Monday, February 18, 2008

Monday Madness

In which Wenderina begins her day by arriving at 7:32AM (according to her watch)in the breakfast room and finds 18 men looking at the door and her boss pacing and texting her to see why she is late for the 7:30AM meeting.

In which Wenderina exclaims to the group at the round the table introductions that she is the "only female in the room, in case they haven't noticed".

In which Wenderina recovers and makes several insightful comments about marketing and communications strategies and the value of targeted branding and is pleased to see a lot of head nodding around the white males at the table. (And thanks her stars that she didn't make a comment about race and cultural diversity as well as gender).

In which Wenderina is asked to take notes from the flip chart even though there is an electronic white board in the room which can print out all notes (sigh).

In which Wenderina gives a kickass presentation and facilitates an energetic discussion on branding that yielded 20 actions items....ALL. FOR. HER.

In which Wenderina asks what she thinks is innocuous question of colleague which leads to an assignment she must complete before getting on her plane home on Friday.

In which Wenderina listens in awe to a colleague explain to her that he is not eating from the bread basket because he doesn't need the calories. Stunned into silence, Wenderina recalls watching colleague fill his plate 3 times at lunch buffet, drink 3 glasses of wine and eat massive amounts of appetizers at the cocktail mixer, and then eat a porterhouse steak and mashed potatoes, drink 4 more glasses of wine, and conclude with a chocolate mousse and cappuccino.

In which Wenderina finds herself in her hotel room at 11:00PM blogging when she should be completing her presentation for tomorrow and transcribing the 14 pages of notes she took today since no one used the electronic white board. (bigger sigh)

Hoping Tuesday is a little more sane.

11 comments:

Boogaloo Dude said...

I was going to suggest that mayhaps he was on Atkins until I read about the mashed potatoes.

You're blogging faster than I can read.

Stephanie said...

I'm only slightly less jealous now. I mean really, don't you need some obnoxiousness to make up for the fact that the rest of us are stuck in non-paradise? :)

Hope Tuesday IS much saner than today.

Remind me sometime to tell you about my little experience in Boston with a colleague we called "Lumpy". He was the poster boy for "needs diversity training."

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

We are lucky you are shoehorning blogging into your schedule--thanks for sharing Australia with us!

KiKi said...

Here's the solution to your dilemma: stop being so awesome. Dumb down your presentations and you'll stop getting assignments. Voila! Problem solved.

Yeah, right. As if YOU could dumb anything down. Sorry, you just rock - so suck it up.

And if you need me to take something on, I'm here. (Wait, did I just write that? DELETE! DELETE!!!)

Wenderina said...

Wanda: I don't think Atkins works with all those alcoholic carbs and the chocolate mousse either! If it did - I could actually do it.

Jenn/Wanda: And as for blogging activity...lonely hotel rooms will do that.

Stephanie: Oh please do tell - in fact blog/post it for all to see. You (not us) need a break from ED stories.

Kiki: Flattery and volunteering will get you lots of work. Actually I do have a couple of things....

Claudia said...

You are going to hate me because I am a retired. I retired from teaching school and we had white boards, but not electronic ones--how do those work?

Claudia said...

Oops--obviously retired as I really messed up that first sentence. sorry, I bet you know what I meant.

Anonymous said...

You remind me a lot of a 3rd line manager that I supported a few years ago! She was just as overbooked and over actions-itemed as you seem to be. I never understood how she kept it together for one day, let alone for months and months. She is finally enjoying a well deserved retirement and teaching business at the university. What an awesome lady!! (both of you) :)

Jo said...

Gosh, that sounds like my kinda diet. Is he losing weight on it?

I am catching up on reading blogs lately, and I see you're in Australia. Well, that's one way to escape winter.

Good for Wenderina! :-)

Ian Lidster said...

I hope Tuesday will be more sane for you, too. But,, I'm ejoying following your events Down Under.
On the other hand, it seems that you are working too hard. Hmm.

dkuroiwa said...

I'm doing some catching up on reading and am loving your tales of Australia! I have old students and older friends who are in Brisbane and other parts "down under"...am living vicariously through your blog...except all that work stuff...I'm just loving the "fun"!!! Drink more wine!!!
debbie