Friday, March 18, 2011

Mostly Sunny With a Chance of Showers

I have had a day.

It was the job. I have a hard one here. It's not hard in the same way that my old job was hard--it's not intense intellectual lifting or grinding long days or any of the million things that made my last job hard. It's hard because people here are skeptical of me, or think ill of me for whatever reason, before I even step foot through the door. They think ill of me simply due to my affiliation with the company I represent. They don't like me, without even knowing me. That, in itself, makes this enormously tiring on some days. Sometimes I feel like I'm finished before I've even started. Don't get me wrong--some days I make fantastic connections with foreign counterparts. Usually, even when I disagree with my foreign contacts, we have great conversation, and we can agree to disagree. Today was not one of those days, though.

Today was one of those days where I constantly worried if I was offending anyone inadvertently, and when I wasn't worried about that, I was worried about the fact that the people in the meetings with me wanted nothing to do with me. I literally had two different meetings today where the best thing that I can say is that they politely tolerated me. I got frozen, polite smiles, but could mostly tell that they were just. . .so. . .skeptical. It's hard to have a conversation when the other person won't even meet you halfway, isn't open to that communication.

Thankfully, though, it is Friday! I'm kind of thinking I need a day to veg on the couch (tomorrow), and then maybe I'll zip away for a quick overnight Sunday. I've been doing a ton of traveling lately for work, but I haven't been out to play much. I think it's time! I need to shake off today's bad mojo in time for more big meetings on Monday. And I just need to laugh. We took the babe to an indoor playgym last weekend, and I just had a blast watching her explore and discover and enjoy new things. It was just soooooo much fun. There's a zoo not far from here that has parts where you can watch the penguins from under water. I think she'll get a kick out of that.

2 comments:

Jessica White said...

Sounds like you need some fun! I can't imagine how hard a job that must be.

Jamie said...

That must be so difficult - working with people who don't know you but then possibly having a cultural barrier to deal with as well.

I hope you guys had a great time at the zoo and you were able to clear your mind a little bit.