The Blog With No Name

My boss is going on a sabbatical for three months (May-July). She will clean her office, drop the keys in the mail slot, cancel her cell phone, and vanish into the night – no contact at all. This is a good thing for her, as she has no work-life boundaries and is worn out after eight years at this church. The way things seem to be going, though, I have to wonder whether this is going to make any difference for the congregation. I had been assuming that this was part of the grand plan of moving from a small “pastor-centered” congregational model as membership increased to more of a program-centered model; the pastor would be gone, so the council/officers/committees would have to step up and be more involved (my own church, the same denomination, and with only a slightly larger congregation, has very active committees). But alas, it seems that we are to hire a manager to sit around on weekdays just in case something comes up, in addition to having a spare pastor on hand to deal with worship on Sundays.

A complicating factor is that my work church is to be the beneficiary of a very generous gift over the next ten years which will allow it to really dig into some interesting outreach and growth activities. This “manager” person might also lead the congregation in some of the beginning discussions over what to do with this gift. That’s great, it’s a big gift and will need a lot of discussion and planning to figure out the best use, but again I ask – why isn’t the congregation leading this discussion? Where is the council president? Where is the evangelism committee? Where is the finance committee? Why does someone have to come in from outside to manage things? And when I say “manage,” I mean “stage-manage,” I think.

It all boils down to – my boss perceives that she has to “do everything.” Nothing of substance is left for anyone else to do, so they all wander away to do something else, and then my boss has to do everything. Resentfully. Is this the definition of a vicious circle, or what. The thing I can’t decide – is it deliberate, or is she truly oblivious to this effect.

(This goes along with a conclusion I had reached some time ago about my boss and one of my co-workers – I think they both equate being busy with being important.)

I’m going to get a copy of Getting Things Done for my boss as a sabbatical gift. I think she could rule the world if she could put that system into practice.

the kiddies breeze through multiplication flash cards, until they get to this one. My daughter’s 4th-grade teacher couldn’t remember it either. What is it about 8×7?

The Daughter is at her New Best Friend’s house, again. I expect adoption papers in the mail any day.

I started to clean my office at work (translation: all the shit that people dump in there? I’m getting rid of it, usually by putting it in their offices). I fully expect serious flak for this on Monday.

I’ve just heard that our mortgage company (Countrywide) is being acquired. This makes me nervous.

I get to spend tomorrow at an IMAX movie, then at a snow-tubing party. Charles gets to spend the night at a Cub Scout lockin. Guess who is going to feel better on Sunday?

(This is where I smile) I’m signed up for another calligraphy class, taught by THE GUY in this area. I am absurdly pleased by this, given that the last time (which was the first time too) that I took a class I did exactly NO follow-up practice. Sure did manage to buy lots of books/pens/other toys, though. Now that I have a nice area in the basement, complete with a tilted table and so on, maybe I can be better about practicing.  We Shall See.

I got screwed at work. I let it happen, I freely admit that. We have a committee working on getting my boss out of here for a sabbatical this year. The head of the committee called me yesterday, late morning, saying that they had a letter that had to go out that day. Like, within an hour of my leaving work. Right. I explained that such was not possible, and then allowed myself into being talked into doing it today. My fondest hope is that he won’t get me the letter until late morning, which is when I need to leave for a luncheon that I’ve organized. Then get the boy from school (first day back, yay!), and so on and so on. One day’s notice is Not Acceptable.

…or visitations, I tend to go to those more often. My dad had three cousins*, all of whom are dead. Within the past three weeks, two of their widows have died. My husband’s great-aunt has also died; he’s going to the funeral tomorrow. It’s getting a little, um, creepy.

(*he actually had 15 cousins; this was just one sibling cluster in particular)

This afternoon, in between loads of laundry (I Hate Laundry), Charles and I watched “Stranger than Fiction,” featuring, among others, Emma Thompson. She is so completely awesome. Love love love her voice, and I understand from imdb.com that she didn’t (gasp!) wear any makeup in this movie. Or at least not much. Go Emma!

Yesterday evening we saw “Juno,” which was hilarious, but a tiny little voice in the back of my head kept up a litany of “this could be My Daughter in five years!” which made me feel sick to my stomach by the end. Just a little.