the scriptorium

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Gosh, it's been forever since the last post, it seems. So much has been going on. My paintings from last semester's class are now on display during the Saturday night coffeehouse at The Rock/La Roca UMC for the next couple of weeks. They went up the last Saturday in January, and I think they will be up for four weeks after that, so there's a couple of more weeks left, if I have things figured right. At the "opening" (she said with her tongue firmly in her cheek), my friends Matt and Daniel played, so I was out very late. After they finished playing around 11PM, Matt, Billy, Rachel and I decided we were hungry (aren't we always?), so we went to a little bar I'd never been to before, Mia's. It was quite nice and the food was good, if a little pricey, and we sat and talked and joked and laughed until about 2:30AM. A great time, but I'm getting a bit old for the all-nighter...

Anyway, things are starting to settle in a bit at school. Somehow or other, I'm managing to get everything done on time so far. I am learning that I have to give up some of my perfectionistic ways. As a designer in the field said to us in a seminar (and I'm paraphrasing here), "The deadline helps to determine the level of quality of the project." In other words, I'm learning that I only stress myself out unnecessarily trying to get absolutely perfect work done in the short time they give us for some of these projects. Let's just hope the teachers understand this axiom as well...

Things at work have settled down a bit. A couple of weeks ago, we went through a RIF (reduction in force). Through some miracle (and probably the realization of the management that they aren't paying me all that much anyway), I managed to make the cut when 2 of my coworkers with more time in were let go. From what I understand, the quality of my work may have been a factor also. Sometimes it pays to be a perfectionist... So anyway, one woman who got RIFed took it fairly well, but the other one did not. She fussed and complained every day of the 2 week notice they gave, and basically stopped working. She was "processing" claims without really doing anything to them, so my job for the last week or so was cleaning up her mess. She also systematically alienated each of her coworkers so that, by the time her last day came around, most of us were just relieved to see her go. This was the saddest part of all to me. We all were commiserating at first, because we all knew that it could just as easily have been any of us getting the axe, but when we tried to comfort or reach out to her, she'd just say something sarcastic and push us away. Isn't it odd the way people do that? I think we've all known people who act that way, and it's hard sometimes to remember that they are speaking and acting out of pain and may or may not mean anything personal by it. Of course, for a "fixer" like me, it's especially hard to watch someone sabotage their life by pushing away the very people who want to (and maybe can) help. It's very hard to step back and just say, "OK, go your own way, I won't bother you any more. But know that I'm around if you need me," and then leave it at that.

Well, anyway, it seems that I've rambled on for long enough. I need to get to class and do that study thing. Later!

posted by #Debi at 11:14 AM | permalink | 0 comments