Working for the weekend

I went into work this morning because my brain feels better when it's not (as) cluttered with "to do" lists and pending stresses.  I needed to test the upgrades to the A/R module before they go live in our system, and I needed to do that when I could think without interruptions.  I was asked to have the testing completed by Wednesday, so I went into the office.  It's funny how accepting I have become of the long days, weekend hours, and time that is required to get through my piles of work and new duties.  I never saw myself as a 40+ hour a week gal, especially when I only began working full time five years ago.  Who knew.

We also had an upgrade to our email software this week that took huge chunks out of my day.  The upgrade went fairly well but it took me a while to get it to look and act the way I wanted it to.  I'm sure there will be more time spent helping staff members who struggle with it, but the truth is our old email software was horrible and about as unfriendly as possible.  At least Outlook is full of cool features and much more universally available.  I have a long history with Outlook so it's like I'm welcoming back an old friend.  Hello, friend!

Now I'm home and I have some bookwork to catch up.  I would like to bake something first though, or maybe take an inventory of gifts bought so we have some direction when we head out shopping.  We've discussed putting up the tree, not because I really like to get it up this early (I don't) but because we're hosting dominoes on Friday and R thinks it would be festive if we decorate first (it would).  It's a good thing these little decisions aren't left to me alone or I would be dragging out the tree on the 24th, deciding that the lights alone are decoration enough, and then dragging the thing back to the basement on the 26th.

I'm not the complete curmudgeon that this indicates; I am a person who stopped having time for the extra work that decorating requires (both putting up and taking down) back when I was in school.  Because I was in school for 11 years, my Decembers were insane and exhausting.  I was working, at one point three part-time jobs, I had kids, I had school and finals.  I was always busy and always tired and always had something else to do.  In order to survive, I had to learn to let go or delegate.  I did both, and R stepped up with enthusiasm.  Because in our early marriage I was home full time, the duties that we both performed were well-defined.  We didn't think to change anything when I started school, started a job, started another job.  R wasn't lazy and I wasn't holding on to the tasks, it just didn't occur to us.  When it finally did occur to us, it was a relief.  It seriously allowed me to complete my education.

It also showed me that I didn't care about all of the details of decorating for the holidays as much as I thought.  I like the end results, but I hate the process, so letting the process go was easy.  What has been hard is generating enough enthusiasm to go back to doing the task or even helping with the task.  I'm a person who doesn't look back once a decision is made, and to go back to decorating again feels like I'm going back.

BUT, I do enjoy my extra time (working for the weekend aside) and my ability to find time to bake, or try a new recipe, or work on a crochet project, or organize a drawer.  I do like projects, just not ones that are temporary and seasonal and tinsel-laden.  So I'd better get busy.