Oh Wow, Finally!
This is nice. I finally have some time to update my LJ.
The last few weeks have been hectic and stressful to say the least:
-- I've been trying to mentally get myself ready for the 10-hour drive to Montreal. I would have preferred to fly to Burlington, VT, and take a rental car into Montreal, like I did last year, but my budget couldn't sustain a plane ticket. I'm renting a car here in Frederick.
-- Plus, my friends John and Mario, with whom I was planning to stay, already have friends from out of town staying with them and they're all heading out to New Brunswick a few days after I get there, so I had the unexpected expense of a hotel room.
-- Eric was out of town himself most of last week and this past weekend
-- I've spent the last four weeks at work training my two backups. They're both good learners and very capable, but I've come to understand that I'm not a good teacher. I've always been the kind to seek out answers myself, and most everything I know about my job, I've had to learn on my own. And because this is how *I* learned, it's difficult for me to translate this into something teachable and to break it down into step-by-step procedures. I know the processes by heart, I know all the steps that need to be followed, and it sometimes feels like such a bother to explain it all out in detail. But that's what I've been doing.
-- Of course, for a few weeks prior to me training these two people, my workload was manageable: busy but evenly paced. The moment I started training them, everything suddenly exploded and I've been madly trying to catch up since. I finally, FINALLY, got caught up yesterday (just a few minutes before I left for the day)...and even then, I had to pass on a voicemail to one of them to handle.
-- At 3 PM, I told my boss I was leaving early. He was cool with that. He knows I haven't taken a decent vacation since last December, and he's been worried about me burning out. I feel like I've been in burnout mode for a couple of months now. I couldn't get out of there fast enough yesterday.
Today feels like I can finally relax for the first time in months.
As much as I don't want to leave Eric and Aspen behind for over a week, I'm looking forward to seeing my mom again. I do miss her.
The last few weeks have been hectic and stressful to say the least:
-- I've been trying to mentally get myself ready for the 10-hour drive to Montreal. I would have preferred to fly to Burlington, VT, and take a rental car into Montreal, like I did last year, but my budget couldn't sustain a plane ticket. I'm renting a car here in Frederick.
-- Plus, my friends John and Mario, with whom I was planning to stay, already have friends from out of town staying with them and they're all heading out to New Brunswick a few days after I get there, so I had the unexpected expense of a hotel room.
-- Eric was out of town himself most of last week and this past weekend
-- I've spent the last four weeks at work training my two backups. They're both good learners and very capable, but I've come to understand that I'm not a good teacher. I've always been the kind to seek out answers myself, and most everything I know about my job, I've had to learn on my own. And because this is how *I* learned, it's difficult for me to translate this into something teachable and to break it down into step-by-step procedures. I know the processes by heart, I know all the steps that need to be followed, and it sometimes feels like such a bother to explain it all out in detail. But that's what I've been doing.
-- Of course, for a few weeks prior to me training these two people, my workload was manageable: busy but evenly paced. The moment I started training them, everything suddenly exploded and I've been madly trying to catch up since. I finally, FINALLY, got caught up yesterday (just a few minutes before I left for the day)...and even then, I had to pass on a voicemail to one of them to handle.
-- At 3 PM, I told my boss I was leaving early. He was cool with that. He knows I haven't taken a decent vacation since last December, and he's been worried about me burning out. I feel like I've been in burnout mode for a couple of months now. I couldn't get out of there fast enough yesterday.
Today feels like I can finally relax for the first time in months.
As much as I don't want to leave Eric and Aspen behind for over a week, I'm looking forward to seeing my mom again. I do miss her.