A news-worthy event

For the first time in SEVEN YEARS, I wore a dress*. (The last dress I wore was a white fluffy one with a 9 foot train!) I think I pulled it off quite well!

*I probably hadn't worn a dress for 2 years prior to my wedding and it's been at least 4 years since I wore a skirt.

Look at the time of this post, then ask...

why is Karen STILL at work?!!!

Then have sympathy for me and be thankful for your job and the hours you work. Woe is me!

Another working weekend.

It was an odd weekend, but a weekend with much accomplishement.


I had the pleasure of working from home on Friday which meant I actually got work done instead of being interrupted. I was able to get Draft 1 of the timetable out today. There's still loads of work to be done, but this is a huge milestone passed. Let's hope the head teacher approves.



On a non-timetabling front...
I got sick of the clutter in my flat so I spent several hours on Sunday clearing clutter. A flat you cleaned (or tidied) always leaves you feeling like you accomplished much. I cleared clutter partly because I was looking for something, partly because it was starting to really annoy me, and partly cause I was really tired of working and needed a break. Those who know me / have lived with me - you know how much much I was sick of working if I preferred to clean instead of work!

Emotionally this weekend was, well weird. Perhaps I can blame coincidence or hormones or the stars mis-aligning, but there was some odd stuff happening. On Friday I watched an episode of America's Got Talent and someone I used to know and worked with was on it and made it to the next round - super weird! And while clearing up I ran across all kinds of weird stuff from my past. Without going into laborious and boring details, the easiest way to describe my weekend is, well it was odd.

And interesting distraction

Today went as most days at work these days go - busy and stressful. That is until around 5:30 when I was interrupted. A colleague of mine is in the process of taking over the role of Cover Manager (in which I am SO very pleased), so she's quite often in my office arranging cover. This is no big deal and not much of a distraction, except the occasional chair crash when we move. At 5:30 one of the premises staff came in to change a light bulb that I'd been moaning about. He came complete with ladder and equipment.

So to my left there was the lady taking over cover

and to my right and directly above me, the ladder and guy changing my light bulb. This was an interesting 10 minute distraction. I litterally couldn't move.

Super Karen to Stupid Karen

If you didn't guess, my "impressed with myself" feeling has turned into a "I want to kick myself" feeling. For those of you who aren't timetablers (which I'd say would be all but 2 of my readers*) the simple explanation is that I forgot to put something in the timetable that is important and impossible to get into the timetable at this late stage. This means I have to back track and loose several, several hours if not days of work. D'oh! is putting my feelings lightly.

* If you're surprised I have more than two readers, so am I! I think the number of readers might stretch into double digits!

Super Karen Returns!

Do blog entry titles such as

161 to go

367 to go and 5 days

11 to go

32 and counting

or Timetabling
ring any bells? Does it give you a deja vous moment? Well if not, click on the links above and reminisce back a year.

This year I started timetabling very very late. 1 month late to be exact. Timetabling season is my busiest time at work. I have no social life - I live, eat and breathe the timetable until it's done.

On top of starting the timetable late this year, the head decided to give me another very busy job to do because someone left. If you have thought to yourself lately, "Karen seems very stressed / unhappy / not her normal cheery self recently" work is why. I work. That's it. I get up in the morning and come to work. I'm here most days until the premises staff kick me out. Then I go home and work. I work. No social life. No fun. Just work. And stress. I don't even have time to update my blog! That's just wrong.

I reached my breaking point on Friday and instead of going home to work, I called a friend and said "I need a friend". Thanks H for being a good friend. Saturday I woke up and started timetabling. I ended up timetabling through the night - till 7:30am Sunday morning. Crazy, I realise, but I did it. I woke up 5 hours later and timetabled till 1:30am Monday morning. I got very little sleep this weekend, but I was feeling quite impressed with myself yesterday and today at the progress I'd made over the weekend. Super Karen had returned. I rock!!!!

PS I realised a fatal flaw in my efforts and have had to back track quite considerably. I've very irritated with myself for this. My deadline's not till Friday - I can make it ... right?

No good very bad day ... again.

This is how I left work feeling

Why does time go so quickly? Where does it all go?

I blame the time piece equipment we have. A good kick to make time stop should work, no?

Failing that, I can always add more hours to the day, right?

Why did I have a bad day? Politics. and cowards. That's what it boils down to really. Some people complaining and other people not standing up for what should happen, but backing down because they are cowards. This effects my day and makes me very frustrated. Some of the people in my life are so ridiculous and petty it's just sad.

Tragedies

Just a quick post, I don't really have time to blog at the moment, but I'm neglecting my blog and I have pictures to share that I don't want to forget about. So here's my quick post for you.



Friday night after finally getting to leave work (after 7pm) I headed down to join some friends at the local. The candle in the centre of the table started to fall, not wanting it to go ALL over me I tried to stop it's fall. I did. Stop the candle falling. I did not stop the wax from splashing out all over my arm. Not as painful as I expected it to be (by the next morning I was as right as rain) but still not the most pleasant thing ever.

It kind of looked / felt like I had a cast on.

Later that night I got home, ready to crawl into my nice, comfy clean bed and was greeted by this on my pillow:

EW!!!! It's was the size of my thumb! Gross!!

I'm home

I got home safely. I had a lay over in Chicago for several hours and the plane was over booked. They asked for volunteers to take a later flight. Just as I had decided I would (as the compensation would have been a free flight to the back to the States) they told me they didn't need me anymore. I guess God knew I needed to get home and rested for work today. I've decided I don't "do flying" very well. I fell ill every time I land, I don't think I "depressurise" very well. I left Tyler (and my mom) around 11am Texas time (6pm London time) on Saturday. I made a quick trip to meet Kanyon in Dallas and then on to the airport. (Can I just say that I have no problems with coping with London traffic, but Dallas traffic I HATE! It wasn't even rush hour.) No problems getting checked in or with any of the flights. I got the window and aisle seat all to myself going from Dallas to Chicago, but the plane from Chicago to London had every seat full. Chicago to London was the first plane trip where I've been cold in the plane - that was new. Landed in London and was thankful I had a taxi booked - I was tired and not feeling well. Got home, had a nap for a couple hours (interrupted by a brief call from my mother). I went back to bed at midnight and haven't really dealt with jet lag yet. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'm just anticipating the sleep deprivation hitting me soon like a brick wall.

I tried to post this picture in one of my posts from America, but it didn't work. This is me "blogging" in America on Thursday. Notice the overly cheesy smile - what's up with that?!

Today's been back at work as normal - hitting the ground running with not enough time in the day to get it all done. On the positive, I've had SO many people compliment the way I looked. Something was different and no one knew what. I've not lost weight, I've not had my hair done, I've not put make up on, nothing's different but I still got lots of "you're looking good today Karen" compliments. I think I figured out what was different - I'm not as stressed as I was a week ago. This trip to the States id me more good than I knew. I also needed a break more than I realised!It was good to see my family and spend time lovin on them, and it was sad to leave them. But it's SO good to be home and sleeping in my own bed!!