tired!

I can't wait for vacation, but the cost is that I need to get things done before I leave. That explains why I'm awake at 2:30am. Today was actually not too bad at all - I was in meetings all day, but I managed to sneak in lunch with Alaska Matt, who was visiting this week from Beijing. One of my meetings was two hours with an executive coach - she is apparently a cheaper, low-grade version of the other executive coach I'm using, but for some inexplicable reason we have two management development trainings going on simultaneously, and I just happen to be going through both of them within a two-month period. She claimed to bring a 'toolkit' for talking about things like time management, difficult conversations, presentations skills, etc. Since I did not have the energy, desire, or interest to do roleplays, I steered clear of any problem that might involve roleplaying a conversation, and so stuck to time management. Luckily I'm so overworked that I could easily spend two hours venting about how much I have to do, and we did come up w/a few small tips for what I can do to streamline things - although never you fear, I won't streamline by killing off my blog. In general, though, I would have preferred to take a nap at my couch during those two hours, but c'est la vie.

After work, I had a dinner/intervention with Terry, in which we both simultaneously encouraged and discouraged each other about our progress in moving towards life goals. I tried to use my position of age and wisdom to influence her, but since I'm only three days older than her, I don't think she respected me enough :(

When I got home, I took a nap - it was supposed to be half an hour, but it turned into an hour and a half. Rejuvenated, I then worked from 10:30 to 2:30, and I feel that I accomplished a lot. The downside is that I'll only get six hours of sleep tonight - but if I work myself into a state of exhaustion, I'll easily be able to sleep on the plane. Too bad I want to read on the plane instead - I got all sorts of books from Amazon today about 19th-century England and Scotland, including this gorgeous coffee-table book containing hundreds of photos and illustrations of English manor houses and castles. Yay. I'm such a dork.

It is definitely way past my bedtime...I hope all is well in all of your respective lives!