Briefly (after a long day)

7:45AM
"Hello, toes!" I chirped when I looked down at my feet in peep toe flats. I'm adorable and comfortable, I decided happily.

8:10AM
"Good point," I offered, glancing across the table to make sure the organizer was taking notes. I'd gone first in the agenda of presentations and nodded at the global feedback that was arriving via phone and computer.

10:25AM
"So bored," I whispered to the colleague on my right. The class had lasted over two hours and much as I shifted in my chair and glared at the people prolonging the torture by asking questions, I knew there was much dry material left to cover.

11:27AM
"No, thanks," I declined the offer of lunch out in favor of Cinco de Mayo day in the cafeteria. "I'm trying to finish presentations and savor my hour free of meetings. I'll go next time." So I hurried back to my desk, taco salad in hand, and worked on files for about an hour.

2:03PM
After several consecutive meetings, I sat at my desk and sipped the mint tea I'd fetched. I sighed when my next appointment arrived, moving around my desk to join him at the table arranged in one corner. "Your approach is flawed," I finally interrupted. He tried to deflect my input and I held up my hand. "We take criticism all the time. If you notice that everyone in the building is defensive when you talk to them, you need to change your tone or words or both. In this case, it's not us, it's you. And if you want us to help you, change your attitude."

2:58PM
"I'm done," I murmured, glancing at my calendar and scowling when I realized I was wrong. I had a last-minute meeting scheduled from 5-7PM, leaving me with an unheard-of two hours to spend before my next commitment. I worked diligently, oddly untempted to go home as I waded through old email - answering questions, completing tasks and getting caught up. It was delightful.

5:05PM
"Are we meeting now?" I texted a colleague. We started at the same time, so I feel rather like siblings. There's a tiny bit of rivalry, but we also share tips and secrets in an attempt to succeed and remain reasonably sane. She appeared five minutes later - I win on promptness - and she did experiments on me for two hours - she wins on determination. I did a few experiments of my own after she finished - multi-million dollar labs indicate it can be hard to get access.

7:40PM
"Don't care," I repeated as she listed dinner options. She decided on Pan Asian and I followed her to the restaurant, both of us toting our laptop bags to the table and discussing work projects and strategic initiatives. When the owners extinguished the lights, we were mid-discussion on how to use Outlook to hyperlink to documents! So you can add tasks and calendar items and update documents without going to My Folders! (It kind of blew my mind - Sibling is awesome.)

9:30PM
"Chienne? Sprout?" I called, the latter arriving first since he's a bit quicker. I filled his dish and smoothed his stripey coat before my girl made her way downstairs for cuddles. She's now in bed again.

10:43PM
Sleepy time. The first meeting tomorrow starts an hour earlier than today.