Appreciation

So I just finished a big project that has sucked the life out of my summer lo these past 5 weeks. Why? Not because I've been working furiously from dawn til dusk, but because I agreed to take on something which involved a Learning Curve (read: I didn't know what I was doing). Mix that in with trying to be a mom to girls home for the summer, along with other normal work obligations, and you have sheer hell. I got stuck about 2.5 weeks ago on something (inner versus outer joins, if you must know) and had to grovel to my husband who had warned me about such things when I agreed to take on the project.

After realizing I was stuck, I lived with the pressure of getting past the issue while trekking to museums in D.C. and celebrating holidays with family and...well...doing laundry. Let me tell you - worrying about a problem and resolving it are two different issues, but rest assured they are both stressful. I sent bright and cheery status emails to my client, who could not have been more patient or kind, while weeping quietly over my Access for Dummies book late into the evenings with half an eye on Criminal Minds. Meanwhile JBL avoided getting sucked into the project a la the proverbial plague. There were times when I subtly began conversations with niceties only to ask a vague question about permissions and user accounts, and he simply up and walked away from me.

Finally after living with me miserable for days on end he relented, and in about 30 minutes of skimming the reference book and reviewing my handiwork, resolved my issue and set me loose to wrap things up. After a busy weekend, I spent yesterday morning finishing up what security I could impose on the database, and documenting the process for using it. Suddenly I was at the client's presenting, and then *poof* I was done. They were happy, and asked for some reports.

Thus last night I had the most relaxing evening in what seemed like forever. Nothing looming like a dark cloud, no Big Black Box out there waiting for me. I will not take the rest of the summer for granted!