There has been so much activity in my little world over the past month. One need only feel my neck and shoulders to realize effect.  And the resulting prodromal stage of a migraine was just another sign.

Although I somehow managed to kick the headache before it took hold of me, I wasn’t able to shake the zombie-like feeling that followed. It was if I was hungover from too much social interaction.

With all that I’ve had going on — what, with BoBo’s visit, and YaYa’s baptism at the heart of it — truly it was a blessing that I opted to give up the time-sucking activities of FB and Twitter during the Lenten season. My return to each has been one of distance.  Although Lent has ended, my stressors remain. It doesn’t help to be in taper mode as running helps me to manage my stress.

At work, I have a new boss to adjust to.  I hope this will actually be a good thing.  More importantly, the main event for my project  is rapidly approaching.  Things appear to finally be falling into place and I am crossing my fingers that no other hurdles put the project on delay.

As luck would have it, the kick-off meeting for this project is set to occur in Nebraska just days before my marathon. Different from the December meeting (that occurred the same weekend as my last marathon), my role at the upcoming meeting will require me to access my presenting skills. Which, of course, stresses me out even more. *deep breath*

Tonight, as I begin to test out slides which have been modified by others then set in stone, I find that the flow is beyond awkward and that I basically SUCK at my presentation.  Even YaYa couldn’t resist adding yawns and commentary.

And I am certain that running 26.2 miles on the challenging BSIM course will likely be one of the easier and more enjoyable things I do in the coming weeks.

Our CMO is in the office every other week.  This means that energy is running high every other week.  The man has a way about him that is motivating, which is good because we have a lot of tough corporate goals to meet.  My project in particular tops the list.  No pressure here.

My project isn’t the only project however.  We’ve got a lot going on and the corporate eyes are watching us closely to see how well we can execute or, as in the case of our biggest project, how well we can get our vendors to execute.

As we prepare to start new projects, more vendors are brought in-house to do their song and dance.  Promising us the moon and stars, our team picks their brain to see how well they know their stuff.  Because, lets face it, it isn’t about what they say they can do, it’s all about what they actually do.  If we fail, heads will roll — OUR heads will roll.

So our CMO explains our objectives and fires off the questions like a pitching machine.  His delivery is non-threatening and entertaining.  And I sift through his fun little phrases, like “cows and sows,” trying to glean understanding on which ones are merely his unique way of discussing our “super double secret” projects and which are industry terminology that I should become accustomed to.

In our meetings, ten minutes becomes twenty and 1 hour quickly becomes 2 hours.  The rule is that “nobody is excused unless they have a note from Epstein’s mother” because there is no place more important.  When all is said, it’s time to get it done. We return to our desks and do our best to make it happen.