Day changer…

So it’s been a while. How are you doing? I’m doing alright. School has started back and work is busy as ever. We are also in the middle of updating the lab in which I teach, which has led to, let me tell you, some HILARIOUS encounters with technology…with an audience no less!

Anyway. I’ve had a stressful past two days. I’m not unused to the stress, I just find that when I am confronted with obstacles “on the fly,” you know, “in front of a class,” I tend to get flustered. I don’t do well with flustered. During one class on Excel for a credited BCH course, after I had setup a worksheet with all the data I needed, the computer starts logging me out, reboots, and subsequently locks itself with an administrator’s password. Yeah. I had to switch to an entirely different computer and recreate the spreadsheet “on the fly.” You know, “in front of the class.”

Anyway. I turned it into a learning experience for the students and the two instructors for the class said that I handled the “technical issue” like a pro. Aw, shucks. Suffice it to say that the whole ordeal, after I was allowed to break my composure, you know, “not in front of a class,” really put me in a poor state of mind. So I went outside to smoke before returning to my desk and saw that I had 2 voicemails. After I deleted the voicemails from bill collector’s 1 and 2, my phone informed me that I had, “1…saved message,” and it began playing it…

I saved this voice mail because it was from my mother, but it wasn’t my mother talking. I’m going to attempt to transcribe it for you now.

Mom: (in the background) Say, “Hey Thomas.”

Will: Hey Thomas!

Sophie: Hey Thomas!

Will: It’s Will…and Sophie. Come see us!

(pause)

Mom: (in the background) What do you want to say to him?

Will: I love you.

Sophie: (apparently snatching the phone from Will) Hey do you want to come to the house and have a play date?

Mom: (laughing, still in the background) A play date? What else? Tell him to bring the Wii.

Will: Hey, bring the Wii.

Mom: (knowing we must reinforce Will’s spirit of sharing, but still in the background) And we can ALL play.

Will: And we can all PLAY!

(pause)

Will: I miss you, see you soon.

Sophie: (slightly, but never totally in the background) Miss you, see you soon!

Mom: Tell him we’re on the trampoline.

Will: We’re on the trampoline.

Sophie: (taking the foreground, by force if necessary) Hey, can I get you all out of the way?

Mom: (knowing she could never be in the foreground with these two in the picture) Say, “Bye Thomas.”

Will: Bye Thomas, we’ll see you soon.

Sophie: Bye Thomas, we’ll see you soon.

Day was instantly better, I tells ya, instantly better.

And I’m totally taking the Wii.

Right Brain, Left Brain; Up Brain, Down Brain

So yesterday I was all prepared to be organized. I got my list together for everything I’m working on (at work, there is no organization to my life) and decided to tackle a project, one of my yearly goals, that involved doing some research on different type of “distance education” tools. Well these tools are very…well, varied. And all of them tackle the same task in vastly different ways. So different, that they seemed foreign to me.

Now I hate talking about this because it makes me seem so egotistical (which I know I don’t come off that way, but that’s how my brain works. I don’t take compliments well and can’t even fathom giving myself one…but here goes), but when it comes to software, it always makes sense to me. It may take me a little bit of googling before I find the right answer or the right no-nonsense person to explain it to me, but I usually figure it out. Well yesterday, that was NOT the case, and I got frustrated beyond belief. It was like eating too much ice cream and getting the brain freeze.

Well a forced break came in the way of a meeting with Pattye and Amanda about Amanda’s upcoming poster session in Chicago for ALA (American Library Association…I think) and how we were going to all put it together. Well Bobbie (co-worker, and one of our main project “leaders”) was out sick (surprise) so I became the “point person,” as Pattye said. So, we talked about the ideas and how every thing should flow and I went back to my desk and began working.

My brain totally thawed. I opened Adobe Illustrator and just went to town on it. For those of you who don’t know, a Poster Session usually involves a huge vacant space, in this case 4′ by 8′, that you fill in with bits of information and pictures and charts and graphs about a project you are working on in order to share with those who walk by and show some interest (or make eye contact). Think of a science fair for adults. I filled and organized this space in 3 hours. From beginning to completion, I dove into this project head first and didn’t have the slightest hint of  brain freezing.

I discovered something about myself at the end of the day. I am somehow on the cusp of everything in my life. My birthday is June 21, so I’m right at the cusp of Cancer and Gemini (I tend to be more Cancer like, just ask my friends, but I’d rather be a Gemini…I think it’s cooler) and I think this has somehow shaped my life.

I’m introverted and extroverted.

I’m dominant and submissive.

I’m artistic/creative and analytical.

I’m emotional and rational.

But I’m always one or the other. It’s a veritable grab bag of me’s. Yesterday I was introverted, dominant, creative, and rational…and I NEVER saw that coming. It’s not my usual combination. I got so focused it was scary. If I was always that focused there’s no telling what I could accomplish…

Then I had a cocktail.