I'm waiting to board. There are too many people at the airport and all the lines are long. Waiting for my coffee too cool down so I can drink it.

I am going to Chicago for VividCon, which means Rosemont and not actually Chicago.

Have a good flight and a good con, shrift!

I actually weeded the front yard for half an hour while it's relatively cool this morning. Still drenched in sweat. But righteous. And with time to shower etc before work.

Zen, I somehow missed the Social Engagement in the Office stuff until this morning - that's too funny. As a disinterested bystander, I think you should advocate for less social engagement! If nothing else, teams that have a "devil's advocate" member produce better results. So.

Dear Staff Member:

It's hard to hear your complaints about how I never respond to your concerns when every time I open my mouth to answer you you talk over me. Also the time to berate me for shutting you down on bringing up "little things" is not right after you interrupted my quiet breakfast at home and I asked you to review the policy on when to call your supervisor at home and what constitutes an emergency.

No love,

Me

PS, somebody throwing away a water bottle is not an emergency.

When are you going to Vegas, Connie? I haven't been in about forever.

Next June.

Now we're doing the thing where we all answer ten random questions about ourselves so we can get to know each other better. I dislike this. Some of these people, I've worked with for 17 years, I know them as well as I care to or need to. The others, I don't work with at all; they're in a different department.

We don't need to know "What are two things about you that would surprise your co-workers?" about anyone. I could say, "I used to be a stripper, and also I was in a polyamorous relationship, mothahfuckaahs!" Maybe they should define the level of surprise they're looking for, here.

"At the last place I worked, three co-workers who were critical about me disappeared mysteriously, and I have an extensive chainsaw collection."

God, I hate DFW.

I am in Minneapolis waiting to board my next flight, which apparently is delayed due to weather west of Chicago. I guess I should get food now that I have the time.

The next version of our company's software is a major paradigm shift in how the program is configured and how licenses and data is managed. For a change, this shift has been worked on for nearly two years before they start releasing it. I've never been configuration oriented, my focus has been on how customers use it (being able to use the phrase "customer experience" has been a boon on how I talk to my supervisors), so I'm having to stretch my brain in all the trainings that talk about database configurations and licenses in the cloud and all that. But I was able to ask questions that stumped the trainer or made him say "Oh, that's a good point."

Maybe when I retire I'll stop thinking I'm a waste of space here and that maybe my managers aren't thinking of ways to get rid of me.