Training Day

Ok, so here’s the weekend score:

Saturday, sent three emails to three ladies (duh!) on match.com. Given match.com’s past performance, that should lead to – zero – replies. Of course, the alternative is one no-reply, one reply-by-email-never-to-be-heard-from-again, and one one-and-done (dates, that is) reply. Or my other favorite – that’s where I send an email to someone who’s been on in the last 24 hours, and they don’t reappear for the next five days, or five weeks, or – ever. Not that I’m negative or anything. Maybe Bridget was right, and somehow I come off too cynical.

Sunday was Mother’s day. Celebrated by taking Mom to the Center for Performing Arts in Munster, IN. While this sounds like we took her to a play, they actually have a pretty good buffet there every Sunday. And it was packed. The food was good, though, and I got to see my aunt and uncle who live in South Bend. Their son-in-law is finishing up law school down in Texas. Originally, the plan was to move closer to home and practice in Tennessee, but now there may be a job offer in Texas, so…hold the phone.

Of course, the big focus is Wednesday. Contracts Finals day. I feel like there’s SO much to know and so little time. I tried my best to study at the apartment, and for the most part I did well, but not as well as I could have. I kept looking around at the mess I live in, the shirts lining the doorways, waiting to be ironed, the dust piling up on the furniture, and well, I started to clean. Not a lot, just a little. Clean, read, laundry, read. Saturday was not as productive, study-wise, as I’d have liked. Maybe it was because I wasn’t supposed to be at work today, and I’d originally earmarked Saturday as recover-the-apartment-day. Or maybe it was because I tend to procrastinate, and need to work on that. Whatever the reason, I was able to really focus on Sunday and get a lot done. I’m now down to two days, and I don’t know where to focus my energy, since I missed the review session last Wednesday.

To top things off, I start training my replacements today. Miguel is pretty sharp, and so is Jose, so I don’t anticipate any real difficulty. It’s just trying to tell them what they need to know in the four workdays I have left, and not leaving anything out. I know, I know – you’re leaving, what do you care? But I do care. It’s my work, and I’m proud of what I’ve brought to the job. I’ve put a lot of myself into it, and I want to leave here on good terms, so that when the day comes that I need a reference, Rob, or Ken, or whomever. I want them to be able to say, “yeah, when he left, he hung around to help out when he didn’t have to” and not “yeah, he gave notice at the worst time of the month and left the company without doing any turnover.”