Meg This is Life

Exhaustion

I am utterly exhausted.

I had a huge weekend at work - a big two-day outdoor concert event hosted by yours truly.  Unfortunately, a big storm rolled in on Saturday, moving the event inside for part of it. This meant setting-up & tearing-down on Saturday INSIDE, and then redoing the whole thing at the outdoor venue on Sunday. Fortunately, Sunday turned out so fabulous, that it was worth all the extra work and I finished out the weekend feeling quite successful.

There is something about event planning that uses every fiber of your brain and every muscle of your body. When you spend months  planning every detail, and then put in 25+ hours hosting the event (not to mention doing some major physical labor), your body & brains just turn to mush after its all completed. It takes a while for me to let down - I can’t go straight to bed when I go home - I have to unwind. And even after a terrific day off yesterday, I’m still unwinding. I even thought I was going to fall asleep during lunch today.

I promise to blog about something much more interesting this week, but right now, this is all my brain can come up with….except for one last thing: I have the best husband, who helped me all weekend long without one complaint. Its nice to feel so lucky.

Balancing Work & Life

If you are for a flexible work schedule, raise your hand! Mine’s up - and I’m sure yours is too. Like many motivated workers, a job is often something I can accomplish quickly if need be. And as a salary worker, my job was presented to me in that fashion: if you get the job done, than the rest of the time is yours. Of course, I do work for a public entity, so I need to hold some office hours and be available to citizens. I am, after all, a public servant. But after about 6 months of being on the job, I was told that my hours needed to be accounted for - I was to clock in and out each day. I must prove that I am on or around city property or doing city “things” for at least 40 hours each week. Its been two years since the rule was implemented, and I’m still not used to it. I’m a hard worker, when I need to be. Everything is always done with quality and on deadline. And when it comes to event planning, I might only work a few extra hours, but those hours are high stress, often emotionally and physically. Its not like I sit in the office doing numbing paperwork all day. I’m not really out to complain about my job. I make a decent salary and have great benefits. And, I definitely don’t do the same thing everyday. However, I think that there are a lot of workers out there that are much more motivated by the desire to produce a high quality product rather than THE CLOCK. The clock makes me cringe. I am constantly adding up my hours to make sure I’m at my desk often enough. I think about it all the time. For me, the clock is more stressful than the work itself.

NPR started a new series today about flexible working. Some employers are progressing to make work hours more flexible. Get your project done from home. Work in the evenings after the kids are in bed. Leave work in time to meet your kids school bus. Today, 50% of all jobs are held by women. That means that in most houses, both parents are working to make ends meet or to accomplish life goals. So, it makes perfect sense to bust out of the 1960’s ideal work day of 9-5. Those days are over. Its a new generation with the desire to live life to the fullest. Many of us desire to have it all. The story resonated with me. I don’t have kids, but I do have a youth group, a family that lives far from here and the desire to not have my whole life revolve around work. The story reports that people’s productivity is often up when they are allowed that freedom. Oh, freedom. Why not enjoy that freedom, and get your paycheck, too?

Mint.com

My bestie, Becca, blogged abut Mint.com the other day. Her and her husband are pretty financially savvy and great savers…so, I thought I’d look up the site and send it to Nik. And we fell in love. Yes, we fell in love with this incredible money managing tool. Yes…we are grown ups, or at least attempting to be here and there. First off, its free. Second, it helps you put all of your accounts in one place. The older you get, the more places you have money going to: mortgage, life insurance, IRA’s to name a few of the new financial areas that have entered my life since getting married. It is incredible how the site shows you exactly where your money is going and makes it really easy to stay on budget. We’ve always had a budget, but this site keeps you accountable to it. It was too good of a find to not pass along! So, whether you are married, single, in college, just starting out…you should check it out. Thanks, Bec!