Contrast

This has been a somewhat challenging week at work.  My boss is out of town for meetings, and we've got a board meeting coming up so she needs to keep having several meetings with all of us here to make sure that the board materials are finalized.  She was in California for the beginning of the week, then New York, so she's been in multiple time zones that we've had to work with.  She's pretty bad about calendar management when she's here in the office, so being out of the office it's been even worse.  She keeps scheduling meetings, then changing meetings at the last minute, then expecting us to drop everything else and meet immediately, and also double-scheduling meetings with outside vendors which I have to clean up.   I'm going to have a serious conversation with her the next time we're both in the office (which won't be next week since I'll be traveling).  I don't have time to do my job, which requires focused time, and manage her calendar.  I realize that this is an area where I'm not particularly strong, but I'm a bit OCD and I'm a planner, and these moving-target meetings are not the way I in which I work best.

Yesterday afternoon I was on one of the calls while I was driving my kids to their piano lessons.  The call continued for the entirety of my son's lesson, so I didn't get my normal 1:1 time with my daughter which was disappointing.  Thankfully, it was over when my daughter went in for her lesson, so I got to go with my son to the park.  It was the perfect salve for a work day like that one.  We walked together and visited.  We swung together, even though my hips are a bit wide for the swing these days.  We watched hundreds of seagulls circling overhead.  We played in fallen leaves.  The contrast between the hectic day and the calming evening was very pronounced yesterday.  I could feel the tension and stress draining away from my mind and my body as I spent some time with my kiddo.  My son also had a good night, so for now the new plan with him seems to be working.

This pictures are all from my camera phone, so they're not quite as crisp, but they still captured the walk.

Cottonwood tree in the afternoon sunlight.

A Flock of Seagulls (the actual birds, not the band!) ;)

Making it rain...leaves.

The park bench in all its autumnal splendor.

This little flower is still going strong, even though it's almost the end of October.

Tonight after my son's gymnastics class we're going to turn the Halloween music on and carve our pumpkins.  So no matter what happens at work today, I know that I'll have that to look forward to!  I hope all of my readers have a great day too.