Tal Vez

My day started much earlier than usual - 5am, and the cats were looking at me like I was interrupting their beauty sleep. Every morning this week, I have searched for reasons why I *shouldn't* call in sick. I'm not sick - just tired, actually, but I don't get the chance to catch up on my sleep. And every morning this week, I've arrived to find an email from my boss, saying he's out again today. If I didn't like the guy so much, I'd have to hate him for that. Lucky bastard. :) Of course, HE doesn't think so - he's fighting the mutant lung fungi from hell. My main co-worker has also called in sick, but at least for today, I have a replacement for him. Thank god.

So there I am, trying to learn a few things from one of the gurus in my department - things that would be a tad helpful since I'm going to be filling in for him for a couple of days. Three impromptu meetings and three bottles of water later, I've still barely had a chance to say Good Morning, and he's leaving in an hour (40 minutes, he corrected me). Ah yes.

Now this is not the only training I've had - I spent well over 40 hours learning what he does, and I do keep a hand in it now and then.....but it's been a good six months since I've touched on the fundamentals, and he's leaving in a hour. Or 40 minutes. (It actually turned out to *be* an hour, but then he was running late - Ooops!)

I now have five projects I'm working on, and/or heading up, and I thought I had a momentary lull. Two projects are rolling along pretty much without me. One is my pet project and can move at whatever pace I need. The fourth is my primary job, which I turned over to someone else for the day, and the fifth......well, that's why I was trying to soak up some rays from the expert this morning. Then something broke, and my mind went blank. I *know* what to do, I had almost everything taken care of. Then I got to one step and felt the grey matter begin to crystallize into slush.

It wasn't long after that, that I realized I'd been there over nine and a half hours, and hadn't taken lunch. Oh, don't get me wrong - I didn't go ten hours without FOOD. I just went ten hours non-stop without stopping to breathe.

As busy as I was, I still sat there on lunch and went - Did I actually *DO* anything today? Tal Vez (Perhaps.)