Somehow I accidentally got involved on some high-profile projects at work, and when they hit, they hit fast. It's been a real challenge -- not so much technically, but rather struggling with how to handle myself with real customers, both on the phone and in person. I'm keenly aware that the livelihood of the salesperson I'm backing up depends a lot on how I conduct myself. My main strength, which is intense technical discussion, can be a liability -- not all customers want to be bludgeoned by the icky ins-and-outs. I'm getting coaching, but there's no doubt this isn't natural to me.
And there are tricky discussions, such as if I'm working with one vendor to spec something out, and that vendor asks if we're looking at other vendors (Cisco, anyone?). My way is to blurt out the truth -- I need to learn how to, and more importantly when to, delicately sidestep the question.
I've never felt like such a geek in my life -- something I aspired to and would normally be proud of, but now I'm not so sure! Everyone seems to love my research and write-ups though. I'm much better behind the scenes, safely hidden away in a closet.
I'm finally walking without a cane! I tried exercising this morning for the first time, with mixed results. I can feel real pain in my lower back now, and worse, the foot-buzzing is back. This hasn't happened for a while, but it's happening now: when I sit for too long, my feet buzz and get irritated and eventually fall asleep. It's really uncomfortable.
Today Katrina came down from her room showing off her new TinkerToy contraption: "Look Mom, I made a cane!" Uggh! I hate that my children will remember this awful weakness of mine.
And Ski Week is coming up!! I am SUCH an idiot, and I was SO upset on Friday: I finally called Sugarbowl to make ski school reservations, thinking it wouldn't be a problem with two weeks' lead time. Nope! Full!!! Waiting list!! I couldn't believe it -- I've been planning on going to Sugarbowl and taking kids to ski school there for months, and I waited WAY too long to make the reservations that our whole trip hinged around. ARGH!
Partly, I putzed because I wasn't sure if or when Laura and Ryan could join us, but they told me in plenty of time (that they couldn't make it, sniff), and I still didn't make the reservation. I'm so focused at work it's really hard to take that 15 minutes out to make the call.
But....joy! I got a call today from Sugarbowl's Mountain Learning Center: they managed to fit us in!! The timing isn't perfect; it's spread across 4 days instead of 3, but still, whew. As I told my ski friend, "dumbasses can't be choosers." Now I CAN'T WAIT, despite the challenging logistics of not having everyone in ski school together. Looks like Gabriel and I will be skiing a lot together (yay).
But my back had better cooperate....limp limp.
2/11/12
No comments:
Post a Comment