memory lane

today i get to evaluate my performance during the last several months, highlighting my accomplishments, my strengths, and my weaknesses. don’t you wish you were me? the evaluation can't begin without the list of what i've produced in the previous six months. this is critical. in order to compile this list, i spend at least all morning painstakingly completing the following tasks:

1. open the spreadsheet that is the list of results i’ve been keeping for six months
2. copy the contents into the appraisal form
3. review calendar to make sure i didn’t miss anything

obviously, step 3 makes it fun.

let’s see, the most notable events in april included exchanging the old car for the new one, having lunch, and getting my hair cut twice at two different places within three weeks. [digression: if it ever happens that the hair cuttery is the only salon left in the universe, i will lay my head on the tracks secure in the knowledge that the train will leave me looking better than that place.] onward ...

may features one week of vacation, one week of absolutely nothing, and memorial day. thrilling, eh?
june was way better with six (scheduled) lunches, a going-away party, two training seminars, a fun day that wasn’t actually much fun, and a trip to sam’s club with denise to buy the latest harry potter.

i spent a whole week of july out of the office and was, sadly, not on vacation. this was the trip to the beach where i learned it’s better to go there with your friends, not with your manager, his manager, and 23 of their peers. gross. but i got a well-deserved handheld TV out of the deal ... "jody, at the next break, i need you to get directions to the restaurant for tonite and then i want you to drive there to make sure the directions are right." "what if they’re not and i get lost?" [laughter, not mine] "when you get back, we’d like to get some cookies and coffee up here." [chirping crickets]

next: august: three lunches, another haircut, the perseids, an airport pick-up, and an empty block of time from 4 to 5 on a friday labeled "busy." brilliant.

lastly, september ... this was an incredibly dull month with lots of work, hurricanes, and the like ... hardly worth mentioning.

this is going to be the greatest self-appraisal ever.