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It has not been a really sterling week at work. On the plus side, I took Monday off! On the minus side, both Tuesday and Thursday were almost completely occupied with nothing but meetings. For those of you keeping score, that means I had Wednesday, and only Wednesday, to actually do anything. So I stayed two hours late tonight, and am... partly caught up. If I make it in promptly tomorrow and blow off opt out of that one meeting, I may be able to do what I need to do before my afternoon barrage of meetings... which will last from 2 to 5 PM continuously.

Er, on the plus side again, I managed to get to the gym the last couple of days, which helps my stress levels. Also my fiance is awesome. And I addressed a bunch of envelopes last night and think they look nice. I'm gettin' stuff done, outside of those pernicious meetings.

The tale of the weekend will wait. For now, a brief note sharing an article I just read at work, about conflict management in the workplace. It's short, and I think perhaps some of you will find it valuable. It seemed worthwhile to me.

I hate going back to work after vacation. Not only is the adjustment a shock, but the pile of work is frightening.

I will resurface eventually...

I haven't said much since the holidays either, have I? I really did enjoy the vacation. Going back to work in January is always tough, and this year's no exception. But things are going okay.

Weather & Social Life: On Saturday we had ridiculously gorgeous 60 degree weather here. Sunny, too. I'm a bit disappointed with myself, though: purple_cow_0206 and I had talked about doing something outside, but instead I was bit with the cleaning bug and did not take advantage of the weather... other than opening the windows, and going for a walk with azure_armand. That was nice. Sunday was much nastier weather-wise but we did get to see D & MC so that was good.

Work: This week is busy at work but mostly for the office I used to work in. Now, I'm only peripherally involved. It's a relief, although I kind of miss the hustle and bustle and satisfaction of putting on a really good event. I've mostly caught up with my work, although I still need to clean off my desk. Yesterday I had two grad fellows in to help out, which made a huge difference.

School: I went to see my prof the other day, the one grading my final paper. He said, "I haven't had a chance to read it thoroughly yet, but I read enough to know it's A work, so I'll be submitting your grade soon." I'm mostly happy - hooray! it's done, and I got an A, and that means I somehow managed to finish grad school with a 4.0 GPA. On the other hand, I'm a bit bemused - he didn't even read the whole thing before submitting a grade? I guess he knew he liked my writing. Or he just didn't want to bother. I told him I would like a copy of it back when he'd had a chance to read and comment, since I do think it might be publishable in some form and his feedback would help.

School, cont'd: I don't know if I want to take a course or not this semester. My options:
(a) take nothing. Enjoy a semester of no homework, and be social, sew, cook, be de-stressed, etc. Downside: not taking advantage of free tuition.
(b) take something that relates to my field. Grow professionally and take advantage of that free tuition. Downside: stress, homework.
(c) take something totally off the wall, like ceramics or something. Have fun, take advantage of free tuition. Downside: time-consuming. Also, I am likely to be the oldest student by 8+ years; I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Right now I'm leaning toward (a). I dunno, though. Opinions?

Random: 5 police officers required to arrest historian for jaywalking. A colleague was at the conference where this happened; she received a stern lecture for jaywalking but was not arrested. Apparently the Atlanta police were all hanging out right in that area, working hard to beat the surge in jaywalking crime.