Wednesday. December 19, 2001

Christmas sales?

"Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does."

Jane Austen, Emma

I have to be at work, coffee in hand and meeting conference center called, at 8:30. So I rush around this morning and I do make it.

The meeting spans the globe and it's good that we are talking but sometimes I think we cover the same crowd over and over, without progress.

Then there is a TV broadcast of a company-wide meeting.

I go out for a little last minute shop looking. I'm not sure if I need any more presents...I'm pretty sure I don't have to have any. I'm just wandering around Office Depot and Ross to see what's on sale. I end up with some Christmas dish towels and some black socks at Ross.

I think I'll swing into ChickFilA or whatever it is for a takeout lunch for the next (phone) meeting. I've never been there but it's on the correct side of the street. It is enormously crowded. I escape the parking lot and go to Randall's and buy some thinly-sliced meat and some sharp Tillamook cheddar from Oregon to snack on with the company's free chips.

I then have almost six hours of phone meetings. Do they really think that I'm paying attention this whole time? I dispense with some e-mail duties, do some reading and occasionally chime in with brilliant insights. (Um. Yeah, right.) On one call there is a consultant.

When I get home, FFP is preparing steak, field peas and spinach, beet and goat cheese salad. It's delicious. He opens a 1994 Penfold's Bin 407. Yummy. Big and jammy and just so friendly.

SuRu drops off some presents she's wrapped for me. I read the paper and almost whip the NY Times crossword.

I stay up too late. Flipping to old Mash episodes after some Law and Order.

Tomorrow, I'm on vacation. Will I use it wisely? Get my life in order, visit with friends, plan my New York vacation thoroughly, catch up on all my projects, clean out the closets? No, probably not. But maybe I'll do some things.

JUST TYPING
Meetings.
When they appear to you as:
Work.
Progress.
Goals.
Accomplishments.
It's time for a vacation.