Sick Day (first of '09)

Yes, I realize the office new year just started. It's only the 6th day of the year & 2nd day of work. I'm out anyway.

It's my boss' fault. When it comes to head colds, I'm insanely prone to suggestion. Yesterday I was mimicking being out of breath after workout and caused myself to cough. My boss asked, "Are you sick?" I said no. But by the end of the meeting, I had a sore throat. By the end of the day, I had a really sore throat. By the time I got home, my sinuses were blocked.

Of course my isolated encounters with sick people (over the last couple weeks) and thinking "oh, I'm gonna catch that" probably didn't help. Nor did the total exhaustion from working out (yes, I'm still sore today). Oh well. Life happens.

So I'm out of the office today - bundled up & trying to head off a sinus infection cause that always leads to bronchitis. If I catch a cold (esp sinus infection) in the first day, I usually snap right out of it. Anything later and I end up sick for literally weeks.

I'm hoping to get over this immediately - cause I'm supposed to start Burlesque class tomorrow night (despite not being sure how I'm gonna pay for it).

Fortunately, the office workload is still low - waiting for the new programmer to get up to speed and attempt our needed software changes (I'm estimating 1 to 2 weeks). So that works to my advantage. We're starting to get heads up on projects for the year and it sounds like it will be, at the least, interesting - lots of new applications and systems for us to learn... with no idea who's going to be doing our software development (the new guy is actually a mgr/director and just temporarily supporting us while he looks for someone to hire).

It's also annual review time. Gawd, I hate that process!! Such a grand "going through the motions" even for everyone. Why don't corporations abandon the farce? It's no longer the boss reviewing you; It's you writing a glowing summary of what you did the prior year, getting buy-in from your boss, and them assigning point values to equal the raise they already pre-determined for you.

Then come "MBOs" (Managing for Busines Objectives... aka: Targets/Goals for this year)... another farce. In total seriousness, it think the targets should just be "Do what your boss says, by the time they say to do it." And the review should be "Did you meet the boss' targets?" I mean, seriously, who's gonna get a task from their boss and say, "Oh, sorry. I'd love to work on that project for you but it's not on my MBO."

Anyhooo... I don't really remember what I did last year... except that I kicked ass, found & isolated some insane software bugs, and tested faster than anyone else. My "needs improvement" items are humility, and caring about what TheQueen is up to. I'm hoping my mentor writes up her review today so that I can copy/modify it for myself tomorrow. And I REALLY hope that my boss remembers that she promised me a promotion.  And I double really hope that she can deliver it (probably not - but I'd like her to at least address the promise).

So that's my Tuesday. 1pm and I'm still in my pajamas!! I'd like to stay in them all day but I have to drop off a package at FedEx today and filling up my gas tank would also be a good idea. I'm sure there are a billion other things I should do but I'm going to go back to bed.