work

It’s the start of a three-day weekend, which I got to start a little early when my office closed (not unexpectedly; they sent out an e-mail earlier in the week) at 3 PM. That I managed to finish the one piece of work I needed to finish before the end of the day — and a few other small bits besides — is nothing short of a minor miracle.

Well, a very minor miracle. But this was definitely something I wanted to finish and send out to an editor before the end of the day, and I’m pleased that I did. I won’t get feedback on it until next week, and it’s for a meeting I have yet to schedule for the week right after, but I don’t think it will be too much of a problem. Even if I am out of the office all of next week.

I’m cheating a bit by not taking next Tuesday off. I do plan to work that day, but it’ll be from home, nestled between Memorial Day and three days of vacation. Plus, of course, next weekend…and the Monday following, kind of, since starting that first week of June my telecommuting day will switch to Mondays. I don’t expect to go back into the office until June 4th.

Of course, I’ll also be moving into summer hours then, which means an extra forty-five minutes of work four days a week, but I’m glad I’ll be able to ease into it like this.

I’d originally taken the days off because I thought I’d be house-sitting while my parents were away, but they’ve decided, for various reasons, not to be away. I suppose I could have cancelled the days off, and there’s a part of me that would like to be using my vacation time for something more productive, for an actual vacation, for going somewhere, preferably someplace where the weather’s a touch more consistent or at least free of the disgusting humidity we’ve endured most of this week.

Of course, there’s also a part of me that’s planning to look for an apartment soon, the part of me that’s already on the hook for a couple of thousand (and counting) to future Kaleidotrope contributors, and the part of me that recognizes that I don’t make a huge amount of money. (Kaleidotrope certainly doesn’t bring in any.) A real vacation might be nice, and it’s been a while, but it’s not like I won’t enjoy several days of just sitting around, watching TV, reading, and — and this is something I’ve told myself I have to do — writing.

For now, I’m just going to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend and play it from there.

A busy day, running from one short meeting to another.

Meanwhile, it seems like summer is finally here, weather-wise. Temperatures were up into the high 80s today, with humidity around the same. It was not altogether pleasant. Last night, I had a small fan on but didn’t sleep terrifically well. This evening I switched the air conditioner on, and I’m hoping that’s an improvement.

Winding my way to the end of the week. I’ll be home all of next. It won’t be much of a vacation, and I won’t escape the humidity — oh, the humidity — but I am kind of looking forward to just hanging around.

Today was a pretty good day, especially for a Monday.

I had a launch meeting for a book I recently put into production, which is something I haven’t done before. The meeting, not the other thing. I’ve actually lost track of the number of books I’ve put into production, although this is the first since I started my new development position last April.

The meeting was really just an opportunity to talk with sales and marketing about the book, make sure everybody’s on the same page about how best to sell and market it, and it seemed to go really well. It helps that it’s a good book.

Some other stuff happened too, but it was pretty much just a Monday all around.

Thursday is a case study in almosts. It’s almost Friday, the week is almost over, and I almost finished the report I’ve been working on this whole week. (If not longer. It feels like longer.)

I decided to do summer hours again this year, almost at the flip of a coin. They won’t start until next month, but already I’m wondering about what I’ve gotten myself into. I’ll have to work forty-five minutes more Monday through Thursday — in order to leave at 1 PM on Friday. I think that means I’ll only be one train later in the evening, but we shall see. I haven’t done it since the first year, when we were back in our old offices. Like I say, I think I can get from the current office to Penn Station in 15 minutes by subway, but we shall see.

Meanwhile, my work-from-home day will be switching to Monday in the next few weeks. There’s no particular reason for the switch, beyond that that’s what our UK counterparts have recently switched to, but it actually makes a lot of sense for several reasons. Well, mostly meeting-related reasons. (I wouldn’t have had to give up my telecommuting this week, for instance.) It probably doesn’t work so much in our favor when there’s a three-day holiday weekend and we have the Monday off, but I’m not really complaining. And anyway, it won’t go into effect until after the three-day weekend that’s coming up in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, I guess I’m going to start looking for an apartment.

I wish I could say I’d been doing anything more exciting recently than watching episodes of Game of Thrones, but that would be a lie. I didn’t even have my regular writing group on Sunday.

I had to go into the office today, to take notes at a meeting, rather than work from home. And I finally (yesterday) finished reading Maureen F. McHugh’s Mission Child. (I liked things about it; I don’t know that I liked the book.) That’s about as close to exciting as the past few days have gotten.

I’m kind of okay with that, actually.