cat... a strictly inside cat... ran through my legs, out the back door and and into the darkness. Ugh... I know it's my fault, but really? It's 3am.

Knowing I have to retrieve the family furball, I try to quietly extract my shoes from our closet, all without waking Tracy. Needless worry... she wears earplugs to bed these days. I could have run a band-saw by the bed and she'd be none the wiser.

Still swearing under (and over) my breath, I stepped onto the snow, and then... immediately thought better of the plan. If I go after her, she'll just run under the deck. So I waited. I also called to her in my best "you're-not-in-any-trouble" voice. Then I made that clicking sound with my tongue... similar to the one that sowboys use to make their horses go faster. Unsurprisingly, nothing worked. What did work was the cold. Apparently, cats that are used to laying on the couch, or the shirt you just ironed, don't really like snow. As soon as I backed off and stopped with the shenanigans, she came right in. Do these things only happen to me?