It is Tuesday again. Tonight, I am sitting here thinking about the last 24 hours, and the Fox television show, 24 comes to mind. The producers of that show made a complete series out of events that supposedly happened in a 24 hour time frame. Each episode of each season represented an hour of the day. It always amazed me how Jack’s daughter managed to be kidnapped so many times in the span of a single day. I regress…
Here is a recap of my last 24 hours, which began at 6:00 PM on Monday evening.
6:00 PM – We ate lettuce wrap tacos. The boys made me happy by being receptive and eating well with my healthy concoction of lettuce wrap tacos at the table. I am starting to realize that Little Chirp will eat whatever you put in front of him. I like making sure that he has something healthy and interesting in front of him at every meal.
7:00 PM – Brainy Bird and I did dishes, and we worked together on the laundry. He was in trouble for sneaking time on his iPAD after bed time. The boys were off to bed before the hour was up.
8:00 PM – I went for a 2 mile run. I finished in exactly 15 minutes, so what happened to the other 45 minutes of this hours? Commercial breaks, I guess.
9:00 PM – I lay in bed, thinking about the day, and the days ahead, but only for a short while before I was off to sleep.
10:00 PM – ZZZZZZZZZZZ
11:00 PM – ZZZZZZZZZZZ
12:00 AM – ZZZZZZZZZZZ
01:00 AM – ZZZZZZZZZZZ
02:00 AM – ZZZZZZZZZZZ
03:00 AM -ZZZZZZZZZZZ
04:00 AM – The alarm went off, I awoke from a very restful sleep, and ugh It is Tuesday. I spent the hour at my computer checking our systems, and trying to solve a performance problem that I have been seeing with one of our applications.
5:00 AM – I showered and got ready for work. I made breakfast, and I got the boys ready for school. The start of Little Chirp’s day is measured by what he has in his hand when he heads out the door for pre-school. This morning it was a good start – a piece of cheese and strawberries.
6:00 AM – I left for work. I dropped the boys off at daycare with extra hugs and kisses for Little Chirp. He is getting picked up by his step mom tonight, while the rest of the family heads to Brainy Bird’s banquet.
7:00 AM – Arrived at work for an insanely stressful day.
8:00 AM – Taz, my VP came and got me from my desk and said that we needed to talk. I hadn’t screwed anything up lately, so I was caught off guard. He had bad news. Dartmouth resigned. Dartmouth has been my manager for the past nine months. It was just a few weeks ago that I got a new manager that I am having major issues with. The news of Dartmouth resignation made me physically ill. Our weekly team meeting began. I noticed that I wasn’t feeling good. Dartmouth’s resignation was announced to the rest of the managers. If I had not been sitting down, I think that I would have passed out.
9:00 AM – I met with my team to find out that some key deliverables are off track. Ugh.
10:00 AM – I worked with my team to get things back on track.
11:00 AM – I walked by Cowboy Fan’s desk, and he mocked me by fluffing up his chest and stomping his feet. I have been told by many that I stomp when I walk. I can’t help it. It doesn’t bother me. This guy makes fun of me virtually every time I walk by him and he has an audience. It makes me angry that I work as hard as I do, and that I am harassed each and everyday at the office.
12:00 PM – Lunch would have been nice. Instead, I was knee deep in changes to a model that I am working on for one of the desks. I wasted this hour by adding in a real time value when I should have been bringing in the forecasted value. Really moronic on my part.
01:00 PM – I spent this hour chasing down infrastructure to make sure that our memory would be properly allocated. They were really worried about who would extend the files on to the new drives. This concern is totally irrelevant to the allocation of new space. They were dropping the ball on my request. I looked at the clock. Taz wants this done today. I need to get out of here on time to get to Brainy Bird’s banquet. Ugh..
02:00 PM – I called Superman to make sure that our storage allocation would happen as planned, and he gave me piece of mind with the fact that he is on top of it. I need to bake this guy cookies or something. I regrouped with my team to find that the morning’s off track deliverables were on track, more people that I should be baking cookies for.
03:00 PM – My stomach growled ferociously, and I realized that I had not eaten since the eggs that I had at five in the morning. I was planning to leave at four, so I figured that it was a little late for a lunch break. I was headed to the vending machine for a bag of chips when my phone ring. You know when your doctor and not his nurse is on the other end of a ringing phone that the news is not good. More tests came back, and they have confirmed cancerous cell. Holy shit. I have cancer. This is bad news, especially on an empty stomach. I almost fainted for the second time in 24 hours. The rest of the hour was a blur. I remember walking back to my desk trying to seem as if everything was perfectly normal. I sat back down with my model that I had worked on at lunch, and I finished it. I needed my mind off the situation. A little MDX in a cube always does the trick (that’s techy speak).
04:00 PM – At some point in this hour of fog, I realized that it was after four, and I packed up to go home. I would have thrown up, but my stomach was completely empty. I shook as I walked to the elevator. I crossed paths with Thumbelina in the lobby. She was cheerful as always, and she seemed genuinely happy to see me. It is always nice to know that not everyone is listening to the horrible things that Cowboys Fan is saying about me. Thumbelina’s positive energy totally cheered me up. We rode the elevator to the parking garage, and she asked me about my Mother’s Day, which was an awesome day for me. It was like crossing paths with an angel with a message of embrace life, every moment, lay down your worries, and focus on life right now.
05:00 PM – I spent most of this hour driving home. I picked up Brainy Bird from daycare, and we went to the house to get ready for his big night.
06:00 PM – Brainy Bird and I enjoyed a game of Phase 10 while we waited for his award banquet to begin.
Season 2 of 24
07:00 PM – I thought to myself that this is the kid that was doing laundry 24 hours ago as punishment for sneaking his iPad in after lights out. We arrived at the awards banquet to realize how big of deal it is. He was the top student in his entire grade. There were just three kids from his whole school there. One from 4th, 3rd and 2nd grade. All of the schools in the district are represented by their top students. Our school district is the perfect size, consisting of just two high schools. My little Brainy Bird was #1 out of more than 150 kids in his grade. I am so worn down by today’s society where every kid gets a trophy and there is no true merit. Our schools have a much more competitive mind set, and I am happy we moved here. I am really proud of my little Brainy Bird. He earned a very real honor!
I am amazed by how much life can happen in just 24 hours.