Bread on the Waters

Beverage: Kendall-Jackson Sauvignon Blanc

Toast: many happy returns

 

I had a crabby morning. I woke at 2:30am and never got fully back to sleep. My brain was replaying tapes from the call yesterday and i slept fitfully. I have a semi-recurring dream where i am driving my Mustang on black ice and i begin to fishtail. Last night I swerved hard at the base of a hill and was forced to turn around.

Several times in the morning I looked at myself in the mirror and contemplated calling in sick. It wouldn't really even be a lie. But I screw my determination up and go on in.

As always, moving around sets me right and I warm to a rare treat by 7am.

I get to do some work in Illustrator.

Not creative work, or illustration, just a series of complex templates. It's honest, if technical and exacting work. You have to stay alert as you do a long series of tasks. A grind really. And one better suited to one of my guys. He likes the details. I like the work. In the end I will give it back to him to double check, but for now the simple chore of a task that is clear cut and defined feels like a warm refuge from a world of phone calls, abstract ideas and process maps.

I click a mouse thousands of times over the bulk of the morning.

The rest of the day spins out.

Around 4:30 I run a report that goes to a wide audience. It's often an impetus for far-flung friends to email me back. This time I get one that says "Just got the snap. Love it. My pleasure."

I have no idea what this means.

And then I remember; a wise person went out of her way to give me good advice last week. This person is very smart and powerful, but not widely known for warm fuzzy career advice. The fact that she took the time to single me out and follow up on my behalf touched me deeply.

Up to then I had forgotten that I had the good sense to send her a custom photo with a thank you note on the back last week. This one:

The thank you for the thank you came like a dozen roses in winter. As a person who is sometimes rudderless, I have to trust the decisions I made yesterday pointed the ship in the right direction. It's always good to see signs that the sun is still on the East. I can't take much fish tailing.

 

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