Last Day!!!

I know I'm incredibly behind on my blog, but I just had to post my last picture on my last day.  I'll go back later and add the posts for the last few months (I took a picture every day, by the way...just wasn't good at posting them).

But for now...CELEBRATE!!!!!  I'VE FINISHED!!!

Day 220: Invisibility Sign

Todd's sign to ward off unwanted interruptions.

It's funny.  When you work in an office with cubicles, it's virtually impossible to isolate yourself from your coworkers when you need to.  This happens to me all the time when I try to get a big project done, or when I want to eat my lunch at my desk.  I'll put it in my calendar that I do not wish to be disturbed, I'll let everyone know at staff meeting, I'll even put a big screen shot on my computer that I'm busy, but I'll still get half a dozen people come up to me while I'm elbows-deep in paper work (or food, heh) and ask me to drop everything to answer a simple question.  It's very frustrating, but ultimately unavoidable without an office.

Such was the case today with Todd.  He needed to be left alone, so he attempted to put the point across by printing this handy little sign shown above, "It may look like I'm here, but I'm not...just keep walking."

I laughed when I saw it, not only because it was supposed to be funny, but because we all knew it wouldn't work.  And of course, it didn't.  He still had several people come to his desk and ask him questions or give him more work.  I observed the people who disturbed his requested solitude, and most of them didn't even notice the sign.  And those who did read his sign, chuckled, and then walked over and interrupted him anyway.

Perhaps because it was an ambiguous thing: I'm not really here, just keep walking.  That doesn't really say, "Please don't bug me. I don't have the time to help you right now."

Perhaps his sign should have read, "I can't help you right now. Go bug someone else."

Eh.  Who am I kidding?  It still wouldn't have worked.

Day 202: White-board Christmas

A Christmas Tree I drew on the white-board at work.

No, this is not a home made greeting card from a first grader.  Unfortunately, I drew this Christmas tree for my office potluck today.  I was so impressed at the immaturity of it, that I had to take a picture.  Once I saw the picture, I realized it would need a lot of help to make it look not so bad...so that's why there are lights and stars all over the place.

My favorite part on this tree?  The lone blue ornament hanging from one of the branches.  I didn't think to make any of the other ornaments hang from the branches like that.  Just the blue one.  It's like something you'd see on a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Day 162: Snow!

Snow outside my office.

This isn't the first snow of the season, but it's the first snow I captured on my camera.  It only lasted 20 minutes or so, and it didn't stick (awesome!), so I was pretty lucky to get a few shots in the middle of a work day.

I'm feeling more than a little overwhelmed with life lately.  There are too many details to keep track of at work, and at home...and just as it usually does, my brain doesn't have enough hard drive space to fit it all, so it starts deleting random data.

(That's geek talk for, "I'm forgetting a lot of stuff lately.")

The problem is, my brain doesn't drop useless trivia (like the address of the home I grew up in), or unpleasant memories (like my worst first date, or that time in high school when I threw a huge party and no one showed up).  No, it drops important things, like the due date on my credit card bill, or a time-sensitive phone call I was supposed to make last week.

And with all this "data dumping" that my brain keeps doing, all it does is add to the stress of each day, instead of easing it.  Because I notice whenever my brain drops something.  Suddenly I get a pit in my stomach and a feeling of unease and I realize I'm missing something but I can't remember what.  So then I stress out trying to remember what it was, meanwhile forgetting even more important stuff and missing even more deadlines.

It's a deadly spiral.

Luckily, I know how to get out of it.  It's just really hard to do in this state of near-panic.  The solution is to stop thinking and start working.  I just need to pick up the next thing on my to-do list and start doing it, regardless of what else I'm not doing or what other deadlines are hanging over my head.  But man, is that tough to do!  I can't accurately explain just how difficult it is do just ignore the stress cloud hanging over my head.  It's a battle I'm constantly fighting all day.

