My throat is still bothering me, but I feel so much better I could almost cry:

I spoke to my boss and HR about the problem I have with the courses I’m taking, and they agree – it’s not worth my time or the company’s time if it isn’t a good fit. They’ll also let me take other courses instead, so hellooooo Technical Writing Certificate! This is such a huge relief to me – I was really afraid that they would insist I finish the program, but for all the worrying I did it was almost a non-issue: I told my boss the struggles I had last week with making the information fit for my job, and he totally understood. I can withdraw from the remainder of the program (after I finish 3102; might as well get the credit) and look into other classes instead. YAY!

Thing the second: last week I was distraught to learn that my People had submitted his resignation.  A whole barrel of personal issues had come up for him, and the end result was his needing to find a job that would allow him to work at night so he could watch his kids during the day. This was upsetting to me, because my People is a really good guy and I didn’t want him to go anywhere (or have to train yet another replacement – the 4th in a year). I did some really quick thinking, and devised a plan that would allow him to wrangle the routers in the afternoon and evening while the temp did his daytime duties. This would allow him to keep his job, our project to continue smoothly (even smoothlier, actually – he’d have time in the evening to do some serious QA), give us the leisure of finding an excellent daytime replacement, and overlap the shifts for training. My boss liked the idea, HR liked the idea, and my People was ecstatic. I gone done did a Good Thing, and that gives me a big happy!

Well, I’m getting sick. I felt the telltale tickle in my throat last night, and valiantly tried to sleep with ravaged sinuses and a pounding headache. I felt better this morning, but my germ-enhanced ride to work did little to combat the evil gathering in the delicate tissues of my breathing tubes. I don’t have time to be sick – in addition to 5 assignments for 3101, three presentations and accompanying lesson plans for 3102, my regular work schedule and a myriad of household duties, Ed is leaving for a whirlwind trip to Alberta this week. I know things could be a lot worse, but I really hate having to soldier through an illness – I don’t WANT to be a trooper, I just want to sleep.

I’m attempting to keep an ongoing log detailing the Ways the 2010 Olympics Have Interfered with My Life, but so far it’s an empty list. I can’t imagine it’ll stay this way for long – this morning was our first sample of Olympic-style traffic, and it was pretty horrific. It wasn’t the Olympics fault though; last night’s wind storm did a number on the city and bridges were affected by trees and accidents. It WAS my first experience with busses being so full they won’t pick up passengers – not really a big deal, except we’re the first stop immediately after the depot. When we finally got on a bus, we played a smell round of CRAM! and suffered untold indignities on the steamy ride into town. Naturally, now that we’re safe and dry indoors, the sun has come out. This is going to be a hell of a couple of months.

I need to go to the drug store for drugs. I need to talk to my boss about how much school is a pile of suck. I want to do neither of these things.

Being back in the office is so much better than being in class. Tomorrow we get hot dogs! Hot dogs to help ORPHANS!