Going up?

Have you ever felt as if all of the pieces of your life were starting to fall into place only to have it implode? When it comes to work, I thought that things were getting better and I had seen the worst of it. My boss resigned, the acquisition is still waiting for the final OK, and one of my staff members resigned. That I could deal with. My RVP is working on a replacement for my boss, I have no control over the FCC, and I found a wonderful replacement for my department that will start in March and corporate is sending me some help for the interim. Today, the other person on my staff resigned. Yup. It will be a department of one for 2 ½ weeks. I have posted the job and hope to fill it soon, but I have to wonder: is this stressful life as a controller really for me? I understand that this is the path that I've chosen and worked hard to traverse. But is it what I am supposed to be doing? While I enjoy the people I work with and the whole radio environment, I have to ask myself if it is supposed to be this hard. It is emotionally and sometime physically exhausting. I thought that Memphis, being a small market and only having 3 radio stations, would be a good place to cut my teeth as a controller. Now I see that it has been a trial by fire. My first GM left a month after I started, we doubled in size and tripled in work, we did two traffic conversions in four months (one of which was during a format flip), then my second GM and my entire accounting staff resigned within weeks of each other. All I can do is pray for my sanity and hope for no more surprises. It's not in my nature to break but sometimes I just want to give up. On the plus side, my solo Sabbath School teaching went well this week. We studied Enoch, his walk with God, and how we can use Jesus's walk with God as a guide for us. Next week: The Flood.

Nothing New

This week has been trudging along at a rather slow pace. I seems unbelievable that I only worked four days this week. Monday's holiday seems so far gone. While laying in bed after one of this week's several sleep-lacking nights (please pray that this does not become the norm), I heard a story on K-LOVE about the state of single women in America. I thought it interesting. I then heard a story on NPR relating to the same story. It seems that for the first time, the number of women living without spouses out weighs those who are. On a slightly related note, you may remember that I wrote a letter to the editor of the Adventist Review a few month ago commenting on the published excerpts of a young single woman's blog. It appears that my letter has not been chosen for publication. I have been looking at the "Letters" section in each of the Reviews I get, but no dice. As of the most recent issue--January 18, 2007--they are on to publishing letters pertaining to more recent issues of the magazine. I am disappointed not only because my letter was not selected, but no letters were printed that focused on the topic. Maybe I'm the only one to take issue with the idea of making a search for a husband the sole purpose in one's life.

Live to Work?

I thought you might like a little update on how my week ended up. Monday was the longest day of my life. I left work at 6 PM and went to bed around 10:30 PM. That I meant was that I was at work for 22.75 hours (taking into account the fact that I left at 5 AM Monday to shower and feed O'Malley, but was back by 6:45 AM) and awake for 29.5 hours straight and only having slept for 2 out of 36 hours. Needless to say, my mind has been on overload and Wednesday night was the first good night's sleep I've had in ages. Thankfully we get MLK day off this year and I get to spend it chillin' at home. My bedroom is begging to be made beautiful again. Other than that, I planning on doing some reading, DVD watching, and maybe even going to the movies solo. I am trying to work on getting more comfortable with going to places like restaurants and theaters alone.

Late Nights

The last few nights I've been having trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep. Friday nite I saw my clock flash 2:59 AM before I fell asleep. I'd been trying to go to sleep since 11 PM. Then Saturday night I took a Unisom, but still had issues and kept waking up in an extremely anxious state. It was one of those "I should be asleep, I have to be asleep, I can't be awake." moments. And that leaves Sunday night. It is 4:19 AM and I am not sleeping. I am at WORK and wide awake! I came in at 6 PM to put in a couple of hours and wrap up my month end close. Come to find out that the two people who were supposed to finish commissions, did not. Not only did they not finish, they totally frakked it up. All alone this evening, I had to dump everything and redo them. It took my until 2:15 AM to get it back to good. (This is the second time this week I've had to drop what I'm doing, dump the contents of a spreadsheet and rebuild it for these same staff members.) Yes, commissions is a full day task. So I finally started in on my stuff at 2:30-ish and in two hours have gotten a lot done. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get as in-depth as I wanted to and won't have the cleanest balance sheet at year end. I'm at my wit's end.

New Year, New You?

I joined the ranks of those in 2007 and purchased my calendars today. Historically I don't have much luck with official resolutions although I do tend to keep on track with certain things. I don't know if it is a resolution, but each year since I've been working I've increased the percentage of each check that goes for church offerings (on top of tithing). Last year I increased offerings from 2% (of my gross salary) to 5% but also considered my monthly Air1.com and K-LOVE pledges as part of that 5%. I'm still trying to figure out if I should keep the same system and just increase from 5% to 7% (the ultimate goal is to work my way up to 10%--or a double tithe) or do a true 5% without the pledges. I'll spend some time thinking on this before I have to decide with my Jan 15 paycheck. I know that a raise is coming in 2007, so I am not too worried about the extra expense. Besides, God has never left me hanging when I make giving back to the church a priority. Tithe & Offering is always the first check written each payday, so I know I won't over spend. Here are a few other things that I want to do in 2007 (not resolutions!). Do you have a list? -Travel to Washington State to visit my dear friends Rob & Sandi -Be more prepared when leading out in the Youth Sabbath School -Eat healthy: less taco bell, more subway :) -Improve my time management skills