#365Gratitude Day 121: Punching Out Early

My job is pretty flexible about time.  I don't have an exact time to be there first thing, and I can leave early if I want, as long as I make up the time later in the pay period.  That's an enormous benefit.   

Some days I'm filled with fire, and leave my house at what my brother calls "oh-dark-early" in the morning, so I can dig right in.

Other days I leave early because my brain says, "that's it, Mako, we're done here."  Friday was like that.  I just got sort of brain-full, and needed to come home.

I'm really grateful I get to do stuff like that.

#365Gratitude Day 119: In this together

On Tuesday I had a great day at work, recovering from a glitch I had made/caused myself.  I not only redid my work, but improved upon it, quite a bit.  Things were going swimmingly, right until the end of the day when I went to check in my stuff, and wound up blowing something up.

I wasn't quite sure how to fix it, so I left for the day, hoping to get assistance with the issue the next morning.  When I got in, my coworker had already fixed it altogether, even going so far as to include data I needed as he fixed it.

What a good guy!

So I spent all of yesterday moving even further ahead on my project.  Right up until the end of the day, when I realized I needed more/different requirements to be able to continue at all, and that I was going to need to meet with a different coworker to hash it out.

But that's okay.  Because this work is a team effort.  It's not all about me.  I can, and do lean on my fellow coworkers to get things done.  I trust them.

It feels good.

#365Gratitude Day 118: Mako "Two Plans" Allen

There's a famous Monty Python sketch about a composer, Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson.  

It's on my mind this morning after my day of mistakes yesterday.  It's not really related, in the same way as say, having a garden shed isn't related to being a composer. ​

I do have a point here though. ​

It's about having a plan. Yesterday I had a distinct plan for my day and this, the next day, that fell right through, because of some choices I made. ​

Sounds like a bad deal, right? There goes my well-crafted plan! Boo-hoo!​

This morning while re-evaluating my options, I made a new plan. Look, I have two plans! (Actually, from the time I began writing this, I actually threw that plan right out, and made yet another new one. But there's no Three Sheds sketch, so there you go.  You work with what you have.) 

Joking aside, that's right square where my gratitude hit me this morning. I have ownership. I'm responsible for me. 

That means I'm the ultimate maker of my own choices. (Even when those choices mean losing code, getting bad sleep, or maybe getting a good hard smack or three for misbehavior [in my mutually consensual d/s relationship].)

It also means that as plans for my day go, I'm like a veritable plan factory.  If a plan isn't working out I can scrap it and whip up a new one in nothing flat!  Then as soon as I have it, it's time to execute the plan!  (Even if the first step is to scrap the whole thing. Funny, that.)

It makes a sound in my head when I do that, in fact. It almost sounds like a symphony!

#365Gratitude Day 117: A Side of Don't Do That

Yesterday was filled with don'ts. First, I lost a bunch of code at work because of something I didn't realize about our version control system. 

Then after fasting and a doctor's appointment, I got to try Smashburger, a place I had never been to before. 

I know it looks good, but the food was heavy. Plus, I hadn't worked out that morning. Plus, I had a shake.  After I felt sleepy, slow, and just bad. 

Plus, I came home and stayed up way past my bedtime with Missy, playing Minecraft.  

I had trouble getting to sleep, and now I'm running late for my day.  I was a bit of a mess getting up this morning. 

Why would I be grateful for any of that? Because mistakes are how we learn. 

After my code mistake I began putting things back together, and committing each file as I did.  

Today I know that it's okay for me to have a moderate amount of junk food, but not a lot all at once.  I know my limits. 

I also know that as much as I had fun playing video games, I'm as much (actually more) my own grownup as Missy is, and when it was bedtime I should have spoken up, and got ready for bed.  

Learning is hard. But it's good.