I can see clearly now the rain has gone

Thursday afternoon. OK, so I can't exactly see clearly, but at least I'm not ranting like a lunatic anymore. I'm sure you're all comforted to hear that. You know, sometimes a good rant can be very therapeutic, and this time is definitely a case of that. (I do have to say, however, that it gave me a warm glow to read Georgia's post today because it made me feel like I wasn't the only PM wishing they could strangle one of their team members. Thanks, Georgia!)

I went home last night and consumed large quantitites of Crispy Beef and fried rice. Mmmmm, nummy! Not good for health, so that's a little entry in the "loss" column, but immensely good for my mood, so I think it's a wash. Today I was (mostly) on my NutriSystem food. Mostly because I ate the breakfast for today yesterday, so I just picked up a whole grain muffin with my latte instead. Other than that, though, I'm all about eating well. The NS lunch entree was actually quite tasty, albeit really small. I know that the teeny portion size is what I'm actually supposed to be eating, but it's not what I'm used to. This morning, while picking up food for my starving babies (they were completely without any!), I also picked up whole wheat bread, some string cheese (I've got to have some protein with my breakfast otherwise my blood sugar goes freaky), a little thing of non fat milk, and light balsamic vinaigrette for my twice daily salads. So far, so good. Not terribly hungry, not really cranky at all. This might actually work. Well, at least I don't feel as wretched as I did after a few hours of the South Beach diet. Bleah!

One reason for my improved mood might be that I got a call from the car place and...after 12 business days, my car is finally ready!!! I am so very glad. I'm going to leave at 4pm to drop the rental at the rental place and then head to the shop to pick up my little light grey Saturn. I know it's seven years old and tired, but it's mine and I can't wait to drive it.

Things at work definitely got worse before getting better. The first thing I was presented with this morning upon walking into my office was the news that the call I'd asked one of my team members to make to an outside vendor protesting their latest stunt hadn't gone well. Turns out that they'd actually specified that they were going to do what they did in their written contract and we just hadn't brought it out at the time the contract was signed so that we could have protested it and told them we wouldn't comply. When I got pissy about it, the team member did, too, so we weren't on good terms at that point. Then, another team member on the same project went into "I'm going to fix all of this myself because no one else can do it properly" mode. I pointed out to her that it was physically impossible for her to do everything that needs to be done on the project before Wednesday night on her own, she said that, in that case, she'd just fix everything that was screwed up once it got to her. I explained, not for the first time, that she needed to let the others know when they made mistakes so that they didn't keep making the same mistakes. Additionally, I told her that she was actually holding them back from making progress by covering for them because they couldn't grow and become stronger contributors while she was doing the work for them. She didn't take the suggestion well, I didn't take that well, and we both weren't pleased with the other. It was as I was sitting in my office, stewing in my own seething frustration and annoyance, that I realized what we really needed was perspective. We are all three of us too close to this stupid project and we've lost perspective. I immediately fired up Outlook, created a new meeting, invited the two of them to it, and named it 'The first annual "I really, really hate (insert project name here)" offsite'. The meeting invitation included a list of possible restaurants at the beach for consideration. It was the right thing at the right time. All three of us are happy, I talked to the other team members to let them know what was happening and why and that there would be time for us to do something as an entire team but that the three of us really needed to just get away, which they totally understood. Things have gone much better around here ever since, which is not to say that I haven't been annoyed all day, just that, at the very least, my team and I aren't at each others' throats.

Funny how the little things in life can make you happy if you'll let them.

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