It will go away eventually.  Once I've ticked off enough items on my to-do list that it doesn't feel overwhelming anymore, the stress cloud will disperse and my brain will stop doing random data dumps.

Until then, I just have to keep on keepin' on!

Day 161:

Tonight's sunset.

This is what happens with daylight savings.  I was at work at 4:30PM.  I was walking by one of the windows and saw a spectacular sunset.  At 4:30PM! 

I tried to get outside to capture it in time, but the streams of sunlight that I saw originally had already faded.  Still, I got a few good shots.

Dang that daylight savings.  A week ago I would have been able to get that shot from home.

Day 160: New Perspective

A piece of my new desk.

This weekend Mom, Christine and I did a major deep clean of the desk and TV area in Christine's and my room.  We planned it all out, bought new bookshelves to hold the expected volume of carry-over from our old shelves, moved furniture around, got rid of other furniture, and threw a lot of junk away.  It wasn't our biggest deep-clean by far, but it felt like a monumental task to me.  And when we finished, the fruits of our labor paid off with this awesome new "media center"!

Now - instead of having my TV crammed in between two large pieces of furniture, the miniature we called a desk shoved between our beds, the now-ugly red rug tripping us up every time we tried to walk in the dark, or the broken dresser wobbling precariously every time we made any sudden moves - we have one long desk that holds the TV, my laptop (which was previously homeless and stuck on or under my bed most of the time), Christine's computer, the printer we inherited, all my movies, and the A/V equipment.  And it looks much better than the old setup!

Sure, it's not completely perfect, and sure I'm still stuck with a few ugly bits of furniture, but it's progress.

Plus, now I can write my blog posts without popping my hips out of joint by sitting cross-legged on my bed for hours!

Day 157: Autumn

One of the trees outside my office.

Now that the weather is changing and the trees are starting to shed their yellowed leaves, I'm really starting to miss the Autumn's in California.  I grew up in a town that had the perfect weather, year-round.  We had very mild seasons that seemed to blend together.  It was as if we were in a perpetual spring or fall.

I loved it.

My favorite seasons are spring and fall.  I love to watch the blossoms forming on the trees, and the new flowers and grass start to emerge.  But more than spring, I love fall.  I love the brightly colored leaves, the crisp air that is always a relief after summer.  I love the smell of wood smoke and baking.  Fall signals the time of year when all the great holidays arrive.  It signals the end of summer, but also the end of many things.

But in Utah, fall lasts a matter of weeks.  Most of the time the weather can't decide if it's really done with summer or not, and when it's finally decided, it's suddenly winter, and we're breaking out the snow tires and the big coats and the ice scrapers and the boots.  There's no easing into winter here.  It's just not fun.

But today I saw this tree, still struggling to not only hang on to its leaves, but to stay green.  I feel a kinship to this tree.  He knows that it's not time for winter yet.  He knows that fall should last longer.  He gets it.

I don't know what made me decide this tree is a "he."

Day 156: Swamped

My inboxes (yes, plural).

This week has been amazingly busy for me at work.  To illustrate just how much time I'm spending there and how consumed I am, I took a picture of my inboxes before I left the office tonight.  Just to point out, this is a picture of the state of my inboxes after I stayed late tonight to clear some of it up.  That thick stack of paperwork is what I've left to do tomorrow...and it will probably grow to twice its size overnight, like a perverted magical bean stalk.

Also, with how busy I've been this week, I keep working over my alloted 8 hours each day and telling myself I'll take time off the next day to even things out.  Unfortunately, I keep repeating this every day and have yet to take any time off.

My problem is this: I'm too busy to take any time off because I'm already a few days behind in my workload, but I'm not technically supposed to work overtime so I'm technically required to take the time off.

Conundrum...

Solution:  DELEGATE!

I'll just hand off some of my workload to unsuspecting coworkers tomorrow so that I can clock out before my overtime hits.

Another problem:  The work that I delegate can only be performed by a handful of people, none of whom will be in the office tomorrow.

