Where o where has my little brain gone…

I’m losin’ it. I don’t know what has happened to my brain. It’s here one minute and completely checks out the next. Let me give you a recent example.

In my line of work, I organize meetings for grant applicants within my council of governments’ region to give presentations of their grant projects to a committee. This committee scores the grant projects based on certain criteria. I turn in the final rankings from those scores to the Governor’s Office. The Governor’s Office then decides what projects get funded based on the rankings from each region. So, it’s pretty important to get stuff right when organizing/facilitating these meetings.

This morning was our last scoring meeting of the year. I double-checked all the to-do’s, got my information together, and checked with our administrative assistant to see if we were missing anything. She said everything was ready, but I still felt like I was missing something. I went into the meeting room to make sure everything was set up properly and sat down to go over the presentation I was giving. This was at about 9:15 a.m. The meeting was scheduled for 10 a.m.

At about 9:40 a.m. I realized that I had not contacted the other presenter!! They had no clue they were supposed to be here in 20 minutes to give a presentation on their grant project. I had committee members driving in from 50 miles away to attend this meeting and I hadn’t notified the presenter!!

I rushed to my desk, frantically looked up the grant applicant’s phone number and prayed they would be able to make it with such short notice.

Luckily for me, the applicant was able to make it by 10:30 a.m. – which wasn’t a problem because we were able to move the agenda around and the committee took care of some other matters before getting to the presentation. However, I still feel like a giant a**.

Here’s my apology letter to the applicant.

Dear (applicant),

I feel like a giant a**. This is not normally how I do business, so I’ll blame this incident on the baby who is apparently sucking brain power from me in order to continue developing his or her brain. Apparently this stuff happens during pregnancy, so please excuse my mind’s absenteeism during the next six months.
Sincerely,

Jill

Ok, that’s not what I wrote, but I really wanted to. Isn’t it easier to blame it on someone else, even if they aren’t “technically” present to defend themselves? This is what I really wrote.

Dear (applicant),

Thank you for making such an effort to be here this morning. I sincerely apologize for not notifying you of the presentation time and date for your grant project in a timely manner. Generally the applicant is notified at least a week in advance...

And it continues on in a professional fashion. Hopefully they don’t completely hate me. Everything ended well, and it was the last scoring meeting for the year, so I’m home-free until next year!

A Short Note

Until I can figure out how to put the "baby ticker" (located on the right side of this page) on my baby blog, it will be housed on this blog. I've discovered I don't have the patience to learn how to use a new blog site. Wordpress.com seems a lot more complicated to use than Blogger.com; however, it does have some fun stuff like making one's own heading and being able to view recent comments without much effort.

On another short note, my heartbeat appointment is today at 4:30. Yay! So I should have an update on how that goes this week. Stay tuned!

Sweet Announcement

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted a new bit of my life. I’ve been a bit pre-occupied with another blog site that I haven’t announced…until now. It’s http://babyanderson08.wordpress.com/ - yes, I’m pregnant! We wanted to wait to tell the world until at least 12 weeks…and that time is here.

Sheldon sent me a sweet reminder today. I had no clue that he was planning to do this, so it was a nice surprise.






It’s just too pretty to eat…yet.

Working Woman’s Beef

It seems a little ridiculous that I would be required to stay in one spot for eight scheduled hours each day if I don’t have any work at that current moment. Is it the temptation of freedom that keeps bosses around the country from allowing their employees to work flex time?

Some weeks I’m swamped. I can’t even make time to chat with co-workers. But other weeks, I have maybe two or three hours’ worth of work to get done. Then what? I sit in my little grey cubicle (some of you have heard this before) and stare blankly at my computer screen while clips of the movie Office Space run through my mind. Women are known as multi-taskers. It drives me crazy that I have no task, let alone enough tasks to multi.

If assigned work is completed and employees are happy, then what is the problem? No one would have to worry about being ten minutes late or leaving early from work. No one would have to worry about being back to work at exactly 12:59 p.m. because they signed out at 11:59 a.m. for lunch. And employees wouldn't bolt out of the office at 4:59 p.m. sharp because they’re sick of staring at their computer screens in their grey cubicles!

I understand that some positions require a schedule, such as teachers and doctors. If doctors didn’t have set schedules, their work would never end; and if teachers didn’t have set schedules, our society’s education would be doomed. However, someone in my position, who has a contract with duties to fulfill within the year, can easily set a schedule to get said duties completed. No one would be doomed.

I’m just saying that some employers should at least give this “flex time” idea a test run for a year. If not that, then fiesta! We should adopt the European work style. Mandatory four weeks vacation per year (minimum), two to three hour lunches each day, and a relaxed time policy, such as, “I’ll be in around 8-ish tomorrow morning.”

Now that my 15 minute daydream break is up, I should get back to staring at my e-mail wondering what I can make-up to work on next.

Note – Notice that I didn’t write any blogs from January 5 to February 8. This means I was swamped at work and didn’t have time for my 15 minute daydream session. I do work…just not when I don’t have anything to do. Please resist the urge to judge.

At a Loss for Words

Literally. I’ve been wracking my brain for things to write about. I’ve got nothin’. Things are normal and on-track. While that’s nice for a change, the situation doesn’t lend to interesting life stories. It would really stink if nothing ever went wrong in life. I would be so flippin’ bored all the time. Not that I want anything to go wrong, I should probably stop talking. The mishap fairies will find me.

Anywho, it’s finally Friday!! I get to sleep in tomorrow…kindof. I’m scrapbooking, which is always fun, so I don’t mind waking up early for that. And Sunday I plan on being a bum. It’s necessary to get re-charged for the working world on Monday.

Next week is Valentine’s Day! Anyone have any special plans they’d like to share? Sheldon claims he got me a present yesterday. I say “claims” because he told me that he got me Dish Network with DVR. What? That’s a man present. He’s just justifying adding a bill to the pile without having to include me in the decision. I’m on to your little plan! I think for Valentine’s Day I’ll get him a diamond heart necklace. Ooo, or some bookshelves for the living room. Yeah, sounds good to me.

Compulsive Hoarder?

I read this interesting article about how people who are disorganized may have a mental illness. The link is below. I know I made organization one of my resolutions for 2008, but I doubt I'm plagued with a OCHD (Obsessive-Compulisive Hoarding Disorder).

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/01/health/01well.html?no_interstitial

People who suffer from this illness are known as "complusive hoarders." Is this ridiculous or am I just out of touch with all the disorders out there? Apparently if you're disorganized, you're also overweight and your life is in shambles. I just want somewhere to put my shoes and mail when I walk in the house!

I thought I would read an encouraging article about organization and it made me paranoid about everything else! Crazy.

It's the New Year Again

Time for those pesky little resolutions that always come up around this time of year. There's the standard - eat healthier, make lifestyle changes, diet - whatever you want to call it. But this year I also have a resolution that I've never had before. I will organize my life. It sounds simple enough. I'm not sure why I never thought of making it one of my resolutions in previous years.

Yes, by this time next year, my whole house will be completely organized and everything will have its place. Okay, that may be expecting a little much, but I do have a plan of action on how I will solve my clutter problem. I already have closet storage and front door entrace organizations ideas dancing in my head. Target and IKEA, here I come!

Although resolutions hang over my head at the beginning of each new year, I do like the idea of a fresh start. Whatever mistakes I may have made last year are classified as learning experiences and I can start new this year. Whatever bad things happened last year are in the past and new beginnings will be in place for 2008. All the good things that happened are imprinted in memories and pictures and tucked away in scrapbooks for my grandchildren to see one day.

I'm looking forward to making more memories in 2008. I hope everyone has a great year!