Parasailing in the Park

My no good, lousy, very bad day of yesterday got turned around today, just not immediately. Every Friday, I have an early morning meeting and as per usual I was butt in chair, but my still sleep fogged mind was somewhere elsewhere. My preparing for the upcoming Seattle business trip and yesterday’s emergency fire drill had pushed all thought of addressing any of my already assigned action items off the table of my mind. So, the conclave of engineers that I met with was not pleased with me and they rewarded my incompetence by piling on even more duties. All seemed lost until midmorning, when a guardian angel in the form of my boss swooped in and relieved me of all those pesky action items. I suspect that some little bird told him that I was floundering and if he wanted his project saved, he better reassign some of the work, which was alright by me.

After weeks like this one, I am frequently amazed that we ever manage to get anything off the ground. I feel like the above pictured three guys look, futilely struggling to get off the ground. We must be doing something right, because the company is shooting for an annual revenue goal of $100B by its 100th anniversary, in 2016. At the end of the day, the big boss held a big meeting that was a combination pep rally and strategy session. It was chock full of bad jokes and inspirational messaging. One of the fundamental messages given was one that I’ve heard every year for over thirty years, “You were great last year, but I really need you to be even better this year.” Anyway, it was suitable Friday afternoon fare and the jokes though corny weren’t really that bad.

When I got home I discovered that my not too bad, not really lousy, not very bad day today was totally trumped by Anne’s. She was in the 5th grade today. One of the students had entered and won a contest. All week-long clues to today’s big reveal were released, one day sand, another surfboards and a third beach balls, to name a few. Next month cast members from Disney’s Teen Beach Movie will visit the school. Unfortunately or maybe not so much so, Anne will miss this event, because she performed for me the most frightening impression of one of the 11 year-old girls in her charge, who upon hearing this news went absolutely wild with joy. It was a terrible transformation to witness. Seeing the horror on my face snapped her out of character and then she half seriously asked herself, “How could someone so completely lose it?” After she remembered herself at that age and another musical group called the Beatles.