09.02.08
Downtime? Not quite.
It’s kind of weird, after having gotten used to the weekly trips to Evanston, to have only office work on my schedule for the week. It was pretty good timing, however–no sooner had I finished class for the summer that I had to pull team lead duties in place of a co-worker who went on vacation for two weeks in sunny Cancun. The days were long, but we finally, finally, FINALLY, hit our limited production milestone for the new product we’ve been working on for…oh, at least the last two years. And I got to leave a more tangible mark on the product than I had previously, as my signature was required (as a member of the core program team) for the signoffs. I’d post them but I think those documents are company confidential. ;)
You’d think that I’d have some room to breathe after that, but I then was pulled in for the next week to support what can only be described as a very important activity that would have far-reaching impact on the business if it went badly. We survived, mostly in one piece ;) but the stress levels remained high. Thankfully, Labor Day weekend was well-timed, and I got to relax a bit…except for the hours in which I tried to catch up on being MONTHS BEHIND on housecleaning. At least I got to vacuum the carpet and clean the toilet…
The upshot of all that is that I really, really want to take some vacation before the fall quarter of school starts. The only problem is that I don’t know where to go that doesn’t cost money (which, at this point, I’m reluctant to part with any). I just want to chill somewhere that isn’t here or Chicago. I suppose I could do a road trip to NYC. After all, I’m due. I’ll just have to suck up the cost of gas, I guess.
Speaking of school, I finally registered for fall classes: Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, and Organic Chemistry. Two classes, three times a week. My schedule is going to be ridiculously full and I anticipate running out of steam fast… all the more reason to try to squeeze in some vacation before embarking on this masochistic activity of mine. Just gotta tell myself that it’s all worth it and remind myself that I have a lot of family and friends supporting me.
