And work said, "Let there be spreadsheets!"

So, for the past 6 months of my life I have lived spreadsheets. I have learned more about Excel than I ever thought I would, and have become rather proficient at looking up Excel formulas and formats to get it to do what I want it to do. The result of all these spreadsheets is that I'm still not sure of whether androids dream of electric sheep, but I do know that I dream of spreadsheets. I dream of formulas, and formats, and columns and rows of data. And I'd really like to stop doing so now, thank you!

work...

Burn out: Being burned out means feeling empty, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring. People experiencing burnout often don’t see any hope of positive change in their situations. If excessive stress is like drowning in responsibilities, burnout is being all dried up.

Today I realized how close I am to burning out about my job. This understanding came about when I decided it was no longer worth it to me to try and argue with my supervisor about ways to improve our department. Very soon, our department will be seem like only one person to anyone that speaks with us. all of our responses will be the same, regardless of who someone speaks with, and there will be no individuality shown by anyone. When that occurs, my boss will wonder why no one takes any pride in their job; why no one comes up with anything new anymore; why every idea sounds exactly the same. she may even be happy when that happens, though I doubt our students will be if everyone sounds like the same person just with a different name.

And still, I no longer care.

Rickets Glenn

So this past weekend, Hubby and I went to Rickets Glenn in the east-central part of the state to photograph the waterfalls, and I ended up being very proud of myself! The waterfalls trail is 3.5 miles (which is less than I've been walking), but it has a change in elevation of 400-500 ft, both ways. Hills are not my friends, at all. They set off my asthma and my shin splints, and they remind me that I'm not in the shape I used to be in, by any stretch of the imagination. (My nickname for myself while doing these types of hikes is typically "fatgirl", which helps keep me motivated.) But, I did it. I had to use my inhaler, and rest a few times, but I did the hike and survived it (at least until the next day when all of the aches hit me, reminding me that I'm also getting older.) So, I am very proud of myself still for getting myself back up one very long, very tall, hill! This change in elevation is after all equivalent to about 40-50 stories! Better still, today I'm able to walk normally again, no more pains in my knee, and the strain in my foot is healing :-) And, for my prize, I have photographs of about 20 waterfalls to go through :P