The morning after the day before.

Survival. I guess that’s what it’s all about. I just have to figure out if I still have a pulse at this point.

I got almost no sleep Sunday night. I kept waking up, worrying about how Monday was going to go. I had visions of National Geographic showing up unannounced on my doorstep Monday morning, with hopes of getting last minute approval to film on premises. They didn’t do any such thing, of course, but don’t expect rational thought from my brain at 3:00 on a sleepless night.

My Very Important Person arrived right on time yesterday. Things went really well; I learned a lot from her, and my company certainly got their money’s worth from her audit of our system, even if we did “fail” it. There are areas we need to concentrate on improving, but the changes aren’t expensive and center more around changing procedures than changing equipment. Inexpensive improvements are always welcome in these parts.

I took my VIP to the company cafeteria for lunch … kinda cheap I know, but nobody gave me any kind of budget to take her out on. Ironically, she was thrilled with the experience. She kept raving about the extensive choices we had there, especially the salad bar. I have to remember to tell the guy who runs it that it was a big hit.

My Boss never RSVP’d the notice for the review meeting to go over preliminary findings on the audit, but he did show up for it. He never really said anything directly to me, so I don’t know where I stand there, but the relief at having the audit over with is so overwhelming that I simply don’t care at the moment.

It is a really strange experience to work alongside someone who genuinely qualifies for “idol” status. I have admired T.G. since I first read about her when I was in veterinary school. I’ve read every paper I can get my hands on, I’ve read her books, I’ve see documentaries featuring her. In person she’s much like I expected, and quite different as well. I anticipated, because of her autism, that I’d have trouble keeping conversation going with her. She is very focused, and does have a tendency to drive the conversation, but that actually makes conversation with her easier rather than more difficult. She did take an interest in my background, and we discussed some of my veterinary school experiences. It seemed very strange to have someone of her caliber taking an active interest in me.

Today I am betwixt and between. I’m not really settling in to work very well, and can’t seem to focus on any job for more than ten minutes. This is not a good thing, because I have several huge jobs on my desk. The stresses from yesterday probably have a lot to do with this though, and I’ve given myself unofficial permission to take it a little easy today.

I came close to skipping my Latin class last night, but went because I didn’t know quite what else I’d do with myself. I’m glad I did; our class started with nine students, and now (only four classes later) we’re down to four students. Two of the students, whom I’d dubbed in my head the Twitter Twins, I don’t miss in the least. They were actually a husband and wife couple, had full command of Latin already, and were mostly there to show off, as near as I could determine. I know the teacher was getting pretty fed up with them, and the week before he’d shown them information about a more advance Latin class at a nearby university, and told them he’d refund their money if they wanted to do that class instead (yes, I eavesdropped). They insisted last week that they didn’t want to drop this class, but this week they were gone. Our teacher actually agonized that he may have lost other students because they’d become intimidated by these two, and hoped that some of his missing flock might return. I fear he might be right, since I came close to dropping this class because of the Twitter Twins myself.

More to write, but it will have to be later. Business calls.