Can't believe it's been so long since I've written anything. Admittedly, it's been a little nutty here the past few weeks, but I really should keep up with this better. And, even with the nuttiness, I can still look back and say that I am thankful, and point to some key things in particular that are enhancing my life.
1. I have a new niece!! Alexandra Rose is now about 8 weeks old, and is the most precious, fussiest little ball of wonder I've ever seen...aside from her sister of course. I didn't see Julia until she was about 4 months old, so I've really enjoyed getting to spend time with Alexa. And of course, time with Alexa necessarily involves time with Julia Monkey-Noodle, which can only be described as the best way to spend time ever. I will post photos of Alexa (who actually smiled at me a week or so ago!) soon.
2. I no longer have foreign objects growing inside me. Minor but important thing that makes me happy. I had 3 tumors removed in mid-July, and man, is it nice to not be in constant pain. The doctors have been trying to figure out the source of the pain since about early April, and I was beginning to think that we'd never get to the bottom of it...but thankfully there are some good specialists here in Indianapolis, and there's a really good robot, and they found not 1 but 3 tumors (all benign). And turns out when I don't have tennis and golf ball sized objects in my abdomen, I am a much nicer person.
3. I have some awesome colleagues. In fact, I have an entire office of awesome colleagues. Yes, I work a ton. Yes, I need to find a work-life balance. But I love what I do. And I love who I do it with. This is so different from anything I've experienced previously, and it continues to surprise me. I keep expecting things to change to what I'm used to - for us to be treated as resources, not people; for us to be reminded that we can all be replaced and that not one of us brings anything special or unique to the table; for it to be emphasized that our priority ought to be work, not family or health, and if we disagree, again, we can be replaced. I function internally from a place of fear and a need not to encounter those scenarios again - even though I've not seen them here. The people I work with and for are the best. I cannot be thankful enough.
4. Friends who come to visit even when I tell them not to. I have some great friends, and not just because they share my love of margaritas. Over the 4th of July long weekend, I begged one of my friends who was planning to visit to reschedule. I had too much work, I hadn't slept more than 3 hours a night in weeks, I was 250 pages behind on a freelance project that was already late, and I just didn't have the energy to entertain or even pretend to be human. Do you know what she said? "Tough. I'm coming anyway. You don't have to entertain me. You can work for part of the time. But then I'm saying enough, and we're going to go have some fun. Because you need a friend, and a hug, and some laughter, and some relaxing, and some margaritas." And she did. And we had a great time.
The next weekend, one of my best friends came into town, with her two daughters - two of my godchildren, and the reason I've ended up with the nicknames "Innie" and "George". It was another time when I thought, I do not have the energy to handle this. I've barely got the energy to spell my own name. But true to form, these 3 awesome girls made my weekend - from lots of hugs to playing in the park to letting me have some time to rest and pack for a business trip to discovering a new burger restaurant. I was exhausted by the time I got on the plane Monday morning for work, but so glad I didn't have them cancel their trip.
5. Good clients. For those of us in this business, that may seem like an oxymoron. And for the most part, it probably is. I've had a lot of bad clients. A lot of clients who just don't get it - who never figured out that if they let us, we could make them look like rock stars. Who never got that the reason they hired us was to help them with strategy, and that we were not the enemy. But I've been fortunate to have had 2 fantastic clients in my career, and one really outstanding, best of the best client. That kind of relationship is rare; those are the clients I will consider friends long after we finish our working relationship.
It's not been easy to cultivate good client relationships here, but I think I'm making progress. There are signs of baby steps, glimpses of things I'm doing right, and I try to hold onto those during the times when I feel like I'm not doing anything right, and my manager would be better off hiring a trained monkey to run the account. And while I do yet not have the client-account manager bond that I had with my previous clients, I do enjoy my current clients - and I'm finding that they're both beginning to trust me, and appreciate some of my humor. (Scary, huh?)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment