So Much To Say
dOkay - it merits telling, belive me, so bear with me. The sordid details of putting the presentations together and all that followed.
It took me all day yesterday, after postponing my PMP to today and ensuring I didn't have a testing update meeting, to print and assemble all of the various documents that went into the presentations. I asked Ben for a resource to help me and I got a very competent temp who did the hole punching and some final copying, then helped me with filling the notebooks. We ran late though, and there were 30 notebooks, so I pulled in a coworker. Then three more. And then my boss came in to help. So with seven of us, we were done in just a few minutes and had the boxes packed and ready to go, but missed the DHL guy by just a few minutes. Ben took the boxes down to my car so I could take them to the DHL terminal. I got there about 5:30, shipped them off. Felt good.
Last night, as I mentioned in a couple of entries, I was super tired. That three hours of sleep finally caught up with me. That very productive hour between 4:30 and 5:30 this morning netted the foundation of the presentation that would become the dashboard for the CD and then I had most of the CD label designed.
Today at work, got in at 8:15ish, wasted a good 30 minutes, then printed and made 25 copies each of two great articles (1) (2) from Fast Company. Went to the PWN event which was okay - I learned a couple of things (but the articles were better, overall). I did end up having a nice-albeit brief-discussion with my co-chair about the possibility of starting up a group mentoring program like the one at Dial Corp. I think it would be great to do in conjunction with the membership drive in September.
But I digress. Back at my desk and back on task, I worked on finishing up the powerpoint that would be the basis of the CD. Got the last few docs scanned in, all of my hyperlinks checked and graphics tastefully added...done. Started burning CDs around 12:30 and finished somewhere around 3, after a serious crisis and then my update meeting, for which I had no new tests to report because I've just been too busy.
The crisis? Oh, did I fail to mention that I got a call from the woman I sent to presentations to telling me that she hadn't received the boxes? Yeah, that little detail. I checked tracking online but it was clearly messed up. One package had last been tracked at 2:45 am the night before and one at 6:09 am. There was no notation as to where they were located, unlike trusty UPS. I called and was told that DHL had messed up and that the packages would be delivered on Friday at 10:30. After the presentation was due to be finished. Did I mention that ALL of the presentation materials were in those boxes, including the copy that the presenters were to use? OI!! A wonderful lady on the other end of the line wouldn't make any promises but said she would make some calls and follow up with me as to whether the driver could make an early morning delivery or not. I was about to cry; this was on my shoulders for not having it out a day or two earlier, or even completed at the end of last week before anyone left town. But that lasted all of about 10 seconds before I realized that if anyone else could solve the problem, so could I. I just had to uncover the solution, find what could be changed. That turned out to be the presentation schedule. I asked someone if they could look into the possibility of switching sequence with another presenter to buy us the time for the materials to be delivered. Plan B was going to be someone from the hotel looking at the possibility of tracking the packages and picking them up at the airport, and Plan C was loathesome: email all of the documents and have the presenters recreate the presentation materials on the road, at great cost in terms of times and expense. *shivers*
The lady from DHL called to say that the order had been put in for the 8:30 delivery, though I still wasn't sure if that was a sure thing or a more hopeful wish. Ann emailed to say that she was looking into switching times with someone which would mean that our segment wouldn't be until 10:30 or 10:45. Whew! Crisis averted, I hoped.
Chandra road tested my CD, found a few bugs, but nothing that would stop me from actually releasing it. I'll make improvements next round.
Showed it to Ben and he thought it was pretty neat, but emailed me some software (again to be used for next time) which will make the dashboard an executable file upon opening the CD. That'll be slick! Chandra wanted to help out so she worked with me on the test prints on the CD labels and then we tag teamed on printing them up, me at the computer sending print jobs, her at the printer manually feeding in the label sheets so they didn't get mixed up with other people's print jobs. She sat with me to get them all stuck on the CDs, packaged in individual envelopes, then grouped into mailers.
Think I'm done? Nope. Wait for it...trust me. It's just a lull in my tale. Here comes the payoff.
