Sprouting Wings

Today was a bit of an odd day. I woke this morning to my alarm, and in truth, I dreaded rolling out of bed. If I got out of bed, that meant that I would be heading to my last day of work for a while. I pushed my snooze button a few extra times, but ended up rolling out of bed and getting to work at a fairly respectable time. Knowing that the day could either be relaxing or emotionally draining, I rummaged through my sock drawer to find one of the last pairs of new socks from my Christmas present. I had recieved about 12 pairs, and I had a sneaking suspicion that one of those pairs still hadn't been worn. Never underestimate the power of a new pair of socks.

As I drove into work, I started thinking about the day. Is it going to be the last time I got to see those that I work with, or is it going to be the last time I see them for three months? The answer to this question could drastically change how today goes. So, as I pulled into the parking lot and clipped on my name badge, I felt no different than I had on Friday when I walked through the doors.

I got to work to find that my coworkers had (once again) made a little potluck. In my anxiousness, I forgot to pack a lunch, so the potluck satiated me nicely—homemade cheesecake, chocolate-coconut bars, and fresh chips and salsa. If you eat the cheesecake and chocolate-coconut bars at the same time, you get quite a yummy taste going.

I was also told that I would need to leave by noon because my supervisor needed to be elsewhere when I was planning on leaving. He told me that he would pay me for the rest of the day, but that I needed to leave.

This put my day completely out of whack. I started frantically trying to get everything taken care of. I had a few loose ends that I was planning on tying up today, and it ended up that I had five hours less to get them all done in. Not wanting to dump any of these tasks on my poor coworkers, I frantically started typing. I got to a point where I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish everything by 11:30. So I asked my coworkers to decide which of the two options are the lesser of two evils. They chose one, and I ran with it.

About 11:15, I was done with my task. The other task that was left could be taken care of piecemeal, so I started looking into the requests. By about 11:30, my supervisor started hovering around my desk. Thinking that he wanted to hurry me on my way and kick me out, I started to release the requests back to my coworkers. I told him that I was releasing these items, and he said, "Oh, no rush. I have a few things that I am going to wrap up over at my desk, and then I'll be back."

Then why were you hovering?!

I fired off another quick email, hoping to have it finished by the time he came back. Another success! Today has turned out to be pretty good. I get to go home early, get paid for a full day's work, completed a lot in the daily piecemeal work (although I didn't completely knock everything out of the park), and I could go home and surprise Wifey and have lunch with her (since I had forgotten mine).

I got up to get a quick drink, and realized that my supervisor was heading my way. He asked me to come chat with him in the other room just as one of the people that I work with was coming up to wish me well. I asked him to hold on, and that I would be back. I offered my suggestion of chocolate-coconut cheesecake bars, and trailed my supervisor out of the room.

He informed me that too many people on his staff had heard that he was going to pay me for an afternoon that I didn't work. So he was going to be returning around 4:30 to come collect my things. After laughing when I told him that I was planning to work until five, and working really hard to get everything done in the condensed time frame, I was staying all day after all.

And the kicker comes when he told me that he didn't want to get fired for giving me an afternoon of paid time. This man was telling me that he didn't want to lose his job as he was letting me go for a furlough.

So, I returned to my desk, accepted my well wishes from the waiting coworker (who didn't take my advice and ate only cheesecake), and picked back up everything that I had reluctantly released to my co-workers. Looks like the afternoon was not mine, and that it really was too good to be true.

With all that being said, I was reminded of something that I was thinking about as I lay in bed this morning. I got thinking about the persistent pain in my upper-middle back that comes from tight muscles whenever I get stressed. After knuckling it for a bit (as best you can in the middle of your back), I got to thinking about how I felt like I had gone through a rigorous workout the day before (which if you didn't know yet, I clearly didn't do with my gym track record). I got to thinking about what kinds of exercises would cause that type of pain. The only logical answer was flying.

I realized that, if I had wings, that would be where they would connect to my body (assuming that I wasn't more like Hermes with ankle wings). So instead of taking this furlough as a bad thing, I decided that I was going to take it as an opportunity to figure out some things in my life. Now is a good time to figure out what I want to pursue for a Master's degree. Now is a good time to write more. Now is a time to pursue my hobbies. Now is a time to hang out with Wifey and Munchkin. Now is a time to learn new tools to make me more valuable in the work place. Now is a time to get all the items off my honey-do list.


So instead of taking the time to feel sorry for myself, I figure that the pains in my back are there because I am sprouting wings. I Who knows where they will take me? I hope you will stick around for the journey.