Hubby and I went for a nice drive down to Northern NSW today – nice that is, until we were about two thirds of the way home on our return trip and had a huge rock thrown at us by some juvenile delinquents hiding in the bush on the side of the motorway.

The rock that hit us was about the size of half a housebrick and it bounced once on the road before hitting the front of hubby’s car, damaging the grill, radiator and airconditioning unit. Another two cars were hit side-on by more rocks and copped some panel damage. All up about $5,000 damage hubby reckons.

All three of us pulled over to the side of the road and hubby called the police, before taking off down the bush track after the kids. They got away but hubby was able to give a few extra details to the attending officer.

I really hate it when I get stressed and irrational. I feel like such a goose afterwards.

For the last six weeks I have been filling in for my manager at work. Gayle is full-time, I’m part-time and I’ve been trying to squeeze her work plus my work into a three day week. Inevitably it spilled over into longer days and even taking work home on the weekends. I let it consume me, my desire for recognition and pride in doing a good job. We all know what happens with pride – it goes out the door just before you fall flat on your face.

Yes, Gayle came back and suddenly I had to adjust to my former lowly status as her assistant! I had put in a lot of good work, but I’d also made some goofs because I was overworked, stressed and had lost focus. At first the goofs seemed insignificant in light of the heavy workload. In hindsight, I’d been compromising the qualities I was hired for – my competency and attention to detail. I wasn’t hired to be some sort of superwoman!

The first couple of days after she came back, I felt resentful and unappreciated. The stress and the emotion were building up. It finally erupted over something very silly – organising some junk mail flyers for a fundraising event that is coming up.

The idea had been put forward by one of the management committee, but neither Gayle or myself saw any merit in it. A waste of time and money we felt. Typical unwanted trivial interference by management when they should be sticking to policy and the big picture (I felt). Over the past six weeks I had been busying myself with other things and quietly hoping the flyers would be forgotten and nothing more would be said. But when Gayle met with the committee on her return, they insisted we get the flyers done.

That’s when I had my little dummy-spit about all the extra work I had been doing, and not having time for rubbish like flyers. Gayle was immediately sympathetic, which mollified me somewhat. And then within the space of an hour she had it all underway with free copying by the local MP’s office, free guillotining by a local copy shop and the distributor lined up to collect it all on Monday. She still disagreed with the idea, but saw that it had to be done and did it.

Yup. I feel like a goose.

Boss is still away, HOPEFULLY coming back next week. I am coasting along at work now, hoping I am remembering to do everything I need to. The dates are creeping up fast. Many of the events seem a lot of work for not much financial return, but I guess in a community organisation the events are about more than just fundraising.

One of the events I’m working on is a charity night put on by the local greyhound racing club. There’s an old fellow who seems to get a kick out of going around getting the sponsors and prizes for the evening’s raffles. Sat with him for a few hours yesterday, selling raffle tickets in front of Bunnings. This old guy tends to get people’s backs up by being a bit bossy and slapdash, but he is interesting to talk to and seems to have his heart in the right place anyway, if he’s not always tactful about it. The ticket sales were a little disappointing, Saturday morning I was expecting to be run off our feet. Raffles are not the way to raise heaps of dough.

I have been so pre-occupied with work lately that, falling ever further behind with study I decided to withdraw from my current subject. I’m re-evaluating my study goals. Not sure if I will continue with this course, at the moment I am looking at subjects that would be more useful at work. There is a training course by Cengage Education on Public Relations & Events Management that looks interesting. Another one from the Fundraising Institute Australia – Diploma of Fundraising Management. I’m thinking about them, will talk to my boss about it when she gets back. Either of them would be a good career move if I was interested in continuing this line of work in the community sector.

In comparison with my last post here it has been a very good week. I’ve been feeling more on top of it at work and getting things accomplished – the web site, and the newsletter, getting events organised. Trying to cram what is normally a full-time job into a three day week has been a challenge, I’ve had to do a little bit of overtime but have been offered TOIL (time-off-in-lieu of pay) which is great. A break at the end of this, when my boss is back will be very welcome!

Study on the other hand, has suffered. I’ve been tossing up whether to pull out of the course because I am so far behind. I’m going to put everything I have into it this weekend and try to get up to date. On one hand, withdrawing from the course would be a relief. On the other hand it would be very disappointing, particularly since it is a subject which I should be having no trouble with!

The other thing is I always seem to be struggling to meet deadlines with my study. I really think I have some sort of mental block going, where I just can’t seem to discipline myself to do regular, steady work. Then the week when something is due I’m clocking up massive research sessions trying to get a submission ready. It amazes me I’ve been getting decent marks, working under such self-imposed conditions.

Anyway, here’s hoping I can pull this one off.

The first time I’ve logged on here for some weeks and I’ve noticed WordPress has upgraded. The new back-end looks pretty awesome.

Things have been more disorganised than usual lately, as I’ve been working an extra day at the hospice to cover for my boss, who is away for a few more weeks. Had to repair a client’s hacked web site. I’ve also had uni work and assignments to do. Plus a whole heap of books arrived via bookmooch and they have been too interesting to put down. I’ve now finished the entire Foundation series of novels by Isaac Asimov.

I’ve had an entirely unproductive day today. I think all I managed to accomplish was clearing the dishes out of the sink. Earlier on this morning I was hit with one of my “what’s it all for” moods, and I’ve been a bit down today. I think I’m in a slump.

..formula for getting out of a slump:

1. Do something.
2. Do more.
3. Keep doing it.

(source: right-writing.com)

I have another busy week ahead, I have a newsletter to write for work and more uni assignments.