Psychic exfoliation

I'm still recovering from a meeting I had yesterday with one of my major departments from college. We're finally re-designing their site. Yay! Happy times!

And for the most part, the participants were sweet-natured. One person even came somewhat unexpectedly to my rescue. But there was one person who sat through the meeting with a scowl on her face and kept asking openly hostile questions, really trying to get everyone stirred up.

The strangest part was that after this painfully long meeting spent arguing fiercely over minutiae, she stayed behind and ended up being quite helpful and even apologetic about her earlier hostility.

I couldn't figure out what turned the tide. She asked me some basic geek questions, and maybe the fact I could answer them proved I wasn't a twit. I found out later that other people have had similar run-ins with her. Maybe it's because she comes from a cold climate and just has that harsh edge to her personality.

The whole thing left me feeling raw on the inside, though. I couldn't shake it all night, still don't feel right today. I was trying to remember the term one of my friends uses. I was thinking "psychic exfoliation," although he later corrected me. His description for these people is "soul scrapers." Either way, I feel a couple of inches shorter today and readier than ever for a vacation.

Suddenly

This morning I was bopping along, and first thing when I got to the office was evidence that our upgrade of the web site software didn't go as rosily as we first thought.

First clue: office X freaking out that their updates weren't published on the site. They have The Biggest Event of the Year happening this weekend.

Second clue: broken image on the home page. Many broken images on Office X's site, which I manually published.

Third clue: broken images all over the home page.

Fourth clue: home page disappears completely, and the web site for my institution/employer is just a list of files.

Friends, I would argue that clue the fourth is worse than getting a "Page not Found" error. At least with Page not Found, you can assume there's an issue with power or a downed server. When you go to the web site of a national institution and all you get is a list of files, it looks pretty bad. Luckily, that was quickly replaced with an older version of the site.

Did I mention that I'm going on vacation at the end of the week?

Did I mention that shortly after I got to work this morning, the surge of PMS took over and I've been feeling murderous?

This is one of those days that I'm not even kidding when I say I'm going to become an alpaca farmer.

Bovine

Sometimes I like to do crazy things, like volunteer for sinking-ship projects when I already have more than plenty to keep me busy. Last Friday I offered to become peripherally involved in something that I thought would be quick in-and-out type of job, but hours after my altruistic act, I already started getting hints that I would be getting more than I bargained for.

Yesterday confirmed my suspicions: half-completed specs, unhappiness about the technology chosen, no project manager in sight and bad feelings all around. Right now my role is just to try and bring things together a bit. I talked in very calm tones and explained why I thought the project wasn't ready for the next phase. I can tell I haven't even begun to get to the bottom of the conflict.

I was thinking, I feel like one of the cows they send into the bullring when the bull is wigging out so bad they can't calm him down. The little herd of cows run in, all bells and innocence. Sometimes, they get the hell gored out of them.

Time off

Did I mention that I'm taking next week off? Life has been such a blur lately that I haven't had time to anticipate the joy of time off until the last few days. One of my friends pointed out today that the pre-vacation anticipation is one of the best parts (other than the vacation itself) of the vacation. She's right, and I've been missing out.

But this weekend I got a preview. The weather was gorgeous and I spent a lot of my time digging in the dustbowl that was my yard, planting 78 pansies. I played my cards right, though, and didn't waste time watering the whole yard. It started raining last night and shows no sign of letting up. Score one for the weather channel.

So all the digging got me excited about my week off. I had had grand plans for travel to parts West, but I realized in September that I'm just exhausted. I will go to LR (so, West after all) for a couple days, but then I need to sit around and/or take care of house projects. Parts of my yard are beyond overgrown. There are bags of mulch and small shrubs that I can't find because the weeds have grown up over them. It's dire.

Also, I want to paint my hallway and bathroom. I'm painting them "fresh cut," a very light green that will bring together all the colors in the house. Also, there's still at least one more coat (it'll be the fifth) of red that needs to go on the front door. It will have been worth it in the end, but I'm ready to get rid of the blue painter's tape on my doorknob and windows.

