I�m still around, though I haven�t had time in the past week or so to post here. I work for a nonprofit organization that is funded with federal money and we had a �performance� report due � it was due yesterday. If you have ever filled out any kind of government form (like a tax return?) then just imagine a 39-page report that requires about 20 pages of single-spaced narrative. Yikes, what an undertaking!
To get the bulk of the narrative done, my assistant director and I holed up in a hotel room suite with two computers and an LCD projector. I projected what I was working on up onto the wall of the suite�s livingroom and we worked together to write the required narrative.
Why would we do that? Two reasons. 1.) No interruptions and we can work well into the night all comfortable in our jammies if we want; and 2.) She smokes, and she�s a helluva lot more productive if she can smoke while she works instead of taking a fifteen-minute break every hour. We have worked together for years, and this is how we�ve always approached big projects with important deadlines. The only difference now is that I�m not smoking with her.
It was tempting though, holed up in that hotel room with her while she chain-smoked all day. I�m around smokers all the time and it doesn�t tempt me to smoke, but that�s usually outside, not inside in an enclosed space. I felt like I was smoking myself, it was so overpowering. Besides, this was a REALLY important report, so I was a little stressed while we were working on it. More than once I had junkie thoughts of picking up one of hers and taking a deep long drag. But I didn�t.
We checked out of the hotel yesterday morning and returned to our office to put the final touches on our long and involved report. It was due to be submitted online at 4:30 our time � and we pressed �send� at 1:45. Whew! We�d been working on it almost around the clock for three days and finally it was done and we both agreed it looked great! I went home and took a long NAP!
Today my husband and my son and I went for a bike ride together. When we got back home, my son said to me, �Mom, that was epic!� I�m like, what do you mean? He said, �It was like an adventure! It was fun!�
He�s right, it was epic! We rode to a nearby park and e