A Day in the Life

Hi Team Celtic Not,

I've been on the receiving end of some alarming e-mails.. "Why aren't you blogging? Is everything OK?" I'm doing alright, I promise. I've been VERY busy, and quite distracted as of late. I am, however, traveling again for a week beginning this Saturday and will hopefully have more time for blogging. I'll be heading out to California with stops in San Francisco, LA and San Diego. Here's hoping for warm weather and a relatively light work schedule. I hope to actually sight see in LA this time around. Even though it's probably my third time there or so, I've never really done the tourist thing.

So I'm working like crazy and am experiencing one of those times where there simply is never enough time in the day to get everything done. There's always something waiting, always a new crisis to deal with and always something I've forgotten to do. Considering I started answering Blackberry e-mails during my 7 to 8 am commute, I can easily report that I worked about 15 hours today. No joke. I probably e-mailed for 30 minutes of my commute, was at the office actively engaged in crap from 8-6:30, a little more e-mailing on the commute back, a chat from 8-10 and then appeal writing from 10-11:30. Gotta love April.

Anyway, the structure of my day struck me for some reason today. I think it was when a welcome personal call came in over my cell as my phone was ringing off the hook on my desk. There's a point in every day when I consider cowering in the corner and rocking myself in the fetal position. I came close to doing so on this phone call. Anyway, here's an average day in the life of Professional Celtic Not, in case you were curious.

7 am: Start checking e-mail on Blackberry on elevator ride to lobby in apartment building. During walk to Metro, assess what can be answered on commute, and what needs my "at desk" attention.
7:07 am: Arrive at Metro. Take seat and respond to 2-3 e-mails on average. Otherwise, SUDOKU, baby! Gotta stay sharp.
7:46 am: While waiting for shuttle to work, continue to check Blackberry for new messages. Yes, it's quite possible as boss is Blackberrying from her own morning commute.
8:00 am: Seated at desk, delve into messages from evening before. Get through first hour of work in relative peace.
9:00 am - 12:00 pm - At least one meeting, if not two. Keep in mind for every one hour meeting, I can expect 3-5 voice mails and 20 e-mails. Today I had a 9 am meeting that I had to leap out of early to make my 10 am meeting. 27 e-mails received, 5 voice mails left.
12:00 pm - Grab lunch. To eat at desk with every intention of doing work while chowing down.
12:15 pm -2:30 pm - Chow lunch, begin to stress a little by the phone's constant ringing. No point in answering unless an internal call, in the middle of three other things, let them leave a message. Why won't it stop? Review letters.
2:30 pm -4 pm - meeting with colleagues that does not end up being about what I'm told it was going to be about. Left to wonder if I was "set up", so to speak. When I bring up the original point of the meeting, blank faces. But, they got to chat up their own agenda, one I labeled "preaching to the choir but not much we can do about it". I'm tired.
4:04 pm - 31 e-mails and a new record, 15 voicemails to return. Spend next hour taking notes on calls.
5:00 pm -6:30 pm - return phone calls, delegating only one to another member of staff.
6:30 pm - walk to Metro and call Dad, who is way too eager to hear about my day
7:47 pm - arrive home. Have 13 minutes to make dinner before signing into online chat. Yes, it's work sponsored.
8:00 pm-10 pm - spend two hours in a chat room with 2 colleagues and 2 "customers". To quote Sam Weinberg of "A Few Good Men", "I have no responsibilities here whatsoever."
10:00 pm-11:30 pm - appeals.. appeals.. appeals... 9 done though. Not bad.

Methinks this is ridiculous.