Archive of Marcia's Musings August 22-28, 2005Happy To Report . . .
I am HOME!! I felt so disorganized all week!! Of course it didn't help that everything was really busy. Here's my week, in a nutshell:
Monday: Flew to California; it kept feeling like it was Sunday (because I'm accustomed to flying to California on Sundays) except that I knew Brian went to work after dropping me at the airport. I arrived at the hotel with a message to call the Central region's director regarding an agreement we are trying to close. Got in and threw my clothes in the dresser and closet and started my computer, simultaneously. Logged into my email and called the director, working until 9pm. No, that wasn't pleasant since my body said it was midnight!
Tuesday: First day of training. Met with the education services folks; met by phone with an attorney in our of-counsel's office; more training. Went back to the hotel to work on the continued problems with the Central director's deal as well as working on other things that had accumulated in my in-box. I did meet some friends from my old job for dinner. (That was the only social event of the week-- more on that in a second.)
Wednesday: Woken up at 5am with a call from the Eastern region for a contract that I had been working on with them. Went through the document and made some changes, emailing them off at 5:45am.
Went into the training session and got a 2-1/2 hour presentation about our products. MAN, that was REALLY needed!! I now almost completely understand our products which helps when you're negotiating a contract, believe it or not.
Went to lunch in the on-campus cafeteria and got a phone call from the Eastern regional director. He told me that there was a call set up in his region for 7am PST on Thursday with a customer's attorney that I needed to talk with about the contract. The problem was that I had not seen the contract to date-- he told me it was sent to me and should be in my email's inbox.
So much for going to my in-laws for dinner! I called my wonderful mother-in-law (she IS wonderful-- they both are!!) and told her what had happened. She told me not to worry about it-- it was okay that I couldn't meet them this trip. Yeah, well, tell that to my heart-- I love seeing my in-laws when I come to California! I wasn't happy about having to cancel that dinner, needless to say. (I have the world's best in-laws, you know!)
Training continued during the afternoon, meeting with the support and professional services folks. Lots of information provided-- going to be so helpful!!
I went back to the hotel and worked until 7:30pm on that "new" agreement and a rework on the agreement that they called me about in the morning. I also worked on the Central region document until 9pm. In between I caught dinner in my room-- not the same as my mother-in-law's cooking needless to say.
Thursday: I had the call with the Eastern region's customer. I spoke with the Central region's director and was "ordered" to be present for a call that was to finish the negotiation with the customer on Friday afternoon. As it was currently scheduled, my flight was to return at 5:30pm which meant I would be on the plane during the call-- not good and terribly expensive IF they still had phones on planes. I called the travel service we had and arranged for my flights to be changed-- to a redeye from San Francisco to Dallas, landing at 6am and then flying out at 7am to BWI, landing at 11am. I would have to take a cab home since Brian was working (company will cover it so it isn't a problem).
On my walk from the htoel to the office, I called my friend Pat because we were supposed to get together that evening for dinner. Since I was having to fly out that night also, with work and packing to do in between, I had to cancel that dinner as well. (This week was NOT going the way that I had hoped, needless to say.)
I got to the office by about 9:45am and had another training session with finance and another call with yet another customer (with Judy, my manager/director) from 11-12pm. Then we went to lunch, as a group, in San Francisco, to Boulevard and back to the office for Judy and everyone except for my co-worker in the UK who was flying back and me, to work in my room and pack and get ready to fly out that night.
Friday: Slept on both legs of the plane but my sleep was not restful-- hard to do at 30,000+ feet. Arrived at 11-ish and took a cab home. The girls greeted me happily . . . I was very glad to see them, too.
We were supposed to have a call with the business folks from the Eastern region's customer that I had talked to on Thursday morning but that got cancelled. The only call I had on Friday afternoon was the one from the Central region. Actually, it took two or three calls to get the negotiation done, in between which Brian came home so I could say "Hello" to him properly, too. :>) The product is being shipped as of yesterday, even though the contract won't be signed until Monday.
I signed off at 6pm-- "Thursday" turned out to be a very long day, since it also combined Friday's work hours with bad sleep.
I took a power nap last night but it didn't help much at 10pm. I think I put my head on the pillow before I fell asleep but you'd have to ask Brian. I woke up this morning and everything hurts-- all of my muscles, my feet-- EVERYTHING! I did carry-on luggage only and that could be part of the cause between lifting it over my head and lugging it through the airport-- it gets to weigh a ton after awhile.
I was going to do the laundry but my body has vetoed that, too. So far, I've had two cups of coffee and a shower and I'm still ready to fall asleep!! BUT there is personal email to catch up on along with some phone calls to my sisters and brother and cousins to make. I'm going to try to stay awake until this afternoon for a nap and then, hopefully make it a little later tonight.
Thanks for your patience while I've been gone. Hope all is well with you! Have a great weekend!!
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