Hmmm....

This is hurting my head.  As is the picture of my weighted inboxes.  I'm going to bed to worry about it tomorrow. :)

Day 140: Awe

Cassie.

One of my co-workers came back to the office this evening to pick something up and he brought his daughter with him.  I just happened to be at work still, trying to make up for yesterday's lost time, so I got to hang out with cute little Cassie for a minute.

She was at my desk playing with something I had given her when another co-worker rounded the corner just as she came running by.  Luckily a collision was avoided, but the look on Cassie's face when she saw the very tall Lon looming above her was priceless!  I captured this shot just moments after she (almost) ran into him, and she's still got the remnants of awe on her face.  Classic moment!

Day 77: Let Them Eat Cake!

The last piece.

So here's the story about the cake.  To avoid confusion, I'm going to change the names of some of my colleagues since two of them in this story have the same first name.

I bought a mini cake at Dippidee today to have one last hurrah before going back off sugar tomorrow.  I kept it on my desk most of the day, but finally caved and pulled it out to eat late afternoon.  Once I opened the box I realized, "mini" cake or not, it was too much for me to eat by myself.

I walked over to Todd's desk and asked if he wanted any of my left over cake.  Of course he said yes, so I cut a hefty portion of the cake for myself (one quarter of the entire cake), and handed the knife to Todd.  He took a large piece as well, but there was still half the cake left.

In my head I was hoping he would take the whole thing, so when he only took a piece I was puzzling over what to do with the rest of it when Beth showed up to drop something off.  I offered her a piece, and after a little persuasion, she gave in to temptation and left to get a plate and fork from the break room.  As she was returning, I heard movement from a few feet away.

Todd and Beth and I were just commenting on the tastiness of the cake when Dan came around the corner and announced in mock innocence, "I was just picking something up from the printer," as he waved a piece of paper in his hands.  He was obviously sneaking around when Beth was getting her slice, and his thinly veiled printer paper story made us all laugh.  I quickly offered  him some cake since Beth took a mere sliver.

I was just finishing my offering question when Dan blurted out a quick "Yes!" and headed for the break room for a plate and fork.  As he was walking out of the break room, he ran into Erda.  Since he didn't know if I wanted to share any more of my cake, and since Erda is known for his love of food in large quantities, Dan again waved his piece of paper at Erda and again stated obnoxiously, "I was just picking something up from the printer."

But the printer was no where near the break room, and Dan was walking out with an empty plate and fork, so Erda decided to follow him back to his desk in hopes of discovering what was really going on.  This made Todd and I laugh through our mouthfuls of cake (we heard the whole interchange through the cubicle walls). Dan quickly broke down and headed back to my desk for his serving with Erda hard on his heels.  I offered some cake to Erda (since Dan was also conservative with his portion and there was still a quarter of the cake left), but Erda refused claiming he was "full."  Unusual for Erda, but he mostly stuck to his guns aside from taking a small taste with one fork full.

At this point, I had three guys hanging out at my desk, all eating cake and merrily talking about how good it was.  That's when I noticed that Layne had walked by my desk twice.  Even though it didn't look like he was paying attention to us, I raised my head and asked over the cubicle walls if Layne wanted a piece of cake as well.  Again, I barely had the words out of my mouth before Layne was headed to the break room for a plate and fork.

So now there were five of us all together, standing around eating cake at my desk and still there was a piece left.  How is it that it took five people to eat one "mini" cake?  Especially when two of them took half of it.  None of them took that last piece either.  So I finally broke down and emailed the remaining three people in the office (it was close to quitting time at this point) and offered the last piece to whomever got to my desk first.

Within 15 minutes the cake was finally gone, but not before I got a few photos of the last piece.  What a great way to end the day!

Day 65: Wide Angles

The view from my boss's office.

