Thursday, January 04, 2007
Holiday Cheer
Well, the holidays are officially over, and not a moment too soon. A lot of the people I work with travel over the holidays. The Wife and I are “fortunate” in that most of our family lives right here in Chicago, so we don’t have to travel anywhere. Unless you count about 10 different houses in 3 days.
And that’s the problem with the holidays for us. We have so many people nearby that we want to see, that it’s very difficult to make it happen. And now that we have Luke, it’s even more difficult. If he’s in a bad mood, it can be a pain in the butt to change venues. If he’s in a good mood, you don’t WANT to change venues because it might put him in a bad mood. Ah yes, kids are GREAT.
But apart from the parties, the most stressful part of the holidays for me was work. Usually, things are dead at the end of the year because everyone’s on vacation. In fact, I look forward to coming into the office on those days because it’s quiet enough that I can get work done.
So I came into the office on December 26 and I think there were about 10 other people (out of about 150) here with me. It was SO quiet that I had to go home early. It was downright creepy. Especially since I’m someone that always needs background noise. That’s why I usually have the radio and/or TV on all the time. It completely drives The Wife nuts when she comes into the office to find me sitting at the computer playing a video game, listening to music and watching a football game all at once. (To be honest, I think any one of those things would drive her nuts, but doing all three together gets her downright homicidal.)
The week between Xmas and New Year’s was absolutely nuts for me at work. And the reason was unfortunately the same reason I like to work that week: because everyone was out of the office. We had a couple of projects that were due at the end of the year, but since there was nobody else to work on them, I did them. Although I guess I’d rather be wicked busy than bored silly.
I wish I could say that things have slowed down since the New Year, but that would be a lie. In fact, now that everyone has returned, things have gotten crazier because now they’re digging their noses into what I just did. And these people with their questions! Can’t they just do us all a favor and I assume I’m right about everything? There’s no need to check my results. Who cares if we get sued for millions of dollars? Quit bugging me!
And that’s the problem with the holidays for us. We have so many people nearby that we want to see, that it’s very difficult to make it happen. And now that we have Luke, it’s even more difficult. If he’s in a bad mood, it can be a pain in the butt to change venues. If he’s in a good mood, you don’t WANT to change venues because it might put him in a bad mood. Ah yes, kids are GREAT.
But apart from the parties, the most stressful part of the holidays for me was work. Usually, things are dead at the end of the year because everyone’s on vacation. In fact, I look forward to coming into the office on those days because it’s quiet enough that I can get work done.
So I came into the office on December 26 and I think there were about 10 other people (out of about 150) here with me. It was SO quiet that I had to go home early. It was downright creepy. Especially since I’m someone that always needs background noise. That’s why I usually have the radio and/or TV on all the time. It completely drives The Wife nuts when she comes into the office to find me sitting at the computer playing a video game, listening to music and watching a football game all at once. (To be honest, I think any one of those things would drive her nuts, but doing all three together gets her downright homicidal.)
The week between Xmas and New Year’s was absolutely nuts for me at work. And the reason was unfortunately the same reason I like to work that week: because everyone was out of the office. We had a couple of projects that were due at the end of the year, but since there was nobody else to work on them, I did them. Although I guess I’d rather be wicked busy than bored silly.
I wish I could say that things have slowed down since the New Year, but that would be a lie. In fact, now that everyone has returned, things have gotten crazier because now they’re digging their noses into what I just did. And these people with their questions! Can’t they just do us all a favor and I assume I’m right about everything? There’s no need to check my results. Who cares if we get sued for millions of dollars? Quit bugging me!
