Ten Days

Wednesday
On Wednesdays I usually drive to work fairly early in the morning so I can park there and take the train to school. That way, when my classes are over, I can take the train back to work, then drive home at the end of the night. It saves me from having to park on campus and from having to rely on public transportation to get home late at night.

As I usually do, I went in to the call center for a moment before heading to school and talked to Jason, the Field Director (i.e., my boss). He told me of an unusual situation that was developing. Jack, the QA manager, had called to say he had a family situation and would not be coming in that night. This normally would not be a big deal, but we'd been having a lot of temps, and Jack normally serves as Overlord.

So Jason asked if I'd mind if we cancelled that evening's scheduled training session so that I could oversee the temps. I agreed to it; my voice was not in the best shape that morning, so it was kind of a relief. Jason called everyone who was scheduled to let them know, and I spent the evening handling the reservists. It was kind of a nice feeling, being out on the floor and talking with people, knowing that someone else was ultimately in charge of things for the night. A pleasant change.

Thursday
Thursday was pinkeye day. I made my way down to the corner drugstore and bought some eye drops, some Kleenex pocket packs, and some waterless hand sanitizer. I spent the day using all of them in liberal amounts.

I took a break from studying long enough to have The Girl over for dinner and a movie. I barbecued some steaks, which she loved but I thought could have been more tender. Then I introduced her to , a really funny murder mystery spoof. It has a fantastic cast, including David Niven, Peter Falk, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, and Alec Guinness as the blind butler ("Don't let him park the car, Dickie."). Good times. And yes, I managed not to give her pinkeye.

Friday
Most of Friday morning was spent studying for a Calculus exam. My eye was feeling a little better, though the infection by this time had begun to spread to the other eye. Lovely.

We had only two projects at work Friday night that required us to call past 8:00 p.m. We finished one of them early in the evening, and the other was something we could call on nationwide the following day. So the shift mercifully ended at 8:00 instead of 10:00.

Saturday
I had a small training session on Saturday. Three fine young people came in and went through the orientation and proved they were capable of doing the job. My eyes were feeling pretty much normal by this time, which also helped the session to fly by. I got the newbies' paperwork done relatively quickly and was out the door in time to enjoy a Saturday afternoon nap.

Saturday evening, The Girl and I took solace from the triple-digit heat by driving up Little Cottonwood Canyon and having a picnic. I live so close to the mountains; I don't know why I don't spend more time there. When it had cooled down a bit, we came back to my place and watched Stargate. Well, the beginning of it, anyway. About half an hour into the movie, the phone rang.

This was just after ten o'clock, and nobody usually calls me that late. I checked the Caller ID and saw that it as my brother. He's even less a night owl than I am these days (what with starting work at 6:00 in the morning and all), so I was really surprised. I answered the phone with a little bit of apprehension, and was greeted with the following:

"Hello, uncle Mike."

It was my niece Mikayla. Apparently she and her dad had been talking and the subject of religion came up. So Aaron referred her to me ("I got nothin'."). I tried to answer her questions in a way that she could wrap her 11-year-old brain around. Then I talked to Aaron a little bit, and he thanked me for my help. Hey, what are godfathers for?

Sunday
I gave a lesson in the High Priests group on Sunday. I fill in as a substitute in Sunday school quite frequently, but this is the first time I'd ever played this particular venue. When the asked me a couple of weeks back if I'd take that lesson, I agreed and said it would be no problem. Then I actually read the lesson.

The subject of the lesson was "Preparing for an Eternal Marriage and Family". For me, there were two problems with this lesson. First, I'd be teaching it to a group of men who, for the most part, were A) substantially older than me and B) already married. It was kind of like getting a phone call from Warren Buffett saying, "Hey, I've got some friends here, why don't you come on over and give us a few tips on investing?" Second, despite my desires to the contrary, I found that this is still a bit of a sore subject for me.

So I went into the meeting feeling a little uncomfortable and more than a little inadequate. I normally try to include a lot of audience participation when I teach, and I leaned quite heavily on the group for this lesson. And it turned out all right. I didn't feel like I'd done a particularly great job, but several group members came up to me afterwards and told me how well I'd done. It's nice to have a little reinforcement now and then.

Monday
I got back the results for both exams on Monday. I got a solid B on my Business Finance exam, and a B- on my Calculus exam. I'm quite pleased with both of those results. I should be able to pull at least a B from both of these classes.

Monday night I went with The Girl and four of her friends and family to see Sahara at the local dollar theater. Then we all went for ice cream afterwards. I had a lot of fun. I found the movie quite entertaining (Allen's opinion to the contrary notwithstanding), and I got to spend time with some of her close friends.

Tuesday
Tuesday morning was spent doing laundry. The shift at work was over by 8:00, and we were only running three projects, one of which we finished halfway through the shift. Hardly worth writing about, really.

Wednesday
In Wednesday's business class we learned how to use a company's balance sheet and income statement to assess the financial health of that company. Specifically, we learned how to use certain information from those documents to calculate the company's Z-score. Using the Altman model, it's at least theoretically possible to determine how likely a company is to enter bankruptcy in the next two years. And since Lockheed Martin's stock has been tanking for the last month, I thought I'd use them for the assignment. I'd really like to do a Z-score for my employer, but I don't know how to do it for a company that's not publicly traded. I've been told that it's possible, just not how to do it.

I had eleven people scheduled for training on Wednesday night, the largest class I've had in a couple of weeks. Some of them were reschedules from last Wednesday. When I got to work, I discovered that one of them had called off, which left me with ten. Six of those showed up, which is pretty typical. And then a seventh showed up—but he was actually scheduled for next Wednesday's session. Whatever. It was a little hectic at first, but we all made it through. I got the paperwork done quickly afterwards and got out at a relatively decent hour.

Thursday
I spent Thursday afternoon with the Ogden Gaming Consortium. We uncovered evidence of an alien invasion, so that should make for some fun adventures over the next few weeks. We broke things off about 7:00, and I drove down to Sandy to spend a little time with The Girl. She'd had a bad day on Wednesday, so I wanted to see how she was doing. She was feeling a lot better, which made me happy. We talked and watched part of a movie her family had on and then talked some more. I'm amazed at the direction our conversations sometimes take. We feel completely open and trusting with one another, and we can talk about anything from the trivial to the sublime. That's a wonderful feeling.

Friday
And that brings us up to today. I have a quiz in Calculus today covering double integrals over non-rectangular regions and double integrals in polar coordinates. Then another fine evening at work, and maybe even a little extra sleep tonight. The Girl and I are going to the temple tomorrow, which will be a nice break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

So yes, life is a little hectic sometimes. But at the moment, I have no complaints.