Friday, December 21, 2007

"Whatever Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me ..."

... do really dumb stuff.

I've had about 8 hours of sleep in the past 3 days. Dealing with deadlines that were stacked up down here in the hole (luxurious basement office) in a manner that would make Jet Blue proud.

Sleep deprivation can be dangerous - I don't how the interns on Grey's Anatomy do it. Perhaps because they're 20-something, having lots of great sex and fictional?

note to self: in next life come back as 20-something fictional character.

I've spent nearly all of the past 72 hours working - I have edited until my red pencil bled, I have created data files that sing, mail merges to make ya weep and excellent excel files.

I did wander away from the desk from time to time to stretch and clear my head and in those brief moments of exhausted freedom I managed to:

Leave a full glass of milk on the edge of the coffee table. It had a big red straw in it. Siren loves red straws, he also teaches curiosity to other cats at the PetSmart Learning Annex. Whoever said it wasn't worth crying over spilt milk never had to clean it up.

I threw a leaky foul bag of trash into the recycling container. Easy mistake - one is green, one is yellow. The container is so deep that I couldn't retrieve the garbage without tipping the container over and resting it against my leg. I had to use the left leg since the stronger, more balance experienced leg is still recovering from the "Elephant Leg" mishap. It wasn't until the full weight of the container was resting against my foot that I realized I was wearing flip-flops. I quickly reacted to my poor choice of protective footwear by losing my balance, smashing my head against the fence and falling half into the recycling bin. This made grabbing the garbage bag so much easier.

I wondered if the coffee pot was still on by touching it. As sleepy as I was I did not allow the bright red power light to distract me.

I grabbed for the ringing telephone while using the vegetable washing spray thingie. Again - kudos to me - I was multi-tasking by talking to my neighbor while washing the kitchen walls.

Thank goodness I didn't need to operate heavy machinery. I swear I caught the washing machine hugging the laundry room wall in all out terror as I walked by.

My original plan was to celebrate the death of deadlines by putting up my Christmas tree. Considering that fragile glass and electric lights are part of the task I'm re-thinking. I'm nothing if not a clever executive able to adjust in an instant to her changing environment.

The new plan is to have a piece of ice-cream cake (no fire, no sharp utensils) as a late dinner and then sleep.

Tomorrow is another day and the Christmas tree can wait. And it's flame retardant.

8 comments:

jaycoles@gmail.com said...

Some days you just feel as it the Universe is just after you. Put your feet up enjoy a glass of wine (if you drink) and surf the web. While I feel sorry for your day it did make for good reading. j

Anonymous said...

add a little adrenaline to exhaustion and a deadline and you have a very heady brew. once when i was suffering from PRS (pre-recital syndrome)i misplaced the only pencil in the house that still had an eraser while writing up the dance recital program which had to be at the printer's first thing in the morning. after an unsuccessful "search and destroy mission" i decided to have a cup of tea to calm down. the missing pencil turned up when i had to take it out of my mouth to drink the tea.

this is another great post dianne.
so proud of you!
cathy

Jeni said...

A whole string of great posts! I really am so glad you stopped by my place and led me, by the hand and mouse, back to your place as I very much enjoy your writings.
Oh -and next year, I told my son-in-law that IF we do put a tree up again, we will hang it upside down from the ceiling, in the manner of the Swedish people from many years ago. (Or so my grandfather told me they did it that way when he was a child there.)That way, we can eliminate a toddler knocking the tree over or a cat playing with it and bang, down it goes too. Right?

Dianne said...

thanks guys! you all make me smile. the tree is up! and Siren is really charged up about it. Perhaps the ceiling is a good idea! LOL

I'll post a pic of the tree tomorrow, I'm knee deep in wrapping paper at the moment. But I am enjoying a lovely glass of wine as well.

thanks again for stopping by and commenting - half the fun is these "conversations" we all have.

Anonymous said...

Cathy, you won't believe how I read the word 'recital' in your first sentence. Here's a hint: just take the 'i' out. LOL! I really need new glasses.

You gave me a good laugh with the 'pencil in your mouth' story!

Anonymous said...

Gee, I thought my comment to Cathy would show up under her post.

Well now that I know it doesn't work that way, I'll refrain from reponding to other responders.

Sorry. I'm a computer idiot. Or just an idiot.

Anonymous said...

Now, back to the blogger.

Di, I just hope that you didn't have to drive on this very, very long day. That could have been really dangerous!

All of your missteps make for a very funny story. And it's all due to your clients returning.

Good thing your leg got infected. What if you had to work at the store? How would you meet these deadlines?

I don't consider myself at all spiritual, but this makes a good case for "Everything happens for a reason."

Dianne said...

It does make a case for that Cher. LOL

and no I didn't drive, I knew better and would never injure someone else when it's so much fun to just keep injuring me LOL

Don't worry about responding Cher - we can all keep up and I'd rather you say something and have it display where it will then have you not "tawk"