Last time I blogged about food Drew complained that it wasn’t fair for me to talk about food. Tonight I feel no guilt. A bunch of my co-workers and I went out for all you can eat sushi tonight. Since Drew isn’t a fan of sushi and sashimi will never pass through his lips I know he won’t complain about missing out this time.

It was interesting for all of us to get together with our spouses and significant others – I was the only one there without a partner in attendance – and not talk about work. It seems an unwritten rule that weekend gatherings are work-free zones.

Many of us have worked outside of the country. Dr D had a stint in Australia. M lived and worked in Dubai. C worked in Korea and frequently vacationed in his wife’s homeland, the Phillipines. And of course, I worked in India and the Phillipines. It’s interesting hearing everyone’s stories of their temporary foreign homes.

The best part of the evening was meeting R’s husband WD40. We talk spouses in the office all the time so it’s nice to put a face to all the stories. And WD40 is a hoot! It’s a relief knowing that 1) the stories are likely ALL true and 2) the object of the stories lives up to their reputation.

R makes a great designated driver – although I apparently need to work on refining my driving direction skills. Oh, and I suppose it would help if I turned on my cell phone when I’m expecting a ride in case the driver gets lost due to my poor directions. All worked out in the end.

Had a blast this evening. Now, back to reading articles for my classes and prepping my assignment answers.

Out at karaoke with the girls tonight and now have a ticket to Celt-X Burns night in my hot little hands. Do you have yours?

I slept this afternoon. I hadn’t intended to. The plan was to come home from grocery shopping and do readings for class. These past few semesters all I had to do to nod off was crack open my Enviro Chem textbooks. They bored me to tears most days.

No so with this semester’s textbooks. Even the Stats one seems interesting. I grabbed my pens and hi-liter and was just about to settle a textbook in my lap when *poof* I feel asleep. Textbooks never moved from their stacked pile at my elbow. But I slept. Uninterrupted. For four hours! It was wonderful. I know I desperately needed it.

Of course the downside to sleeping through my planned study time is that I have more to do tomorrow. And the forecast says it’ll be between +6C and +10C. While everyone else is playing in the sun I’ll be in my basement reading papers, textbooks, and writing out my responses to my assignments. Unfortunately I can’t procrastinate this weekend or I’ll fall massively behind in my three (yes 3! – I still don’t know what I was thinking when I registered this past semester) classes.

Can’t have everything.

While I’m on the topic of school and Enviro Chem, my final grades for the course are finally in. Considering that I didn’t recognize ANYTHING on my final exam I’m thrilled with my final marks. I was dreading having to repeat the class since if I didn’t pass the exam I wouldn’t pass the course. Silly university rules! No option to fall back on a cumulative course grade to pass if the final exam isn’t passed…

Drumroll please.

I’ve added another A- (3.7) to my transcript. As far as percentages go, it’s the lowest mark I’ve obtained since I enrolled at RMC but thank goodness for grade ranges. No F (or B) on this transcript yet. It’s a huge load off my mind knowing that I don’t have to retake the class. On to bigger and better things now.

Before the much appreciated crash I did manage to make the trip to the Post Office and send Drew another package. Compared to one’s I’ve sent in the past this one was pretty sparse. Mostly foodstuffs. I didn’t remember to sit down and write a letter or record any home videos this week so I’ll need to try and do a bit of that tomorrow too. I’ll consider it my break from studying in the afternoon.

Next week I’m heading to STOMP! with Loxley and Boo. I’m really looking forward to it since I haven’t seen Boo in months. The following weekend is the Celt-X Rabbie Burns night and I should be picking up my ticket for that tonight. I’m bringing the camcorder and many tapes with me. Lots of former band mates and friends will be there and they all want to record a message for Drew. Shades of our social in Winnipeg. Drew was in Bosnia for that and we recorded messages for him. Of course, we have no VCR now so watching those again won’t happen anytime soon.

Must remember to charge camcorder batteries.

