We are Borg

I had a follow-up appointment with my doctor this week regarding the weird sensation in my chest. Neither my blood work nor my stress echo test showed anything abnormal (other than an abnormal EKG), so in hopes of figuring out what I am feeling my doc ordered me a cardiac event monitor.

I must say, I am perversely excited by it. My particular monitor is called the LifeStar ACT. Basically, it's a contraption about the size of a stopwatch that I wear around my neck, attached to my body by three electrodes. It records and transmits my EKG all the time, and when I have an "event" (aka when I feel that weird chest sensation), I push some buttons and it sends the data to a Sprint cell phone (a way fancier one than is pictured on the ACT website, I might add) that I have to keep within 10 feet of my body. I feel very science fiction-y.

I thought I would only have to wear it for the weekend, but apparently I get to keep it for 30 days. Hopefully I won't actually have to wear it for that long--I imagine the newness will wear off fairly quickly (I have to sleep with the thing on) and I will want to be rid of it. But for now, it's a pretty cool new toy.

Bleh

I've got the flu. I spent half of Tuesday practically comatose, and the other half only slightly more aware. Yesterday, I felt a bit better but was plagued by a racking cough. Today, I feel like someone filled my head with cement while I was sleeping. No fun at all.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to disinfect my keyboard and mouse. The only thing worse than me being sick is my husband being sick.

There are a great many things that I disliked about my cubefarm job, but these three are at the top of the list:

1. being taken for granted
2. feeling under-appreciated
3. constantly needing to justify my existence

After six and a half years of living with those feelings I was nearly brainwashed into believing that's the way work is supposed to make you feel. I know now that it doesn't have to be that way, but occasionally I have an interaction with a client that hammers home the difference between what my concept of "work" was then and what it is now:

• I got an email from my RFP client yesterday asking for advice on how to draft a Best and Final Offer for a prospect (pause for a "pat on the back" moment--they got to this stage based on the proposal I put together with them). Back at the ol' cubefarm, it is unlikely that I would have gotten any praise for getting them to the next stage of bidding, and I certainly wouldn't have been asked for advice on how to proceed. And if we didn't get to the next stage, it was assumed that the failure was the result of some shortfall in my proposal, rather than bad pricing, bad stats or some deficiency in our offering. And I sure as heck never got a commission when they actually won a piece of business from an RFP . . .

• I was talking to a friend of mine about my agency client this weekend--explaining what a joy they are to work with because they are supportive, honest, and really seem to respect each member of the team's contribution (including mine). She asked me if I would consider going to work for them full-time if I was asked. I said "yes," with no hesitation, surprising myself a little.

It's nice to know I'm not the same jaded person I was when I left the cubefarm. And now that I know how rewarding work can be, I don't plan to settle for anything less in the future--no matter where the future takes me.

I vs. me: primetime news edition

From last night's 60 Minutes:

I do hope Mr. Hunnicutt is not a Language Arts teacher . . .

GOOBER

So, here are the four concepts I came up with for yesterday's "volunteer" project . . .


Hopefully, my hubby's friend will like one of them. Any one of them is a step up from what he used last year. The chosen design will appear on the back of the race t-shirts--the fronts will feature a "pocket" graphic that says "I'm a Goober" in a style that matches the back. I also did four versions of fliers featuring the same concepts.

I think my favorite is the second one, and my least favorite (but also the one I had the greatest hopes for) is the first one. The double-ohs were supposed to look like peanuts in the shell, but they turned out more like fried eggs.

Care to cast a vote for your favorite? Or make a prediction about which one he'll pick?