Chronomusing
Jan. 12th, 2003 08:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beetiger-In an amazing bit of luck around other people's calendar planning, April is actually not interfering too badly with itself. I can attend an old college friends' wedding the weekend of the 6th, the Yale Story Reading 20th reunion the weekend of the 12th, the eloborate women's mystery event one of the elders in my Wiccan community is holding on the weekend of the 19th, and still manage to meet my commitment as local GoH at Jersey Devil Con on the weekend of the 26th. I am oh so pleased!
-I'm sick of "*insert fringe community here* standard time". It's not cute. It makes me seem on the obnoxious and anal overorganized side sometimes, but showing up when you say you will is actually a pretty basic social skill. Putting as high value on other people's time as you put on your own is a key sign of respect. It recognizes that your friend has made a choice to spend time with you, time zie could have spent elsewhere. We waited over an hour for the group meeting us for dinner after the Flea vendors closed, at a place we would not have chosen ourselves, before![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lediva and postvixen andpostrodent andmidnightserval and I gave up and left. We did have a lovely dinner ourselves in a quirky Algerian place off Central Square, where the conservative women who hung around there were appalled by my revealing sequined bustier but charmed by lediva's cat makeup. They laughed and laughed to hear that we were going home, and not clubbing, but by time we finished dinner at 10:30 or so the urge to go back to the con, and certainly the urge to go to the party of the person who had stood us up, had passed. I'll apologize if I find out that somesub ended up in the hospital with a broken leg, ad people were tending zir, but I somehow doubt this. We still haven't heard an excuse or apology, as far as I know.
-Tired, very tired. Tomorrow I have about 12 hours of work to complete in an eight hour day. This would not be that bad if most of what I needed to do didn't require giving information to people that I don't yet have. And I'm desperately, desperately afraid of screwing this stuff up. I'm not as efficient as I'd like to be. If Friday had gone better, this wouldn't be looming.
It's not so much that I mind the long commute, anymore. I mind the lost time. I'm in a phase when I'm trying to make new friends, and it feels so much like blowing people off when it's hard work to fit them into your schedule.
-My fortune cookie on Wednesday night said "Do not pass on a once in a lifetime opportunity." Thursday morning, I recieved email back from an old Pepsi colleague who is now senior tech manager at a small beverage company, responding to a resume I sent her at the beginning of October, saying that she didn't know my current situation, but if I were available to give her a call. Part of me really wouldn't want to back out of my current one-year commitment. That's not my style, though I've got an escape clause in my contract. Part of me was happy this other opportuntiy had fizzled earlier, because I'm not sure I want to make a big-responsibility, indispensible-in the-organization kind of career move right now, when I'm trying to rebalance my life. But I don't like the job I'm doing now, no, not at all.
-I'm sick of "*insert fringe community here* standard time". It's not cute. It makes me seem on the obnoxious and anal overorganized side sometimes, but showing up when you say you will is actually a pretty basic social skill. Putting as high value on other people's time as you put on your own is a key sign of respect. It recognizes that your friend has made a choice to spend time with you, time zie could have spent elsewhere. We waited over an hour for the group meeting us for dinner after the Flea vendors closed, at a place we would not have chosen ourselves, before
lediva and postvixen andpostrodent andmidnightserval and I gave up and left. We did have a lovely dinner ourselves in a quirky Algerian place off Central Square, where the conservative women who hung around there were appalled by my revealing sequined bustier but charmed by lediva's cat makeup. They laughed and laughed to hear that we were going home, and not clubbing, but by time we finished dinner at 10:30 or so the urge to go back to the con, and certainly the urge to go to the party of the person who had stood us up, had passed. I'll apologize if I find out that somesub ended up in the hospital with a broken leg, ad people were tending zir, but I somehow doubt this. We still haven't heard an excuse or apology, as far as I know.-Tired, very tired. Tomorrow I have about 12 hours of work to complete in an eight hour day. This would not be that bad if most of what I needed to do didn't require giving information to people that I don't yet have. And I'm desperately, desperately afraid of screwing this stuff up. I'm not as efficient as I'd like to be. If Friday had gone better, this wouldn't be looming.
It's not so much that I mind the long commute, anymore. I mind the lost time. I'm in a phase when I'm trying to make new friends, and it feels so much like blowing people off when it's hard work to fit them into your schedule.
-My fortune cookie on Wednesday night said "Do not pass on a once in a lifetime opportunity." Thursday morning, I recieved email back from an old Pepsi colleague who is now senior tech manager at a small beverage company, responding to a resume I sent her at the beginning of October, saying that she didn't know my current situation, but if I were available to give her a call. Part of me really wouldn't want to back out of my current one-year commitment. That's not my style, though I've got an escape clause in my contract. Part of me was happy this other opportuntiy had fizzled earlier, because I'm not sure I want to make a big-responsibility, indispensible-in the-organization kind of career move right now, when I'm trying to rebalance my life. But I don't like the job I'm doing now, no, not at all.
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no subject
Date: 2003-01-12 05:28 pm (UTC)We arrived at a convention planning meeting when we were told, only to find out they expected everyone to take up to an hour to get there. So we left to give someone a ride. Planning an hours grace is disheartening, but at least I know it may be padded and can double check with the folks who know I am punctual about the actual expected start time.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-12 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-12 08:26 pm (UTC)oh, you thought we moved back because we missed seasonal weather?
i freely admit i have a blonde, own-world mode. but i only let it take me over when i'm not needed - when my presence is optional at best. i can dwell in my own little fantasy for hours at a time, perfectly content. but you just don't shirk your commitments, whether made to a spouse of 50 years, or the barest, newest aquaintence.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-12 10:20 pm (UTC)My policy in all such situations is to always check them out. You might have a wonderful opportunity waiting for you, or not. However, if you don't investigate you'll never know. I don't know how you feel about missed opportunities, but I loathe them.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-13 08:03 am (UTC)To everything, there is a season...
Date: 2003-01-13 09:57 pm (UTC)And, dammit, when you've said what time that's going to be, THAT IS THE TIME. I used to constantly have *fits* over this with my spice - not because we were missing out on anything, but because, having spent too many evenings waiting on friends to show up, only to call them half an hour after they were supposed to be at my place and find them still at their own... I consider failing to meet an appointed time one of the rudest things you can do.
Now, I'll grant, sometimes things happen. And hey, not everyone carries a cellphone. And if someone shows up 5 minutes late, well, I write it off to most people not being syncronized to standard time (yes, Virginia, there IS a standard time, and no, it may not be what "Time and Temp" says it is).
And sometimes things happen and you call ahead and say "Hey, we're running late, sorry, expect us there about 15 minutes after " - as long as it's reasonably before , okay, write it off to an oops (though multiple oopses says "I don't care enough to plan for the things that always happen")
Eventually, I just decided that I was going to tell them both that any time-crucial event was roughly 30 minutes earlier than I actually wanted to arrive. We usually arrive with 5-10 minutes to spare.
Anyway. Rant done, probably should have been in my own journal. C'est la vie. Oh, and about the other job thing... you spend 8 hours of your day at work, or so it seems. That's one-third of your life. Do you *really* want to spend 1/3 of your life doing something you hate, if you have any other choice?
That's always been my guiding view.