Day 318 of 365

My daughter uses words to describe herself like, I was a good girl and I worked hard today.

Both are true about her. She is a good girl. She likes to take care of people. She works very hard at her job. She calls her mom every single day (sometimes several times a day).

Both yesterday and today were several phone call days.  Even though she calls bunches, I still look forward to her calls. She calls me every day on her walk to work, calls me during her dinner break, and sometimes calls me after work. I hear about work, how things are coming along in her new apartment, what she's having for dinner, what she's frustrated with her boyfriend about.

Every time, at every call, I tell her the same thing before I get off the phone. I love you. Be a good girl. Stay out of trouble. Work hard. Wear your seat belt. I'm at the point where I feel like if I don't say those things, I'll jinx something.

Lately before she gets off the phone, she's been giving me a list of things she wants me to bring her way. Every day there is something else she wants added to the list. The list is growing quite long. The kitchen stuff she got for Christmas. A clock. Her full length mirror. Garbage can. A family picture. Dish soap. Cleaning supplies. Grocery sack holder.

While I haven't gathered all the other items up yet, I did get her grocery sack holder made. She chose the fabric from several options I sent her on the cell phone. Plain for my tastes, but just what the good, hardworking, seat belt wearing girl ordered.

Day 317 of 365

Compartmentalize.  

Merriam-Webster defines compartmentalize as to separate into isolated compartments or categories. Example: He compartmentalizes his life by keeping his job and his personal life separate.

Yeah, sure.

When I took this job, I thought I could compartmentalize things. When I was at work I'd think about work. When I was home I'd think about home. It hasn't happened yet.

When I'm at work, I think about work. But when I'm at home, I think about work. It's not like I'm not trying to keep my mind off of work - it's that it just isn't happening. A work-issued Blackberry doesn't help things, either. Seeing that phone with unread e-mails - e-mails addressed to me, e-mails that expect answers - makes me want to read them so I can get caught up. If I don't spend my days off reading and responding (and taking the time to find the information requested in the e-mails), when I get back to work I do nothing but catch up on e-mails. And I don't have that time in my work days for that - I have work to do.

Here's the lesson I'm learning about working part-time. ( I suspect part-time hourly wage folks don't have this issue, but I don't know for sure.) Here's what I do know - when someone is a salaried, yet part-time employee, it becomes difficult to determine what kinds of extras that salaried person is required to do on their days off. As a full-time salaried employee, it's a given that after-work hours can/should be spent on work-related activities. As a part-time salaried employee, it's also a given that after-work hours can/should be spent on work-related activities. But how many hours are enough? And how many are too much?

How many hours are too much? It's too much when I'm spending 2-3 hours on every single day I have off working on "work" things. I went into today thinking I wouldn't again get bogged down in work on a day off, but for the umpteenth time it did. Work came first, home came last. The time I had planned to work on the Disaster Auction quilt didn't happen. Sewing a grocery sack holder for my daughter didn't happen. Making a new coupon envelope for myself didn't happen. Work happened. And I've had enough.

I did squeeze out a few minutes to plant my amaryllis from yesterday's Target trip. Looks like it had been doing some growing while on the store's shelf.