Just before we were actually ready to stick on the labels, Hubby called to say that he was on his way with the baby. YIKES! I had 15 minutes. 20 tops. I wasn't going to be ready. Solution: get critical steps done now, go pick up the baby, bring her back in with, and then wrap up quickly. By that point it was already just before 4pm so I knew I'd miss the DHL guy again. I just planned to go to the terminal again. Lightning wouldn't strike twice, would it? So stickers on, I'm out the door, pick up the baby, bring her back in, decked out like a broncos fan in boys orange tshirt and blue shorts with orange stripe - and hair looking like a shaggy boy. Dashed to my cube for a rubberband to girly her up before parading her shamelessly through the offices as I ran my last few errands for shipping etc. Finally back at my cube, trying to keep her entertained, John came by, and as everyone else had, cooed over the baby, how big she was getting, how cute she was, yada yada yada. Then...the VP compliments.
"So I understand there were some challenges with the presentations."
"Yes, but we've got some solutions. DHL will get them in early, hopefully, and Ann is looking at rescheduling our portion until later."
"Good. I've heard you've been working until the wee hours on this. That says a lot. That's really telling. I just want you to know it's very appreciated."
random trying to accept the compliment,
"Is that more of the presentation material there," he asked, pointing to my DHL package.
"No, this is just the CDs. I'm sending them out tonight"
Then some random talk about a presentation he did today, apparently using a different presentation that we had abandoned at the beginning of our work on this project. Ah well - I guess he made it work. However, it provided a great opportunity for me to offer a copy of the CD, which I think will bode well. Too bad he won't be in the office until Monday as I'd love to have him comment further before I go in for my review tomorrow (although, it had to have been Ben who told him how hard I'd been working anyway), and yet, that gives me time to put together a more polished presentation package for him to reference - the way it should be, you know, with a title page and table of contents, corrected docs on the CD and the autoexecute.
So there it is, a glowing compliment from the VP as I continued to work, even with my daughter in the office, after sacrificing sleep.
See, I can say all this here because it's my journal. Otherwise it would just be bragging. And it was, afterall a team effort. It wasn't all me.
No.It's still bragging. Even here.Deal with it.I'm all that.
(cross posted to corporategirl)
It took me all day yesterday, after postponing my PMP to today and ensuring I didn't have a testing update meeting, to print and assemble all of the various documents that went into the presentations. I asked Ben for a resource to help me and I got a very competent temp who did the hole punching and some final copying, then helped me with filling the notebooks. We ran late though, and there were 30 notebooks, so I pulled in a coworker. Then three more. And then my boss came in to help. So with seven of us, we were done in just a few minutes and had the boxes packed and ready to go, but missed the DHL guy by just a few minutes. Ben took the boxes down to my car so I could take them to the DHL terminal. I got there about 5:30, shipped them off. Felt good.
Last night, as I mentioned in a couple of entries, I was super tired. That three hours of sleep finally caught up with me. That very productive hour between 4:30 and 5:30 this morning netted the foundation of the presentation that would become the dashboard for the CD and then I had most of the CD label designed.
Today at work, got in at 8:15ish, wasted a good 30 minutes, then printed and made 25 copies each of two great articles (1) (2) from Fast Company. Went to the PWN event which was okay - I learned a couple of things (but the articles were better, overall). I did end up having a nice-albeit brief-discussion with my co-chair about the possibility of starting up a group mentoring program like the one at Dial Corp. I think it would be great to do in conjunction with the membership drive in September.
But I digress. Back at my desk and back on task, I worked on finishing up the powerpoint that would be the basis of the CD. Got the last few docs scanned in, all of my hyperlinks checked and graphics tastefully added...done. Started burning CDs around 12:30 and finished somewhere around 3, after a serious crisis and then my update meeting, for which I had no new tests to report because I've just been too busy.
