Liz's Continuing Blog : A Tale of two Mondays

Monday, March 7, 2011

A Tale of two Mondays

Remember I said how rejuvenated I felt from my weekend away? That feeling actually lasted into my Monday. I got up early enough so that my departure was almost leisurely. I took the time to make coffee this morning (thereby negating my need to stop at Tim Hortons and adding 5 minutes to my transit time - but eliminating one more chance to roll up the rim). OK, the traffic on Main Street still angered me at the junction of Fillmore/Amherst (it's a bottleneck there and they cannot seem to fix it), but, because I had built in some "goosh" into my commute I was (relatively) calm.

I got to work in time to prepare for an 8:30 conference call. The call should have taken 20 minutes but lasted 3 times that amount. Normally, I'd be spitting nails, but today I was not stressed. I gave sage advice (lol - at least I think it was sage) and did a thoughtful write up of the issue. All day long I was making decisions at a pace that was not crazed, and I didn't lose my cool. Not once. There were even electricians running all over the building changing out all the fixtures. One of them was on a ladder right behind ( and I mean RIGHT behind) my desk chair as I conversed on the phone and made notes on the computer. So, when I say I was serene, you know I'm not kidding.

Plus, I told other people who were clearly stressed that a couple of days off might do them so good. (Now wasn't that helpful?) I'm sure they were so happy to hear that from me. Me, whose nose was clearly burned and whom they hadn't seen in the office since Wednesday. Nice.

I also had a meeting after work where I'm also the secretary. I drank a Sam Adams while recording all the minutes and even stayed after the meeting to jaw with my fellow board members.

All in all, a peaceful yet productive day.

Let's contrast this with Bill's day.

As I pushed the door open this morning (I literally had one foot out the door), I heard Bill call my name. Now, remember how I told you about Bill's penchant for cutting departure times as close as possible? Well, today he had to take the train to Albany. To be honest, it wasn't that he cut the departure time from the house close, rather he got the departure time from the train station wrong. So, at 7:45 a.m. he realized that the train had already left the station and he was still unshaven and in his underwear. He was counting on the 5hour plus train ride to do some reading for an upcoming trial. Now he was faced with driving himself at breakneck speed to Albany and forgoing the reading. He'd have to work late this week to catch up. AND, he had to drive to Albany and back in one day. (The good news was that he was in the middle of a book-on-tape that he was dying to finish so that entertained him on the ride.)