it's only thursday, right?

Holy, holy, what a week.

Any time I have to work on Sunday (which happens every 8 weeks), the week feels absolutely interminable. This week, I worked 4 hours on Sunday, 6.5 hours on Monday, 13.25 hours on Tuesday...Wednesday morning it already felt like it ought to be Friday.

Aside from the oddities like my very long day every other Tuesday--and the corresponding short Monday--I'm supposed to be working a regular 8-hour day. In the past, it never really happened due to a variety of circumstances. The biggest reason, probably, is just that Nik and I carpool every day and he works 7:00 to 4:00 with an hour lunch. At my company a 30 minute lunch is much more usual. And since Nik needs to be at work on time, I generally arrive at work by 6:45. Nik picks me up at 4:15. I am essentially incapable of being at work and NOT working, so I've pretty routinely been working 9 hour days for...oh, a year and a half. Until relatively recently, there was ALWAYS enough work to keep me busy for however many hours I put in. I never padded my time with busy-work or anything. Now, though, we actually have enough (competent) people to complete the work without the crazy amounts of overtime.

So the boss wants me to cut back to a more normal level, both because they're supposed to be cutting down on overtime (I'm sure that's not unusual) and because, well, it's probably better for me, too. I don't TRY to be a workaholic, it's just that if I'm at my desk I'm incapable of ignoring whatever is sitting there waiting to be done and/or the people who stop by my desk to ask me questions. I just don't work that way. (For example: It drives me crazy when someone comes to ask me a question, sees that I'm eating lunch and says, "Oh, you're eating lunch. I'll come back later." I'd SO MUCH rather just answer their question and let them get on with their work.)

My solution to the problem of needing something to do until Nik picks me up, by the way, is to spend as much time as possible at Twisted. I can walk there from work (it's a bit over a mile away), so the plan is to walk over and hang out with Shannon and/or Emily until Nik gets there. Knitting time! Yarn-browsing time! Chatting-with-knitters time! I'm rather excited about this side effect of the "cut down to 8 hours" plan.

Wednesday I actually did it. Exactly 8 hours! (I didn't end up going to Twisted, though, because the weather was AWFUL. Really cold, really really windy, and rainy and yuck and I didn't want to walk a mile in that. So I went up to our roomy break room on the 13th floor and worked on my sock until Nik got there.)

Today...heh. I was on my way out the door (and heading to Twisted!) at exactly 8 hours, but was waylaid by a question which led to me discovering a serious problem (which eventually resulted in us not being able to print any checks this afternoon--ack!). I left 1.75 hours later.

At this point, I've already worked 41.5 hours this week. I'm hoping that tomorrow afternoon will be quiet enough for me to leave early...and head to Twisted. :D

We'll see, though--tomorrow is payday! You never know WHAT will happen on payday...

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Oh, the socks! I don't have a new picture, but I'm getting quite close to finishing the second. I still have most of the foot to do, though, so I probably won't get it finished in time to wear to work tomorrow. That's kind of a bummer, since tomorrow is "Crazy Sock Day" and everyone at work has been excitedly checking on my sock progress all week. They all want me to wear them tomorrow!

I've come up with an alternate plan, though, in the likely event that I don't finish in time. Since it is crazy sock day and all, I figure if I don't have both finished I can just wear the one with any old other sock as a second. (Ooh, maybe I'll wear one of my Monkey socks as the second one. Totally different colors, but also handmade by me! They're the only handknit socks I have so far.)

Whatever I decide to do tomorrow, I'll take a picture so you guys can see the result.