So that's home life. Work life has been fascinating also. It looks like we really are going to hire a web developer. May still be some months away, but people are starting to get excited about it. I'm anticipating that my workload will go from crushing to mildly overwhelming. I'm already half-volunteering to work on others' projects, which I may regret later.

A satisfying day

It was a long day, but satisfying in the end. There were many meetings, including a supposedly creative session during which one of my less endearing coworkers shot down every idea I proposed. She really perplexes me because her criticisms are almost always 1) groundless 2) inexplicably defensive and 3) not constructive.

Then I remember oh yeah, it's just the way she is. No point in looking for logic or even a motive that would make reasonable sense to any human being. That's just part of the fun included in working for my department.

But things got better. I ran into my college advisor. Sometimes I think he's disappointed that I came back to be an administrative stooge, but what can you do? I think I still turned out better than some of my classmates. It was nice catching up with him and his wicked little sense of humor.

Then I met with a prof. from the other department I majored in. He wasn't there when I was studying, but as I had expected he was incredibly nice and easy to deal with. Right now I'm working on web sites for both my major departments. It just worked out that they were first in line, but it's nice to finally give them a little priority.

I stayed a little late and finally made it through editing a training manual we're writing for the new software. My student is doing most of the work, but she's been waiting for my comments for more than a week now. It felt really good to get that done.

And then there was some joyriding through the flatness of Arkansas. Ah, joyriding. We got stuck in some traffic on the way back, but the consensus was that that was ok. We were in a comfortable car, and we agreed that we got along well enough not to be antsy. That's a good space to be in.

Wednesday is over, so it's all a downhill drive from here.

Evil twin

Lately, I've been wondering if I have an evil twin who comes into the office at night and does extra work, b/c people keep referring in presentations, speeches and other public places to work they're apparently doing with me that I haven't heard anything about. Maybe I am my own Tyler Durden, except more productive and technically savvy. That would explain why I'm tired all the time. Also, the random bruises on my limbs.

But seriously, today I received some potentially very big news. The Powers That Be are pleased with the new web site I've been working on for the last 1.5 years. They are so pleased that they've finally realized maybe I need some help in the form of another full-time position. This is actually a huge development, b/c the party line has always been we hire vendors b/c staff is more expensive. I don't know whether all the Powers have signed up for this mission yet, which could make a big difference in whether or not it happens. Also, the HR monster will have to be appeased for this to happen.

Still, it could be huge. I'm afraid to get too excited yet because if I put too much hope on it I could become very disillusioned if it falls through.

I have a joyride scheduled tomorrow with one of my speed-loving friends. My plan is to drive to Arkansas (which is only a few minutes away, admittedly, but there is a bridge over a big river!).

Protector of chipmunks

Yesterday's biggest excitement was that I saved a baby chipmunk from being tortured and then chewed on by a cat. I was taking a walk and I saw a cat chasing something very small around someone's carport. It must have just cornered it b/c the chipmunk didn't appear hurt--just slow and stunned. So I chased off the cat and then yelled "RUN! RUN! RUN!" to the chipmunk, who meandered this way and that, still disoriented, until it ran under a storage shed.

I hope it found its way home. If not, at least it died in peace rather than being ripped to shreds and deposited hither and yon. I continued on my walk with a big smile on my face. So that's what altruism feels like. Interestingly, the priest at Mass (I am the worst kind of cafeteria Catholic, I admit it readily) mentioned St. Francis who had dominion over the animals. Maybe I can apply for the job of patron saint of chipmunks. Better, patron saint of The Small Guy.

Had a fantastic time at the zoo on Saturday. My friends and I figured out the magic ratio of 4 adults : 1 three-year-old makes a good time for all. The little guy got loads of attention and no one was worn out or cranky (except a little at the end when everyone was hungry). Finally saw the much ballyhooed pandas, which were cute. Our zoo has certainly improved since the days of no shade and all concrete, with depressed animals pacing wildly in their cages.

Lots of gratuitous driving this weekend, sometimes at high speeds and with sharp curves. Saturday night I was already in pajamas and realized I had to get to the drugstore. I drove around on the highway for a while afterwards. Apparently the new car has caused a lifestyle shift, much as a drug would.