Tech Council Meeting Day

It is Wednesday Tech Council Meeting day and already the best thing is that it isn't raining like it was yesterday. It was pretty cold though so definitely it's feeling like winter. We did get a bit of a late start to school Johnnie and I though really we are NEVER late so all that meant was that we were exactly on time and not early like we usually are. A good thing too since my first meeting today started at 8:30 AM and I was the host too. This was the Communications Meeting and my part was first and so I was done before the time I usually have breakfast. I did have my hot tea with me as I navigated through the meeting and by 9:30 we were all done. A Data Team meeting right after that one and I was clear... until the Tech Council Meeting after lunch. I actually had stuff to work on still. I thought my presentation was completely ready... until Dennis my boss sent me a text first thing letting me know Eloisa wanted to talk about Active Directory at Tech Council today. *** I immediately felt an emotional reaction to that. Like I had to jump to get it done. And I had a big sense of urgency all of a sudden. Just because it was Eloisa. *** Only way later on would I realize that was simply the Universe throwing me another one of its tests. Do I want to give in to old programs of fear and not-enoughness?  Do I still underestimate the value I put out?  Still, I have to chuckle at my own continuing reactions... Do they even know what Active Directory is?? Oh well, I did note that my presentation was unusually light anyway when I looked at it this morning. And I WAS actually asking for more content to put on didn't I? Well not just a test but an answer as well isn't it? And so I did get to pad up the content a bit.  Cutting to the chase, the meeting went all over the place. I knew it was going to do that since I didn't really have a theme for this one. We had to talk about the return to work at the FRB of course. And then we needed to talk about Sharepoint and TEAMs and how the files stored worked. I was supposed to provide a guideline for how to use the directories in Sharepoint in TEAMs. Alas, all that went over people's heads I'm afraid. And then when I talked about Office 365 Groups, ELoisa just stopped me and said we were nowhere near ready to learn about that. Funny, I only added that material because I think they didn't really want to hear about Active Directory. Why would they? No one but I.S. has access to it. I was trying to anticipate that they actually meant email lists and how to maintain those. That's why I brought up Office Groups. Clearly, that was not a good idea. But I still slogged through my material and I ended up actually taking up the entire hour. I wouldn't say this meeting was productive as the previous one, but hey I at least got my material in right?

Of course right after the Tech Council Meeting it was time to just breathe out and chill. I will say that I'm already almost all meeting'd out, and I still have at least 6 more to go the rest of the week, including 4 tomorrow going back-to-back-to-back. Man how are people expected to get work done? Fortunately on days like today I did look forward to picking up Johnnie from school and just chilling the rest of the evening. This morning he had his holiday book exchange and he managed to leave the book that we bought and painstakingly wrapped last night, right in the backseat of my car. And so I had to get back and since he was already in the school and I couldn't go in, I had to leave it at the office. When I asked him if he did get the book, I was met with a nonchalant "oh yeah"! Oh yah alright.  He did have some kind of present in his bag and it said TO MY PARENTS. Awww. It was a calendar that he had made himself, probably worked on it for the last few weeks. And it was exquisitely wrapped too. Look at the string around the package. That was pro. And the poinsettia paper was a nice touch as well. Anyway it was touching to me. Johnnie would tell me later that Ms Huang helped him with it.  It was still awesome. With that I forgot all about how irritated I was this morning that he had forgotten the book. And I had forgotten how perplexed I was that he didn't eat ANYTHING that I packed him for lunch. Tonight we went to Ralphs and actually got a frozen pizza. That was our dinner. A frozen pepperoni pizza. We could have and should have gone to Domino's again. Yet there was something satisfying about letting him choose what he was going to eat right then and there at the store. We even ran into Carmen from Lisa's office checking out. I didn't bother to ask her if Lisa was still in the office. Johnnie and I just went on home and made the pizza, with me putting some fresh pineapple on one side. That was a perfectly fine dinner as it turned out. And then Johnnie opened up a present he got from good old Uncle Karl. It was a harmonica with a how-to book. I am NOT going to tell him he has had a harmonica since he was 3 LOL LOL. And anyway, Johnnie just loves that he got a present. I am pretty sure he didn't care what it was.  And so with Wednesday night all done, we head towards the end of the week. And the end of school for this calendar year for Johnnie.  It's going to be a fun next 3 weeks with him...