Saturday

I am attempting to be productive - in spite of a raging headache and an increasingly sore throat. Remnants of my cold? Lingering symptoms of the sinus infection? Not sure. But have been struggling today to 'do' what I need/want to do.

I have: cleaned the guest bathroom, done a load of laundry, scoured the kitchen sinks, taken out recycling, watered all the indoor and patio plants; soaked the bonsai trees for 10 minutes. Cleaned the pantry, which resulted in my baking a double batch of brownies and making sweet & salty Chex mix. Filled 3 paper grocery bags FULL of shred - which was from cleaning out files, etc. that required shredding vs. tossing in recycling. Emptied the recycling bin in our office three times from culling out junk mail that has accumulated this week - and newspapers, kids school papers, etc. Sorted through magazines. Clipped coupons. Made shopping lists for tomorrow's after church errand marathon.

I have a pile of work I brought home that I will work on a bit tomorrow. I was at a training class (my first of my 18 months of training for CBO's through CASBO) all day Friday so I feel 'behind'. Will hopefully 'catch up' a bit tomorrow. My trainer is on vacation this coming week so I have an entire week to 'myself' and a 'to do' list a mile long. The class gave me some good 'ideas' and plans of what to tackle next, so I will have plenty to do while she's away.

B. & H. are spending the night elsewhere - so we are alone. We usually would jump at the chance to go out for sushi or Thai food but I wasn't feeling that great, so we stayed home. AND H. had his 4H cooking class today and he made an AMAZING meatloaf. When he brought it home around 4PM, I ate it - it was a small 'mini loaf' and it was FANTASTIC. Just what I was craving, though I didn't realize it until I started to eat it. So that probably contributed more to me not feeling 'hungry' for dinner more than anything. It was GREAT. Will add ground beef to my list for tomorrow so he can help me make a meatloaf later this week.

I will be seeing some of my college friends this coming week - dinners 'over the hill' in Livermore Monday and Tuesday. Can't wait to see them. Also had dinner on Thursday evening with my friend J. - great to see her, too. We met at String's in Livermore - it felt 'strange' to see her in the evenings since we usually do lunch. But it was fun and as we always do, we just pick up where we left off last time we saw each other. Told her about my job, and appreciated her reminding me that I didn't actually like my college job the first months, either. So I can't really 'judge' how I feel about my new job this early in the game. At the moment, everything is 'foreign'. And I keep finding out that I'm 'responsible' for so many bizzare things - the most recent being having to read an electric meter at one of our campuses. This meter is a 'private' meter, on one portable building that we lease out to a daycare. And the meter hasn't been read for some time so then I'll get to create the 'bill' for the power and send it to the daycare. Lovely. Add THAT to my (incredibly growing) list of things I have to do. The doing isn't 'hard' and won't be difficult - but for the moment, EVERYTHING is hard and difficult 'cuz I don't know how to do most of it. I've never read an electric meter.

The CBO training identified that I am a 'learner'. I like the process of learning. So that's a good thing 'cuz that's pretty much what I'm doing all day, everyday. For now. Someday, I'll be the expert and I'll know and the job will be 'easier' 'cuz the learning will be over. I'm looking forward to that day. I know it will come - it did at the college, eventually, even though in the beginning, I was so sure I would never get some things - like the system, the procedures, etc. But I will. The CBO class also identified me as 'strategic' - and I thought that was surprising since I don't think of myself as 'strategic' - but it defined one of the traits as 'ability to identify patterns' and I AM very good at that. I've never been sure about how to describe how I learn and what I am 'good' at - but it is really finding and identifying 'patterns' in things. And then putting those patterns together into a cohesive understanding of what to do, when to do it and why. THAT'S what I do all the time - and it makes me VERY good at managing process environments. And it makes me very good at accomplishing tasks. AND it's a skill that can't be taught - I just have this 'thing' about putting all the pieces together and 'getting' it in a big picture kind of way. I was surprised it was called 'Strategic' in the analysis we did - but relieved to have a 'description' of what I do well. I've never been sure how to describe it. Well, I have described it as 'unlayering the onion' - and that's a good description. But it's more than that - it's taking the layers of the onion and recognizing how they relate to the other 'pieces' of things that I've unearthed.

I hope the unlayering of my new job starts to make sense soon. I don't like 'not knowing'. It's stressful and not a lot of fun.