I'm Beat!

I wish I was in the mood to write something meaningful in this post (no pressure from Angellicus! :-P ), but right now I just need to decompress from a long and exhausting day. Before I go on, I just wanted to say 'thanks' for listening...er...reading this!

I'm on this new project at work that is just full of number crunching and analysis, and I don't see any end in site until the end of the quarter (December), but that will only be phase one of this painful and crazy project. The madness will continue for at least the next 6-9 months.

I don't want to go into a lot of detail about this, but basically after seeing this initiative coming down the pipe, I presented information to our VP that this project made no business sense and was actually not cost effective. After about a month of feeling beat up and pushing back on this decision, he finally admitted it wasn't a smart business move, but that we are to 'just do it', in every Nike way that phrase is meant to be. So much for being heard and a job well-done. I feel like my desk is self-destructing because of his poor decisions.

So here I am, working on a project where technical and business processes have not been tested. Basically this means that details of the day to day business support have not been thought through, and as I work on this project I just pray (Yes, pray. More on *that* another time) that when it's over all the details he failed to consider will smooth themselves out without too many glitches. The other part of my woes is that when, and if, this project is done, in reality it just creates more work for everyone all around. So much for creating efficiencies.

I'll have to share more of my thoughts about work another time. This is a doozy of a topic for me, as I am in search of the meaning behind work and whether it's just a bad fit for me or whether I'm in dire need of an attitude change.

After a long day at work I made my way to the gym. I'm training to run in my very first half marathon (13.1 miles) and I missed our long run on Sunday, so I made it up tonight. Physically it was pretty easy today, but I also took more walk breaks than I usually do during the regular training sessions. In case you were wondering, I'm basically going from the couch to the event, so this is quite a new and exciting challenge for me. I'm just amazed at what the human body is capable of doing, and much more amazed at the emotional and spiritual aspect of this entire experience. I've got a training blog, so if anyone cares to see it, let me know! The event date is scheduled for end of January. I can't believe it's right around the corner!!

I'm starting to stress about the fundraising part of the training. My commitment when signing up for this run was to raise $3K for the cause before mid-November. To date, I've only raised about $1400. Since I already raised $1K, I was granted an extension to mid-December, but with the holidays coming up and some traveling coming up, I don't know how I'll find time to do any fundraising. If I do find time people will probably focus their funds elsewhere for the holidays. I dunno...any ideas? Anyone? Anyone?

I am also stressed about the week of Thanksgiving (Nov 21). I'll be travelling to Italy for a week. I've been too busy to even get excited about it. I'm travelling with 3 other friends of mine who, during the planning process, I have started to question how 'fun' this trip together will be. Yeah, I'm trying not to be a pessimist or too negative about it, but I can tell 10 days total together will be A LOT. Let's hope I don't get too familiar with the phrase, "too much togetherness." Yikes!

Yeah, this trip is bad timing with regards to work issues, but heck...it's just *work*, right? Life goes on, business goes on. If I got hit by a truck tomorrow someone would pick up the slack. I gotta remember that and keep things in perspective.

Ok...thanks for listening...er...reading. I do feel better. Better enough to blog more in a bit. Lucky you. :-P