Delicious

Well, I hate to speak too soon as it's only 1pm, but today has just been an awesome day.  This is in contrast to yesterday, which found me texting my friend at 5:30pm that I wasn't going to make happy hour because a) I had more work to do and b) "if I don't get some yoga I might die."  No one ever said I lacked a flair for the dramatic. 

12 hour days...they are so fun though.  Anyway, part of my work-related stress (which you've been hearing a lot about lately...sorry...) is related to my ongoing...um, normal job... but a significant chunk was also coming from an additional project I've been working on (still at work just out of the scope of my daily activities), which has been a huge pain in my ass lately.

Essentially, the assignment was: "This product appears to suck.  You are to please figure out why this is and what we should do about it."  There was also a pretty tight deadline and a fair amount of visibility.

I would not say things started out execptionally well.  I spent several weeks digging through reams of reporting, requesting more data, going levels deeper into the data I already had, and finding nothing.  So basically I was sitting on a looming deadline and no answer. 

THEN...about a week and a half ago I got that one, key piece of information that unlocked the whole issue, everything just fell into place and I knew exactly what I needed to do.  Unfortunately, "exactly what I needed to do" was complex and involved a ton of work, and the looming deadline was still just as looming, so it's pretty much been balls to the wall for the past two weeks to get this thing finished and presentation-ready.  Plus, you know, the rest of my job.

Then on Tuesday, my boss mentioned that hey, this is great but it would be really cool if you built a product value model too.  So last night I did not go to happy hour because I instead was busy messing around in excel to finish the aforementioned value model.

Point being, I presented my work today so that beast is FINALLY done with.  Plus, even more to the point, it went really  really well and both my boss and my boss' boss said it was great.  Phew.

Oh, and we also ran out of time and didn't get to the value model during the meeting.  So...there's that.  Vegas Lounge, I passed you up for naught.  Except not actually, because even though I didn't actually present the model I (or someone else) will probably end up using it in the future.

So yes - good day!  And then I ate a delicious salad for lunch - baby spinach, arugala, grilled tempeh and apple, with homemade maple mustard vinegrette.  Normally I like the apple pieces much smaller, but this is what happens when you have to slice an apple with a janky plastic cafeteria knife - ginormous apple chunks.  I also usually put warm roasted butternut squash on this baby, which is pretty much the best part...but sadly I have not had time to roast a squash :(   Poor me, my life, wah, etc etc.

Yum

Anyways it looks like we are FINALLY going to have a nice weekend!  MN has been in an unfortunate pattern of being gorgeous during the week and then raining all weekend, so I'm excited to actually be outside during the day.  Miracle of miracles. 

Tonight Ben and I are attending not one, but two musical events - a performance by a friend of mine from choir (Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire to be exact and anyone who knows what I am talking about will hopefully be as pumped as I am.  This thing never gets performed live!), and then the Mayfly Rooks CD release show at the 331! 

We've also decided that tomorrow we are doing absolutely nothing.  Maybe going to Target and yoga, but other than that we have big plans for the couch, Punch pizza, wine and old movies.  I'm hoping for a marathon of Rear Window, To Catch a Theif and the Apartment, but we shall see.

Happy FRIDAY!!