A couple more weeks

Right now, the thing that is consuming my work life is planning for our Fourth of July party. It’s killing me because we’re doing it off-site for the first time ever, and that’s given us some new processes/challenges/steps/whatever word you want to use.

Some of those are easy to change but some are unanticipated. A well-meaning person came up to me a few weeks ago totally freaked out because she hadn’t heard much about planning this year. We’d looped in someone in her department, who I guess filled her in, and she was really concerned that we were behind.

We chatted awhile and I explained that it did seem we were behind, but only on paper. Since the place is somewhere different, we legally could not proceed in most aspects (like the visible ones) until we’d signed the contract, which took awhile because a key person went on leave. Two days after the ink was dry, we had the meeting on site – pretty much as fast as we could get there.

I definitely understood my colleague’s concerns, but to that end, we’d done everything we could have done. I pulled out the timeline the people had done the year before, and honestly, we were pretty much on it.

And that was a couple of weeks ago. Now, it’s set in how soon it is. Someone was talking to me last week and said something about three weeks. I’d been thinking it was four. It’s now a bit more realistic and I’m getting worried myself! Especially since Monday and Tuesday next week are holidays, and it’s a big holiday. A lot of people will be taking off that whole week.

Anyway, I’m totally frustrated with this now. One of my biggest pet peeves is “well, we’ve always done it that way.” Exacerbating that is when you ask WHY it’s been done that way and the answer is “well, we’ve always done it that way.” And then you suggest a new method and point out eight ways why it would be easier/faster/more efficient/cheaper and you get a hostile, “well, we’ve always done it that way.”

I’m trying to consult the experts – people who’ve done this year after year – and am running up against that. One of the issues was check-in. I explained the new location’s setup and asked the expert what the best way would be. She said, “well, last year we had two main entrances” and it was like, well, this year, this is what we have to work with, one main entrance, so can you give me a recommendation? And she replied that it had worked very well through the years with two main entrances.

And this went on. You want to be respectful and say yes, you understand it’s worked like that in the past because it was held in a specific place. But by the decision of someone who’s at a higher pay grade than me, we do not have that option, so it’s in a different place. As a result, it’s going to be different. What can you suggest. And you get the same, “well, we’ve always done it this way, so doing it this way would be best.” AARGH!

We also are constantly waiting on the head office to make decisions. We had planned on sending email notices of the party date on June 2. However, for some reason that didn’t apply with Guangzhou-Beijing, Istanbul isn’t allowed to jump without getting an OK on how high with Ankara. We had the question in to them in time to send the notices on June 2, but as of June 19, we still haven’t received the “how high” permission. We did, on about June 15, finally receive permission to jump, so we did. We’ll add the “how high” later, but at least we’ve been able to give some notice we’re having a party.

So we’re down to very little time left, and I’ve a bad feeling I’m going to be spending lots of time in traffic and out of the office the next few weeks.

But not on Monday and Tuesday. Ramadan will end, and it’s the Little Holiday! (I’ve no idea of what the actually holidays are called, but in Morocco, the two post-Ramadan holidays were called Little Holiday and Big Holiday. That’s how I learned them.)

I get a four-day weekend, and although I am a bit worried about getting all the party planning done, I’m headed out of town1 It’s my only trip out of town in June and I have zero plans to leave in July, so I’m psyched. Today I need to secure a ride to the airport. The flight leaves at 6:55 and that’s before public transportation wakes up.

After that, I don’t leave town until August, when I go to Dublin to visit a friend and run a 10k. I’m registered for that one and a 14k in October, although I think my payment for that didn’t go through.

Lately, I’ve been running outside a bid, as opposed to the treadmill. It sure is a lot hotter, but we have a small group of 3-5 people who have been making an 11.5k run weekly to one of the areas in Istanbul. It’s a nice run along the shore, although to be honest I wind up walking a lot of it. The first time, I made it 3.5k before I had to walk but did pretty well overall. The second time, I thought I was going to die and the third time I think a part of me did die. It was SO hot.

I’m just not a runner. Every day, I hope it’s the day I start to love it. It’s been about three years and I still don’t.