The crisis? Oh, did I fail to mention that I got a call from the woman I sent to presentations to telling me that she hadn't received the boxes? Yeah, that little detail. I checked tracking online but it was clearly messed up. One package had last been tracked at 2:45 am the night before and one at 6:09 am. There was no notation as to where they were located, unlike trusty UPS. I called and was told that DHL had messed up and that the packages would be delivered on Friday at 10:30. After the presentation was due to be finished. Did I mention that ALL of the presentation materials were in those boxes, including the copy that the presenters were to use? OI!! A wonderful lady on the other end of the line wouldn't make any promises but said she would make some calls and follow up with me as to whether the driver could make an early morning delivery or not. I was about to cry; this was on my shoulders for not having it out a day or two earlier, or even completed at the end of last week before anyone left town. But that lasted all of about 10 seconds before I realized that if anyone else could solve the problem, so could I. I just had to uncover the solution, find what could be changed. That turned out to be the presentation schedule. I asked someone if they could look into the possibility of switching sequence with another presenter to buy us the time for the materials to be delivered. Plan B was going to be someone from the hotel looking at the possibility of tracking the packages and picking them up at the airport, and Plan C was loathesome: email all of the documents and have the presenters recreate the presentation materials on the road, at great cost in terms of times and expense. *shivers*
The lady from DHL called to say that the order had been put in for the 8:30 delivery, though I still wasn't sure if that was a sure thing or a more hopeful wish. Ann emailed to say that she was looking into switching times with someone which would mean that our segment wouldn't be until 10:30 or 10:45. Whew! Crisis averted, I hoped.
Chandra road tested my CD, found a few bugs, but nothing that would stop me from actually releasing it. I'll make improvements next round.
Showed it to Ben and he thought it was pretty neat, but emailed me some software (again to be used for next time) which will make the dashboard an executable file upon opening the CD. That'll be slick! Chandra wanted to help out so she worked with me on the test prints on the CD labels and then we tag teamed on printing them up, me at the computer sending print jobs, her at the printer manually feeding in the label sheets so they didn't get mixed up with other people's print jobs. She sat with me to get them all stuck on the CDs, packaged in individual envelopes, then grouped into mailers.
Think I'm done? Nope. Wait for it...trust me. It's just a lull in my tale. Here comes the payoff.
Just before we were actually ready to stick on the labels, Hubby called to say that he was on his way with the baby. YIKES! I had 15 minutes. 20 tops. I wasn't going to be ready. Solution: get critical steps done now, go pick up the baby, bring her back in with, and then wrap up quickly. By that point it was already just before 4pm so I knew I'd miss the DHL guy again. I just planned to go to the terminal again. Lightning wouldn't strike twice, would it? So stickers on, I'm out the door, pick up the baby, bring her back in, decked out like a broncos fan in boys orange tshirt and blue shorts with orange stripe - and hair looking like a shaggy boy. Dashed to my cube for a rubberband to girly her up before parading her shamelessly through the offices as I ran my last few errands for shipping etc. Finally back at my cube, trying to keep her entertained, John came by, and as everyone else had, cooed over the baby, how big she was getting, how cute she was, yada yada yada. Then...the VP compliments.
"So I understand there were some challenges with the presentations."
"Yes, but we've got some solutions. DHL will get them in early, hopefully, and Ann is looking at rescheduling our portion until later."
"Good. I've heard you've been working until the wee hours on this. That says a lot. That's really telling. I just want you to know it's very appreciated."
random trying to accept the compliment,
"Is that more of the presentation material there," he asked, pointing to my DHL package.
"No, this is just the CDs. I'm sending them out tonight"
Then some random talk about a presentation he did today, apparently using a different presentation that we had abandoned at the beginning of our work on this project. Ah well - I guess he made it work. However, it provided a great opportunity for me to offer a copy of the CD, which I think will bode well. Too bad he won't be in the office until Monday as I'd love to have him comment further before I go in for my review tomorrow (although, it had to have been Ben who told him how hard I'd been working anyway), and yet, that gives me time to put together a more polished presentation package for him to reference - the way it should be, you know, with a title page and table of contents, corrected docs on the CD and the autoexecute.
So there it is, a glowing compliment from the VP as I continued to work, even with my daughter in the office, after sacrificing sleep.
See, I can say all this here because it's my journal. Otherwise it would just be bragging. And it was, afterall a team effort. It wasn't all me.
No.It's still bragging. Even here.Deal with it.I'm all that.
(cross posted to corporategirl)