11/29/05 - Last Tuesday before WDW!!!
7:45am
--1 med bowl raisin bran w/2% milk
It's been sort of a frustrating day so far. I had been trying for a couple of months to get in touch with someone at our local homeless shelter to see if I could help out. I finally got a call last week from their volunteer coordinator saying that their cook was on vacation for the holidays and they were really in a bind and could I possibly come in from 8:30 to 1:30 on the 29th? Sure, my work schedule is busy, but I could probably squeeze that in. I'll just work in the evening. So I make the effort to take the time off, fill out the volunteer paperwork they send me, and head off to the shelter. When I get there, there's no one to greet me or show me where to go. The finally had an admin take me up to the kitchen. She just sort of left me there with the residents who were running the kitchen that day. They were a nice bunch, but it seemed like no one was in charge. They finally decided what to make for lunch and got started on food prep. There was me, another volunteer, and about 6-8 residents in the kitchen. Basically there was nothing for me to do. I unwrapped 2 sticks of butter and opened some soup mix. In over 2 hours. The food prep was pretty much done in the first half hour, and I kept asking if there was anything I could do, but no one could come up with anything. So, I sat around for 2 hours making chit-chat with the residents. Again, they were very nice people, but I took a whole morning off of work for this!!! I started feeling not so hot while I was there, and if we had been busy I would have just sucked it up and kept working, but I figured there was no point in me sitting there for the next 3 hours. So, I told them I wasn't feeling well and booked it out of there.
I'm just irked and disappointed. I don't if this was just an unexpectedly light day or what, but they called practically begging me to come in and I rearranged my schedule to do so and then sat idle! Maybe in the future I'll just stick to sending cash or food donations. Honestly the residents seemed almost desperate to be on the kitchen crew anyway--they said it gives them something to do.
To add to that, some specifications I need for my work project haven't been delivered. Since I'm going to be gone next week, timing is very tight. I was supposed to have all week to get it done and get my data processing in the system. Now Tuesday is half over and I can't even start because I don't have my specs. This means we'll either have to push back a week or I'm going to have to try to kill myself to get 5 days worth of work done in 3 days. Plus, there's a procedure I need to run to make sure my data is consistent, only it's something I've never used, there is not documentation that I can find, and the woman who knows how to do it hasn't gotten back to me yet. I feel like I'm stymied and I'm wasting valuable time!
Ugh! Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. I'm going to cheer myself up by doing dishes and laundry.
TTNW: We've got another earlyish morning as I've got an 8:00am PS at Boma! We've tried to go over the past few trips and I keep scheduling it toward the end of the trip and by then no one wants to get up early, especially for more food! Hopefully this time we'll be in the mood! I'm looking forward to frunch juice and those yummy little pastries they have! After breakfast we'll head over to AK. Again, we usually go later in trip and we're almost burnt out by the time we get to AK day. I'm hoping by doing it earlier we'll have more energy and get a fresh perspective on the park. I can't wait for Festival of the Lion King and It's Tough To Be a Bug! I think I'll finally try Dinosaur this time as well.
12:00pm
--2 chick patties on buns
--large handful ruffles
--1/4 cup ranch dip
--1 orange
Still no progress on the work front. We might need to push the project schedule back. I don't really care, it just want it done!
TTNW: I doubt we'll be ready for lunch on time after that big breakfast, so we'll just continue our leisurely tour of AK until we get hungry or tired. There really aren't that many veggie options at AK, so we may have to look elsewhere for sustenace.
6:00pm
--1 pita chip
--1 medium peppermint ice cream cone
Yummy! This is one of those cases where the light is actually better than the regular. I love the Edy's Grand Lights--the regular ones taste too rice for me.
I finally got the specification from the client at the end of the day. Now I've lost 40% of my work time, and the person who's supposed to managing the project is seriously AWOL! Ugh!! I honestly think I'm just going to try to push through it and just get it over with.
I'm seeing Duane the trainer tomorrow and I have very mixed feelings about it. While I enjoy his workout, and kind of enjoy his personality, something seems "off". There's just something about him that's setting off little warning bells for me. The best I can describe it is that I think we're coming off of our boundaries and he's starting to treat me less like a client and more like a friend. I need to have a talk with him tomorrow to get across the following points: 1.) I'm going to start backing off of my sessions with him and 2.) I'd like to spend some of the rest of the time we're working together developing a resistance training only workout. I already find myself thinking that if I'm not seeing him I'm not working out that day. I need to come off that. I also have already explained to him that while I enjoy his workout, I can't do it for every workout. There are times I'll want to do something else for my cardio.
My goal is to stop seeing him regularly by the end of January. I may choose to have a follow-up periodically after that, but I want to get both of us out of the expectation that we'll be working out together regularly. I think the other thing I need to do is start enforcing boundaries a bit more stringently. I'm going to make an effort to not encourage personal chit chat (his or mine), I'm going to bring along music to listen to while walking the track, and I'm not going to walk out with him again. It's not really that he's done anything wrong or inappropriate--this is just developing into a different sort of relationship that I really wanted and I need to take steps to stop that.
TTNW: After we finish with AK we'll head back to the room for a rest and a swim. We'll be back out early to head over to EPCOT again. We're going to try to see the first Candlelight Processional show. I'm hoping if we queue up early enough we'll be able to get seats. If not, we'll either listen from outside the theater or just find something else to do in World Showcase.
7:30pm
--1/3 packet stuffed spinach rigatoni w/spaghetti sauce, spinach, and parmesan topping
--1 piece garlic toast
I'm a little fuller than I really should be. I'm not painfully overstufed, but I shouldn't have gone back for seconds. At least I caught myself and put back about half of what I had taken as seconds. Plus, I'm pretty sure I'm done for the night, so I'm not worried about it. I can't tell you how great it was to eat my favorite spaghetti sauce again--no more choking down the "healthy" sauce!!!
DH came home with some news--there's a good chance his work might send him to Texas from Thurs-Sat!!! Nothing like adding a little stress to the pre-trip ritual! At least they're willing to cover some of our costs to make up for the imposition, but geez!!!
TTNW: After the Candlelight Processional, we have a PS for dinner at Teppanyaki. I've heard it's a fun meal, so I'm really looking forward to it. I'm hoping we can just move into the lounge after dinner and watch Illuminations from there, but we've never tried that before so I have no idea if that's feasable or not. If not, Illuminations isn't a huge priority for us, so I won't be too worried if we skip it. After out night at EPCOT it will probably be off to bed with us, but if we still have some energy we might go out to PI or Jellyrolls or even take a midnight swim! We don't have anywhere to be the next morning, so I wouldn't mind staying up!