W

This has been the longest week in the longest month of the longest year ever recorded in history. Ok, clearly, I’m exaggerating. It’s only limping towards the end of Thursday, though I feel like I’ve survived three Thursdays already this week.

Being sick is one culprit. You would think that with all the medication and the resulting coma like states that time and days would fly by-but oh no, they are plodding and trodding like the edict came down from some high place, for time to stand stock still. It’s still Thursday of a very long week and I’m still sick and I've been working, hard. Lovely.

One aspect of my job, the office, that I really enjoy is the autonomy. I have a boss and I do have to keep regular hours (M-F 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m), but once there, my day is my day, for the most part. I wear many hats at the office and while everyone is aware of my responsibilities, no one knows day-to-day, what I do or how I get it done. The end result is all that counts.

Personally, I think this is a dangerous way to run a business, especially one as small as ours. I’m always after my boss to implement a cross-training program. He has, on a limited basis with the primary sales and customer service fellas, but my functions have been off-limits to everyone (including him-which really baffles me). Anyhow, the autonomy usually makes for a relatively stress free day. There are days when I’m busier than a beehive but the salvation is that I have control over much. My days can and often are driven by: phone calls, faxes, emails, nutty comments and anecdotes from co-workers and in-box bashing, but otherwise, I have control, yes I do.

The department-of-one does have drawbacks. The primary down-side is not having a back-up for my days off, planned or un-planned. For planned days off I must put in extra work to put things in order to minimize any surprises during the absences. My responsibilities cover so many vital areas of the day-to-day operations, scheduling days off around certain events becomes problematic. Hence, I haven’t had a real vacation yet this year. A day here, a couple of days there-nothing of any real substance, yet.

By the same token, being ill is well, like my kids coaches used to say, "not an option during the season". Our business and work flow is seasonal, generally. We are currently in our busiest season. For my position, it is compounded at month-end. I cannot be M.I.A. at the end of the month, any month. The three to four days leading up to the end of the month and the three to four days of the new month are busiest of the busy days for me.

So, I’ve been slogging through these days, slurping hot tea, sipping non-drowsy formula cold remedies and sucking enough Lemon Mint Sugar-Free Ricola TM to make me wish I, or someone I knew very very well, owned stock. At the end of the work day, I retire, crashing after taking the yes please, drowsy, cold remedy of choice.

Any wonder why the placard I saw adhered to a wall of a vacant building struck me instantly giddy? It read:

WICKED WOMEN WITH WARM WILD WONDER

I had to wipe some spiggle (that’s giggle spit for the un-initiated), I did. Then found myself spending countless walking minutes re-positioning the W’s; Wild Women With Wicked Warm Wonder or Warm Women With Wild Wicked Wonder or Warm Wicked Women With Wild Wonder

or just a bit more playfully, Wickedly Warm Women With Wonderful Wildness.

The letter W has been brought to you by Alka-Seltzer PlusTM