If you’re local (Edm area) and looking for something to do on Jan 31 consider picking up a ticket to the Celt-X event. Proceeds go to developing a school for pipers and drummers. A traditional Burns supper is in the offing and entertainment is provided by the boys of St. James Gate out of Red Deer. They’re an amazingly high spirited and talented celtic band and the official band of the Edmonton Girls Pipe Band. To learn more or order tickets, visit Http://upyerkiltscottishgifts.com and click on Events.

My group was hived off from our previous department in the “great fallout of 2009” (TM) and today my old boss and I met with the new boss. I’m not certain what this means for us in the long run. We’ve removed a management layer – which can only be a good thing – and re-aligned with a department that I’ve always thought my group needed to be working closer with. The new boss seems approachable and “gets” a lot of the things I worry about. He doesn’t seem to want to micro-manage and wants to leave chunks of the current structure in place. I’ve worked with him and many of his team members before and know that this change is probably a good thing for my smaller group.

It occurs to me that I don’t even know the name of my new department…

For the moment nothing changes for me other than the software I’m working with and the reporting structure. I will get a new dev server and continue my daily supervision of my minions. For now. We will have a tonne of new and unexpected work resulting from the switch in LMS’s but I’m sure R and I are up to the challenge.

However, I’m just a geek and the real workers might not find the change large enough – or his knowledge of their needs and challenges strong enough -to result in permanent positive change. For the moment I choose to remain hopeful as I await additional news on the secret email front.

I know. Not so secret when I blog about it. Then again, I’ve been about as descriptive as a blank chalkboard lately.

I did have a bit of a grouchy break this afternoon. A not-so-liked co-worker was given (taking?) credit for some excellent work done by a different co-worker who wasn’t there to defend herself. So I jumped in to ensure she was recognized. Normally it wouldn’t have been such a big deal. We share credit for individual work here all the time. Today it just really bothered me and I wasn’t ready to let it go.

I have arranged to take tomorrow off to run a tonne of errands – groceries, packages for Drew, bill payments, and studying are all in the plans for my day off. I need the change of pace to refresh and be ready for whatever Monday brings.

I am trying to decide how to process today. Like a true useless female critter, I got so angry and frustrated that I cried like a baby. I hate it when I do that. It’s a completely involuntary and silly response and I wish I had better control over myself so I didn’t take things so personally. Or at least that I could get angry and just explode like most people do. Instead I fell apart. I don’t even have something useful like menopause to blame my reactions on.

What’s worse, no one is able to provide any sort of answer or direction to my underlying question. Instead, we’re all supposed to fall on our swords in order to appease others. Many times I’ve accepted responsibility for the actions or mistakes of others and willingly stepped up to the plate.  Today I felt an extreme amount of pressure to do so despite knowing that there was very little of the mess that I had any authority or manner of control over. I feel like the nerdy kid on the playground being harassed by the school yard bully. I am sure I’m not the only one.

Things are changing. I hope for the better.

When I arrived home I found the snow shoveling fairy had made a visit. This small nicety from a neighbour immediately improved my mood. I am incredibly grateful for the wonderful people who surround me and the things they do, without expecting anything in return, that shows that someone cares.

I also got an interesting email tonight. If nothing else, it provides a sense of hope to cling to. I just hope I can hold on to the second quarter.  Many times I feel somewhat unemployable as I sit in limbo between odd skill set and past experience and formal education. I often wish I had something else to fall back on, like office admin skills, so I could go work elsewhere. But I don’t.  I have a lot of respect for admins because they know how to do things I can’t imagine how to complete. I used to joke that it was my ego that kept me from applying for positions like that. But it’s not.  It’s a combination of other things. I know I don’t have the requisite knowledge and skill set to be good at the position – and I hate not being good at what I do – and I know I’d be quickly bored.

Bored me is not a good person to be around.

In the meantime I guess I wait.  And hope. And keep my eyes open and ears to the ground. Obscure much?