Tagged: thedayjob

05
Jan
2010

ANXIETY IS THE SPACE BETWEEN NOW & THEN

You know those dreams or movie scenes where you have to get somewhere and you turn into a hallway and suddenly the hallway s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s out in front of you like a tunnel, with appropriately alarming music accompaniment and you know you will never reach the end? Never, never never? That’s how I feel right now. I know it’s my own fault for even bothering to CHECK my work email, but honest to god, it’s insane. I can’t stop thinking about work and how it will just pile up and up and up if I don’t keep on top of it,...

15
Dec
2009

BITS OF TID

There were some topics gnawing at me earlier but they have left off and moved on. Instead you get this: bits! Would it be better with bullets? Does it sound weird to say just bullets instead of bulletPOINTS? Did you understand me anyway or do I do too many PowerPoint presentations at work? *** We have 1 present left to purchase for the kids, and Karin has 1 present left to purchase for her grandparents, and we have 1 birthday present left to purchase for Anders’ mom. I don’t know if Anders is done with his shopping for me. He...

02
Nov
2009

YOU’RE NEVER GONNA KEEP ME DOWN

There’s my motivation! I found it! It was lurking…in my brain. Always the last place you look, eh? Things I did at work today: Watered the plants, confimed procedures with a colleague on the phone, reviewed a flash card, ate breakfast, laid out 5 case studies, uploaded an updated datasheet and sent out a call for translation for localized versions, reviewed 5 presentations, made a new ad look better, sent out 4 ads to publications, ate a super salad for lunch, found a logo for someone, had a discussion about how best to do the next cheat sheet poster, farted...

02
Apr
2009

LONG PIG, ANYONE?

Counting down at work and getting a bit stressed out because there is always so much to do before you take vacation, and I will not, WILL NOT, work evenings if I can avoid it, even though I know I would get at least a bit more caught up. It’s a river in flood, and sometimes it’s all I can do just to not get swept downstream. One of the women in our department recently left and the majority of her workload descended upon the two of us who work with the marketing implementation work…mostly datasheets for our products, and...

28
Mar
2009

THIS, THAT, THE OTHER & THEN SOME

It’s a busy but leisurely Saturday here Chez Ek. I’ve got a mile-long list of housecleaning chores and other things to do, but am taking my time about them and not getting all stressed out. Yesterday, I had my salary review at work and it didn’t go at all how I had hoped, especially after my disappointment last year. I DID get a raise, but it basically covered the cost-of-living increase and what it boils down to is that in Sweden, performance isn’t really tied to salary. If you do a good job, you get what the unions say is...

09
Mar
2009

WHAT I DID TODAY

Today was moving day at work, so I didn’t feel like I contributed very much to the bottom line today, though I did finalize 3 brochures that I was waiting for miscellaneous bits & pieces of, and slapped together a HTML invitation and proofread a convoluted translation of a case study that was originally in Korean. There was a bit of a holiday atmosphere both on Friday and today as people packed up their stuff, so I don’t think I was alone in the decreased contribution factor. 🙂 I had already packed up everything else in my office last week,...

06
Mar
2009

BOING!

Has anyone ever read Colette? Her work was intriguingly and lovingly described in a book I’m reading and I’m wondering if she still holds up and if anyone can give me an off-the-cuff recommendation. I’m in the middle of Frances Mayes A Year in the World which is making me want to travel and to eat, and to read. So many places to go!! It’s the weekend and I’m oh so glad. I skipped out a little early this afternoon from work, egged on by the party atmosphere of a workplace that is packing up and getting ready to move...

03
Mar
2009

IT HAS TO BE LIVED

I’m so focused on other things (work, mostly) that I’m continually surprised by the promise and the preparation that the Earth is making for the return of spring. Driving up the hill, out of the corner of my eye, my mind registers a patch of what can only be snowdrops. Another garden, caught in peripheral vision, seems to be polka-dotted with tiny yellow bulbs…surely not crocus already? The sun has been shining inbetween times, but with my head bent to the cyanotic glow of circuitry, I keep catching only the tail-end of it, as I leave the office. It’s not...

09
Dec
2008

STARTS OFF BAD; GETS WORSE; GETS BETTER

First half of the day was awful, went from bad to cruddy with one thing after another coming at me like javelins. Haven’t had a day like that at work in quite some time so it threw me for a bit of a loop. Managed to regain my equilibrium in the afternoon just in time to go into an 1.5-hour long meeting about our work insurance and pension plans and conditions and by the time that was over, I was ready to wrap the day back up and return it for a new one. I don’t understand insurance and pensions...

12
Nov
2008

PLANES, TRAINS, AUTOMOBILES & GENEROUS SOULS

Yesterday, I stepped outside my regular life for a day and was treated to a “business trip” to Stockholm where my colleague (the events manager at work) and I visited several hotels and conference centers to check them out for a big event that is being organized for next year. So, instead of getting up and going to work as usual, I got up earlier, drove 40 minutes to Malmö’s little airport, flew an hour north, and then took a train into the center of town, and the subway way out of it again to the other side…out into the...