TGIF

Through the week I am somewhat careworn by my new job. I find I’m not good at managing my time when it’s entirely up to me when I work and how long I work for. My attention span and energy are such that I struggle to sit in a chair eight hours a day and be productive. I’m currently managing between six and seven hours a day. So my three-days-a-week job is really closer to four days.

It’s not always clear what I’m supposed to be doing. My boss is a bit all over the place so I have to be more take charge than I ever was in corporate America, where it was always clear what I was supposed to be doing. I’m taking this as a good challenge. I am forcing myself to learn how to manage my time better so that I feel I’ve been productive each day. Raj makes me dizzy with e-mails full of ideas and things to read (should we respond to this research? should we invite this person to our online dialogue? look at this article! Can you believe what this organisation is doing? can you write an e-mail in response to this proposal? can you make this change to the website? how should we follow up with our dialogue participants? on and on). I have to pin down what the priority is, do that, and feel like I’ve accomplished something. Which I have in previous weeks. This week not so much.

Today’s Friday and I left Preventable Surprises behind. I took a two-hour bus trip that was billed as an architectural tour of Belfast’s most significant properties. I was disappointed in that we covered a LOT of ground, never left the bus, and mainly were told the year and style of each building and who the architect was. I wanted to hear stories. Every city has colourful figures and heroes and villains and I really learned very little about Belfast other than: This building is in the Scottish Baronial style and was designed by the architect Charles Lanyon and built in 1850 (I made that up). That kind of thing. The tour guide was with a volunteer organisation that works to protect old buildings, so I was expecting the kind of passion and wealth of knowledge that enthusiastic volunteers can bring.

My day was made by my night. My friend Monica had a housewarming party tonight and I had a ball. About half the choir was there as well as Monica and Garth’s family and friends, who were, as I expected, warm, interesting, funny people. All of the interesting chats I had, all the songs we sang, all the amazing food Monica prepared compensated for a week of toil and worry and urine tests and war novels.
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