You know it's going to be a long day when...

It's going to be a long day. I know this for a few reasons. The most obvious being that I left the house around 6:30 this morning and I won't return until around 10:30 or 11 tonight. But it doesn't stop there, folks. I also know this because on my way to the bus, walking 2 or so blocks, I stepped wrong on a rock in my cute, comfy wedges. I was carrying my laptop bag, a bag for my lunch and softball gear, and my purse so my weight was thrown off and I fell. Hit the ground on all fours. Skinned my knee and my palm. My wrists hurt and I have a general feeling of soreness throughout my body that will likely be a problem tomorrow or the day after. Fail.

Oh, there's more!

The hem of one leg of my new, but already too long, dress pants came out so now I'm constantly stepping on, and tripping on, the left pant leg. I look like a hobo. Stay tuned...there's probably at least one more fall in my future today. Fail.

Then, I attempted to log into a virtual meeting room and spelled my own last name wrong. Fail.

This was all before 8am. Fail. Fail. FAIL!

I blame my morning escapades on the fact that my mind is never quite in the moment and focused on what I'm currently doing. Work is crazy these days. Not regular "everybody is busy" and "companies today expect too much from their employees" kind of busy but "holy sh!t, I'm drowning in a sea of to do lists and gasping for breath" kind of a busy. The system launch I have been working on for a year now (it was supposed to be 3 months) is releasing on October 22nd. Prior to that date, I'm working on data migration into that system (and managing two - truly fabulous - temps), the communication plan, the training plan/development, demos, final requirements gathering, user acceptance testing, report mock-up reviews, and the general "get your asses in gear people" kind of meetings, one-on-one's, and emails.

Did I mention that this is in addition to my regular, full-time job?

I'm working every night and every weekend day and don't anticipate this finishing until after the system release. I'm not working on my dissertation at all because I have to be 150% focused on work. My ability to get together with friends and family is non-existent and that is the ultimate reason for this post.

Please be patient with me over the next couple of months. Please understand that it's not you, it's me. Know that it's not for lack of wanting to see you that we may go longer than normal between visits. Know that this is hurting me more than it's hurting you. :p

And just to point out the obvious...I've now just lost 15 minutes of my workday to the writing of this blog. And THAT wasn't so smart.