"It Tears at the Very Fabric of Our Existence..."

After my sleep deprived Saturday cheering on the manly-man, I pulled an all-nighter on Sunday to finish my latest Computer Science class. I completed and turned in all three assignments in about two weeks. I considered getting an extension, but then, who wants to do something like that when you can pull it off in the necessary time? It included a lot of information I already know, like understanding kernels and semaphores and race condition, so it was just a matter of plug and chug, but then there was this multidimensional array programming assignment.

Let me just say that over the past five days I have averaged 3-4 hours of sleep a night. Today was a major meeting day. I have most of my chairs selected and am offloading responsibilities to them. They are amazing, every one. My treasurer is, well, very busy, so he wasn't my first choice, but my first choice was just made the director over finance so he is taking a lesser role working as a co-chair. Ah, but my luncheons and banquets and local arrangements chairs? Glory be. I just let them run. The Expo Hall/Vendors chair is the same way! The Public Relations chairs... same. A/V chairs - awesome. Oh, and the website chair? And the program chairs, especially one of them is doing glorious things with the program and his committee. I could go on and on.

I had them all together today for a meeting. My brain wasn't working very well due to sleep deprivation, and fortunately I am capable of running a productive meeting with little effort. We met virtually since we are scattered all over, so I ran the meeting from my desk. Each time I needed to speak I squeezed my eyes shut to focus and keep things going, otherwise I would drift.

After getting updates from everyone, I filled them in on some of our critical path items. We finally have locked down a registration system that meets our needs, so I shared the prototype to the chairs today, asked them all for plans and timelines by next Wednesday, and showed them the mock-ups for the website. The Website Chair and his committee far exceeded my expectations. The logo impressions sheets came through today. I told them they need to go visit a Japanese Garden and examine some of the structures there to get the right idea since they didn't quite capture it in their array of options.

 I still am trying to get a 2012 succession chair in place, so I invited him to attend as a shadow. His director needs to approve the shift in responsibilities, so I will know next week if I have him. They need to get started right away with the planning, and shadow our short-term 2011 team to make 2012 come off even better. Then we had the executive team meeting, which I also managed to pull off without much drift. We all left the meeting with deliverables to meet a critical Friday deadline. We are moving forward, but this is only four months away. Tomorrow we have a marketing relations day with Beyond, so my critical conference items will have to take place subtly while attending meetings and trying to remain engaged, including a business lunch and the need to look our very best.

I left early today, having worked until 10:30 PM one night this week to meet a deadline. As I left the building, I heard the words, "It Tears at the Very Fabric of Our Existence..." I looked back to see an employee of the downstairs call center, middle-aged with shoulder-length curly hair and a full beard treatment to go with it, speaking on his cell phone. Intriguing, I thought. I wish I knew what it is that tears at the very fabric of our existence. Perhaps the deteriorating ozone? What could it be? Your thoughts count here. What was the mystery topic of this man's conversation? Please feel free to comment below: