New stressors!

I thought that once the wedding was over, I'd have all kinds of spare time to get back to doing fun stuff, and there would be a big weight taken off my shoulders.  I thought I might even be bored.  However, I've been finding that my fuse was extremely short last week.  I attribute this to feeling like I'm getting more than my share of things to do.  Work in particular is galling - when people are refusing to learn what to do to help me, but getting more work and short deadlines, all of which will be on my head, it's been making me really angry.  Throw a "15 minute meeting" that takes two hours on top of that, all to rehash stuff we've talked about several times already, and GRRRRRRRRR.

We're in the midst of a restructing at work, so I'm keeping in mind that the current situation is, by definition, short-lived.  I'm going to do my best to work through it and make sure that my attention is on the priorities for getting my part (ha ha) of the work done, and done well.  I'm trying to prune some parts that don't look like they will be formed enough to model, with only partial potential success - we'll see how it goes.  I need to be not only assertive (which is not working on its own), but figure out how to get people to pay enough attention that they understand what the problems are.

The restructure itself is getting interesting.  My part of the company is cutting way back, and my current work group is being eliminated.  The new assignments are being done in groups at the same level, and most of my work group is in the same level as me.  We each have to apply for five open positions this week, and they will be filling all the positions in a couple of weeks.  There's a lot of maneuvering going on, and people are getting (more than a) little weird.  The mood on the hallway here is punchy, but they call it gallows humor for a reason!  One advantage to having a career that's run wide and shallow is that a lot of the jobs are potentially good fits, and I know a lot of the different groups already.  I'll keep you all posted on progress, but we should hear the results in two weeks.

I had some fun over the weekend, hanging out with friends.  Word to the wise, though - if you have a slight Chianti hangover, don't drink a cup of coffee, skip eating breakfast, and then ride in a back seat up highway 1.  Guaranteed car sickness, even if it's minor.

Mom had to go back to the hospital on Sunday, with a fever.  She's been pumped full of antibiotics and we've been told she has a blood infection, and the culprit is a skin bacteria.  They took out her PICC line (an IV to the chest vein that has multiple ports) when she was discharged after chemo, so they've had to stab her several times a day over the last few weeks.  And yet, somehow, they expect us to buy that the infection was from the PICC line.  These guys are starting to piss me off, not least because not all the sticks are necessary ("Oops, we forgot to get some for matching when we took your blood two hours ago!  Give us your arm!").  Dad is asking them today about why she doesn't have a more permanent implant to avoid all the sticks (which would at the very least protect her veins, which are collapsing).  They can't do one now, since her immune system has been compromised by the chemo, but maybe she can get one when she's better.  She also has a blood clot in one arm (related to the STICKS, anyone care to bet??), so now she's getting clot dissolvers, too.  Her fevers are trending down and hopefully she will be allowed to leave the hospital soon. She needs time to regain her strength before she goes in for the second consolidation round.

This weekend will hopefully be quiet, and Kent will be back from New Mexico late tomorrow.  He's been traveling a lot which isn't much fun, but he'll be home the next two weeks.