I made it! It's like reaching shore after a long, grueling swim through shark-infested water. At least that's how it seems to me. Someone who's never made a long grueling swim through shark-infested water. It's just been a hard week all around.
I had my eye issue, which seems to be okay. But, because I took four hours off on Monday to rush to the first eye doc to get it checked, and rushing to the retinal specialist for confirmation, I was working from the time I got up until I got home at night.
Race to get ready for work and get out of the house. None of the leisurely early morning pleasure that makes my days worthwhile. Just get up, get showered and dressed, make the bed, take care of the cat and race out the door as early as possible. Short lunches, longer days, I am too old for this. In my thirties or early forties it probably wouldn't have fazed me. Now it did.
Thursday was more racing because I wanted to get to work early enough to put in at least seven hours before having to leave to race to my follow-up appointment.
Between the time constraints and tiredness, I had no room or energy for writing, so this has languished along with everything else. Now, while I waited to be squeezed in at the retinal doc, and while I waited for my eye to dilate on Thursday at my follow-up (another two hours that had to be recovered), I did work on 'In A Green and Shady Place'. Adding a touch of detail to take the reader to where the MC is speeding along a country road.
At the end of it all, I made up all but one minute and forty-eight seconds. I hit the end of the week, after taking six productive hours out, at 39:97 on the timekeeping software. Not bad. Not even worth fussing about.
I also learned that the ex-husband of one of my colleagues has recently been diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. They have two minor kids together, so it's worrying to her how they'll be provided for if things don't go well. Ex has a new lady in his life, so will she reap the benefit to the exclusion of the couple's kids?
It's a tough place to be - I have nothing but admiration for her strength and determination, but she's in a world of hurt and fear. Even though they're ex's, and even though it's a good place for both of them to be (being ex), there's still that foregoing relationship that led to a marriage and two children. In there were good times, good memories and times when all was right with the world. And now this. He's in his forties, so it's about twenty years before most people expect to be faced with stuff like this. So, on top of being horrible and difficult, there's the surprise.
That came up yesterday while I was talking to her about the upcoming benefits year.
It's funny. When I first joined the company I'm with, I was working for a temp agency. Because of the fluidity of staff, temp agencies simply cannot afford to provide great benefits. They're there, but they're expensive, so I never signed up.
When I was hired here, almost a year ago, the benefits were glossed over. It was almost at the level of, "Yes, we have benefits." No information about costs or plans or alternatives and, having just come from the world of temps, after Obie-One Care was enacted and came into being, I didn't know. I didn't even know enough to ask. I assumed, and we all know what that leads to.
So, the other day, there was a benefits meeting. The person who was supposed to run the slideshow ran into technical difficulties. The computer she was using didn't want to do what it was supposed to do. Five minutes after the meeting was supposed to start, they called me. Only problem is, they're 300 miles away, so I can't see what they're seeing. That made it impossible for me to know how to fix what was broken - particularly given that I was getting pop-up after pop-up in my Outlook from all and sundry saying "I can't sign in!"
Long story short, after trying various things I did what I wasn't planning on doing. I "attended" the meeting, and ran the slideshow while still doing what I had planned to be doing on the second screen of my computer setup. All I did was listen for the 'blah-blah-blah-next slide please' when I would frantically reach for the mouse to advance the slide. Along the way, I learned that the benefits I had heard about weren't anywhere near as expensive as I had thought.
Yesterday, to cap my week, I signed up. There's a waiting period through November, of course, and the benefits are minimal, but they're there and will be available if / when I need them.
They wouldn't cover my recent adventure, but if I need to see the doc for something, I can. If I want to get a skin check - which I haven't had in four years, now - I can. I am so excited!
Last night I was in bed at eight-thirty and slept solid until seven-fifty this morning - unheard of for me! But it points to how tired I was. Today I feel like a zombie, but I am looking forward to getting life back on track. Normal mornings with coffee and writing. Normal days with no rushing out the door so I can rush around work so I can rush home. Ahhhh. Normal. What a wonderful thought.
Now, I'm going to wrap this up and experiment with normal, see how it fits and what it feels like.
I wish you a happy, normal, calm and average day - don't complain and don't take them for granted!
Best~
Philippa
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