Give and Take

Tomorrow is apparently a holiday. I rather approve of the idea – working a single day and then having a free one offered in return. I almost left my computer at work, having completed an acceptable amount of work over the course of 10 hours, but remembered that I mightn’t come in on Tuesday. Shaking my head at the ridiculous thought of being away from email for an entire day, I packed up my electronics and walked to my car.

“So this project,” Adam said after he took a seat across from me this morning.

“I like your glasses,” I replied irrelevantly. He touched the silver frames and nodded before asking again about what I’d proposed and explaining why he’d refused to allow it. “I understand,” I sighed as our conversation ended. “I have to project sales and write this presentation and check on progress for all these products.” So while I don't always love Adam's priorities, I do appreciate his confrontational style of talking it all out.

Resigned to my fate, I argued with a visiting scientist, politely and firmly refused two requests and puzzled over numbers that simply didn’t agree. Irrationally tempted to just make something up, I continued to check documents against what was in the system and finally reached a conclusion. Sighing with relief, I closed the file and went to another meeting.

“I hate projections,” I told a colleague when I walked in a conference room. She nodded in sympathy and we settled in to understand the next of an endless series of Very Big Presentations. “Can we just use the same slides as last time?” I asked quietly and she nodded. Content, I settled in to daydream while the voices faded into a murmur around me.

I snapped at someone on a phone call, feeling rather pleased with myself even as I fought back a twinge of guilt. I attended another meeting that I thought would be miserable and ended up delightfully productive. I lost a $300 receipt that would have been reimbursed, but found it again once I returned home. (Oh, sweet $300 relief.) I waded through junk mail but found an offer for an iPod shuffle if I do a credit security trial. Delighted, I realized the credit cards had finally forgiven me for taking their gifts and promptly canceling whatever they’d asked me to try!

And – for my last give/take example – I’ll point out that I had time to write a leisurely blog post. That, unfortunately, wasn’t very good.