It’s technically Saturday but I didn’t write about Thursday, so I’ll write about Friday in a few hours and focus now on Thursday. The two-days-in-one thing I’ve done here once or twice isn’t good for looking easily back sometime in the future, something I do on ocassion to mark the passing of days.
I went from the laundry to the beach and jumped in a lot earlier than usual, while the water could still be called dark. I just didn’t want to be in the water as more and more people got in, plus I wanted an early start on the work day.
I had a pretty good swim. Lately, I’ve begun with a pretty hard sprint, something I usually warm up to, and it’s good. Gets the blood going a lot faster and I’ve been able to go slightly longer at a sprint’s pace each time. I swear, when I become filthy stinking rich from being a writer in a non-profit organization, I’m going to buy one of those condos right at Ala Moana Center so I can just walk across the street and jump in the water each morning or perhaps each evening. What a cool life that would be.
People who live in those condos have access to a golf cart expressly for driving to the supermarket on the ground floor of the parking structure, where I think there is a reserved stall. So convenient and so cool.
(interjection from early Saturday morning: I’m giving the new Taylor Swift album a first spin and it’s freaking dang amazing)
I stopped at one of the breakfast spots in the hood for breakfast takeout. Had a veggie omelette (a different one from the ones I had recently) and cinnamon French toast. It was supposed to be breakfast and lunch, but it was barely enough for breakfast. I’m always hungry when I get out of the water, but Thursday I was a plague of locusts. I’m not kidding — I ate like I had a date with the electric chair in the wee hours of Friday.
I had my annual performance review Thursday, this year by phone. My supervisor is great, and I already had a copy of her assessment, so there was nothing to fear. Yet I still dread these things. It’s the formality, something generally set aside in daily interactions at work. If I have a problem with my job, or if I’m confused about something I’ve done or something someone else has done, I’ll just walk ten feet to my supervisor’s desk and ask her about it.
In these performance reviews, though, there’s is always the question, “Do you have any questions about your work or about this assessment I can answer?” If I had questions I’d already have asked them. But no, no questions. “Then please sign this document and return it to me so I can submit it to HR.” What the heck. It’s all so icky.
I stopped complaining about it last year, though, because it doesn’t make anyone’s job easier, and this year, dang it, I’m just happy to be employed. Let’s have these meetings every week. I’ll even wear a jacket and tie.
I had a phone interview with the subject of one of my stories. She wanted to make a few corrections, all of which are pretty easy. We followed up with a few emails. I had a Zoom call at 2:00, during which we talked a bit about how we’re filling in for the person from our department who was excised on Bloody Wednesday. Depressing but at least productive.
Lunch was cold pizza. More of it than I should have had.
There’s a hurricane on its way. The cone of uncertainty has it headed right for the entire island chain, ‘though forecasts have it weaking to a category 1 storm by the time it hits the Big Island and further weakening to a tropical storm by the time it hits Oahu. Here’s hoping it swerves north or something before it even gets here.
Although I’m well stocked for a hurricane and its aftermath, I needed the regular two-week pantry restocking and could use a few batteries and flashlights, so I headed for the supermarket half an hour before closing.
It wasn’t as stressful as it was last time. Only a few other customers, and just about everything I wanted was in stock. Picked up a lot of veggies and even some fruit, and putting everything away when I got home wasn’t as horrible as usual.
On the way home I hit the McD’s drive-through again! I don’t know why, except plague of locusts, really. I’d finished a Big Mac combo for dinner at about 4:30 that morning; now it was 11:15 in the evening the same day and I was back for another Big Mac combo for dinner again, not twenty hours later.
It was so good.
I went to bed at 2:00 in the morning, thinking I could get seven good hours of sleep before work, so I could have a super productive Friday. Didn’t work out that way, but I’ll hit that the next time I sit down to write about Friday.
I considered a walk before my visit to the supermarket but that didn’t happen, I guess because I was still pretty tired from the swim.
Thursday messaging: sent AJ a good-luck text about her job interview. She’s trying for an internal management position. Sylvia and I traded just a couple of texts: she said she woke up thinking it was Friday, and I said, “Bummer!” Sharon and I talked a little about work stuff — we’re still processing Bloody Wednesday together. We also talked a little about Korean fried chicken and some stuff about AOC.
Crush Girl sent me a text about a few things on Netflix, and a movie I recommended which she actually saw.
That was it. Somehow a good, busy day but not exhausting or especially memorable. And here’s your daily reminder to reach out if you’re in need of contact. I’m a spotty texter but I’ll do my best.