Sunday, June 12, 2016

some venting and a smattering

I didn’t post on Wednesday because frankly, I hadn’t done much of anything. I know I’ve complained about the day job before, but this was truly one of my worst weeks. My schedule is usually 8 to 7 on Mondays and 8 to about 5:30 the next three days, with Fridays off, and about a half hour lunch every day. This week I worked until 5:30 on Monday, until 8:00 (!) Tuesday, until 5:30 Wednesday and 6:30 Thursday. I was so exhausted by the time I got home Thursday night. And it’s not just the hours, but the stress of dealing with patients who this week all seemed to be having many more problems than usual. And our manager is continuing to threaten to take away my day off. Knowing that I have Friday off is usually the only thing that gets me through. Even working only four days a week, I don’t know if I will make it another five years to retirement, not if I have many more weeks like this.

But enough venting.

What did I manage to get done on my list of June Goals:
1)      Finish writing my second memoir, the one that tells the adventures of my two most recent trips to Africa. I worked on three or four chapters. Because I already plopped my journal entries and blog posts about the trip into the manuscript, my word count is pretty skewed, so I can’t go by that.
2)      Research finding an agent or publisher for the first novel. Nope.
3)      Decide on a title for the novel.  Nope, but I need to pick out the best ones and start asking opinions.
4)      Promote one of my three already published books once a week. Yes, once on Twitter.
5)      Redo my author website. Nope
6)      Work on the nonprofit organization once a week. Posted some stuff on our Twitter account.
7)      Continue with my ROW80 blog sponsor duties. Been just barely keeping up.

Ok, so just a smattering of green. I’m looking at my calendar right now, telling myself, it is wide open, you will make up for lost time this week.

Is that what you keep telling yourself?

Here’s what I did accomplish on Friday. It almost made up for the rest of the week. 






11 comments:

  1. I'm sorry about the rough work week. I worked in the medical field a little while. It's an extremely demanding field.

    The sign is lovely. If I spent time making a sign like that, it'd likely be the only thing I did that week. I'm impressed with how much you got done!

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    1. Since entering the medical field 30 years ago, things have changed so much. The work load and daily demands have increased greatly in the last few years. I used to really enjoy my job, but lately I feel as if the whole field has lost its purpose, going from taking care of patients to just worrying about making money. It makes me crazy. But I try to keep my focus on my patients and ignore management as much as I can.

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  2. Wow! What a great sign, a fine way to greet your company as they come down that green summer lane. I popped by to read your post just to check in, and I was feeling somewhat discouraged because I didn't even post yet (though it's not midnight . . . yet). You cheered me up by reminding me about WORK. Now I'm feeling grateful for being retired, but please know that it doesn't matter what career, how long to retirement (or if you are already retired), some weeks present challenges that would take the best of us aback. So, celebrate the progress and cherish those Fridays! You did make progress on writing stuff as well.

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    1. Beth, I'm glad I was able to cheer you up. I'm going to just keep counting those days to retirement, and celebrate whatever I can until then.

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  3. Love the sign. It's frustrating when life gets in the way of writing. Just keep trying.

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  4. Your sign looks great. I hope that boss treats you better.

    Hang in there and God bless.

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  5. As exhausted as you were, I'm surprised you got anything accomplished. My day job sucks out my creativity.

    That's a great looking sign. Hopefully, working on that de-stressed you a bit.

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  6. Great sign!

    I had a job like that for many years and it was getting worse so you have my sympathy. I hope they can't take your day off away - in the UK, if you were part time you would have at least some employment protection to prevent that, so double sympathy. Hope you can get some quality rest time somewhere and well done for managing what you do fit in.

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  7. Hope things ease up at the job somehow! Your sign reminds me I haven't done a hands on project in a while -- I miss scrapbooking our vacation photos!
    Should find out this week if I'll be going to Nairobi for work, and then I can ask you all about it :-)

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    1. I'd be so jealous if you got to go to Nairobi for work! Can I tag along? Have you ever been to Kenya before? I'd love to fill you in.

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    2. It'd be my first time! Might be up to 10 days, next month. Eep!

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