I did a little time lapse experiment today.  My boss is out of town, so I took advantage of the dark office and set up my camera to take time lapse shots from his window.  The streaks down this shot are from the reflection of the blinds in the window.
I want to get a few days of time lapse before I post a video of them because today's time lapse shots only made a 17 second video.

Some days, there are no words in my head.  I sit and stare at the monitor, or I stare at the wall in front of me, and nothing comes to mind.  Today is one of those days.  I'm trying to think of something profound to say...about my recent family reunion, the amazing weather the last few days, my inability to concentrate, my recent fall off the wagon into the world of sugar, or anything else that is new in my life (well, the concentration thing isn't new, but it's consistent), but I've got nothing.

- To the family reunion, I say it was awesome, wonderful, exhausting, long, and completely worth it.
- To the amazing weather, I say that I wish big storms were a regular occurrence in my town, that the lightning makes for great pictures and the thunder (amazingly) makes me feel calm.
- To the inability to concentrate, I say, I hate you. You ruin my day almost every day and make me feel stupid and little.
- To my recent lapse in self discipline, I say it's never been a funner ride, I love to eat sweet things but I know it can't last, I know my concentration has gotten worse since I started eating sugar again, so I'll probably go back off it within the week, but I make NO promises.
- To my lack of inspiration, I say: The joke's on you!

I win.

Day 64: Storms

The view from one of the windows in my office.

The coolest storm cluster to hit my area all year, and I missed all the cool parts.  While all my other friends were out taking pictures of down-pours and lightning strikes, I was either asleep or sitting in my cubicle staring at my computer.  When I finally did get my head out of the sand, I whipped out my camera as fast as I could, but was only able to capture the tail end of the storm as it rolled through AF.

Then there was a second storm which practically on the heels of the first, and again, I was stuck in bad traffic and couldn't pull over to grab a shot.  The sad thing is, that puppy is still going strong and I keep catching glimpses of lightning strikes outside my window as I type this.  But I'm tired and I'm in my comfy pajamas, and I don't feel like trudging outside with my tripod and gear and waiting in the rain for the opportune moment.

Oh well...there's always next time...right?

Day 28: Confucius Say...

My fortune cookie at lunch today.

I have a picture on my screensaver slide show that says, "Who is the most awesome person today?" Below it, there's a hand with it's finger pointing at the viewer like Uncle Sam.  I love that picture because it helps me remember to be confident, and I always need remembering.  It also always gives a mini uplift to my spirits every time I see it.  Today's fortune cookie was like that picture, pointing right at me and saying, "Your dreams WILL become reality!"

I needed to hear it, and now that it's been said, I keep repeating it to myself.  Over and over I think, "my dreams WILL become reality!"  It's awesome how much better I feel about my immediate future, knowing that a little positive thought goes a long way.  It makes me want to try harder, to be better, and do more.  I've got that get-up-and-go feeling in the pit of my stomach and it's making me excited to keep trying and to keep working towards my dreams.  

Now, some of those dreams - the most important ones, in fact - I keep closest to me, and I don't like to share them with just anyone.  I suppose I should if I want to make them happen, so perhaps I'll break my rule and share them on here...or perhaps I won't.

Here are some of them (Now, these are all dreams oriented around me.  This isn't my list of "world peace" dreams):

*Write a book and get it published

*Finish school

*Travel to Europe and live abroad

*Get married

*Sell a photograph

*Be one of the "cool" kids

*Travel by train (first class)...anywhere

*Have kids

*Live without fear

...and my dreams will become reality.

Day 7: At Work with Valerie

So today, for fun, I set up my camera to do a time-lapse of my desk.  I wasn't planning on using any of the shots from it for this project because - well, frankly - I didn't think they would be any good.  But, a few of them turned out kind of cool, so I decided to pick this one.

This is a look of pure concentration.  THIS is someone truly in the Zone.  I was INTENT on my task.  I was FOCUSED.  I was...studious...
Earnest?
Rapt?
Occupied?
Immersed?

Oblivious.



ps. Here's the time-lapse video of my day: