2002-10-07 - 10:44 p.m.
For some amazing and completely unfathomable reason, I was up early this morning and into the dribble (and for those of you don't know, that's what the "shower" is called in a household with water pressure challenges) before sunrise. I had my breakfast and dragged all the bags of trash to the curb, and was on my way to work on time, despite the fact that I hadn't slept well, and despite the fact that Skootie stayed home sick.
Arriving at work at seven minutes before eight, I noticed a note on my chair from my boss, informing me that the meeting scheduled for 8:30 had been changed to 8:00 am. I had just enough time to grab my notes and run upstairs to the conference room. And then of course I stroll in looking looking calm and confident. Of course I get here before eight, doesn't everyone?
The truth is, I usually get there kind of eight-ish on Monday morning. Maybe leaning a little more toward the ish. But it would have looked very bad for me to have been late to this meeting with my boss and his boss and lots of other directors and assistant directors and important guys. I was so happy that I was there on time that everyone probably wondered why I was smiling so much. On a Monday morning. At a "goal setting" meeting. I was just feeling so very lucky that I thought I would probably have a charmed day.
Adding to my early morning mirth was the woman sitting across from me. Well, not her, exactly but her outfit. She is very short and grumpy, and always tries to act like a Serious Professional. But today she was wearing a stiff vinyl suit embossed with a snake skin texture, and the whole thing was overprinted with a large zebra stripe pattern. Black stripes alternating with the flourescent orange tinged green of the snake. Everytime she moved, the vinyl made a strange sort of crunching noise. I imagined it was the dreadful internal process of the snake swallowing a zebra... or maybe it was a naugahyde swallowing both of them. Either way, the long metalic purple fingernails and the conservative black pumps (it is a business meeting, after all) were the perfect compliments. Where do people find clothes like this? I have never seen anything of the kind in a clothing store. It is one of those great mysteries of the universe.
So I did make some notes on the outfit and managed to doodle a whole row of nice little interconnected stars while I listened. It seems that our goals for the year are not bold enough. We are asked to drum up "goals" to for ourselves to accomplish that have nothing to do with our regular work. They have decided uptairs that it is no longer enough for the staff to do their jobs well. No, in order to meet the new requirements, we now have to be coming up with "creative" ideas for things to do. Which sounds kind of fun until we are told that we will be "accountable" for them.
So much time is spent in crafting the documents containing our goals, and action items, and collaborations and justifications. A strange exercise in juggling verbage. Today we learn that the word "continue" is a no-no. Mustn't use a word in your goal statement that implies something you are already doing. Since I am the office writer, the task of pulling this masterpiece together falls in my lap. I devise yet another version of it and deliver it to my boss before noon. Aren't you glad you let me take those creative writing classes?
So much work being done in the world and so little of value really being accomplished. I guess that is my thought for the day. I worked hard today on the business of spinning the university's image, as did a number of other of well-paid people who could have been doing something useful. And then there was the weekend. The whole weekend spent in binderland (assembling notebooks, the freelance gig from hell). It is hard to describe the magnitude of this project, except to say that our house is full of boxes and we have worked many, many hours to have now assembled two of the nine volumes. And we can't help but notice that there is more information in those notebooks than anybody could ever need or possible want.
Saturday my Mom came over to help us with the binders and that was a real boost. She's the kind of Mom who is always willing to jump in and help if she thinks one of her kids needs something, even to do something as boring as notebook assembly. It was great to have an extra pair of hands, but even better to have the company for the afternoon. The afternoon went by quickly at least and then we took Mom and ourselves out for pizza as a reward. So that was my weekend. Work of some sort or another has seemingly crowded out all of the interesting things in my brain. But it is only temporary, I keep telling myself. The binders will be done eventually. And goal season is almost over for another year.
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