Last week I dedicated most of my life to things besides myself. It was new job during the day and Music Week during the nights while trying to squeeze in a bit of Munchkin and Wifey, topped off with sleep.
That's about it.
Just kidding.
Music Week
Music Week ended up taking quite a bit of time. Monday was tech rehearsal. It was arduously slow, and we didn't even get through the whole show. I was worried. None of the sets had been spiked, and none of the lights had been set. But we were on stage, and that was fun (for the meager bit I got to be on stage that evening).
Tuesday night was more of the same. We finished up spiking everything, as well as actually made it through the show. It helped that we had the orchestra there that night. The director couldn't wait on things because she had a bunch more people who were sitting around if she didn't have her act together (which happened more often than not).
Wednesday night rolled around and the show went on. It was kind of like a dress rehearsal, but with an audience. All in all, it ended up pretty well.
And after that the shows just kept on getting better. I was pleasantly surprised that I nailed my part every night (with very slight glitches). I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to hit a G in full voice and hold it out while the others did their thing. If you are a tenor, you understand my nervousness at a G. It is my cracking point, generally. But I am pleased to announce that I never cracked, and I never ran out of breath. HOORAY!
I was very glad when the Saturday night show was done. After doing two shows that day, and having a week away from the family, I was ready to be done with Music Week. Yes, it was fun. But also yes, it was a time waste.
The biggest disappointment came Saturday night. I was walking backstage to go remove my costume and happened to run into the director who was carrying some props to load while the show was wrapping up. She was walking with someone else carrying props and having a great time laughing, so I thought that she might go as far as to thank me for coming and being part of the show.
I was wrong. When I looked at her (with a pleasant smile on my face), she quickly stopped laughing and averted her eyes. But it fit the norm of having her not talk to us. I think I scared her a bit (although I don't understand why). Maybe she was just used to pushing around the teenagers (who were a majority of the cast), or maybe she was hypnotized once and told that if she ever saw me that she was to cower in fear because I hide my pitchfork and horns well with my magical spells.
But I doubt I'll ever know. It is hard to find something out like that when someone won't talk to you.
New Job
New job was pretty stressful last week as well. My trainer had left, and I was on my own. The rest of my team had more work flowing in than they could keep up with for about the tenth week in a row. It was very busy for them, and those things are more pressing than my training at this point, so my supervisor (who is my backup trainer) was not to be found very much because he was busy putting out fires.
As the week went on, I found that I started getting a hold of things. I'm not anywhere near being perfect, but I started to know my way around some of the ten network drives where we keep various things. It was stressful, but only because I didn't have someone there to guide me when I thought I needed it. I felt pretty good by the end of the week that I was catching on quickly. I was able to take care of one major release, and got the documentation done today for tomorrow's release. I'm making it by the skin of my teeth, but I'm making it.
It would also help if people held to the times that they offered. I had a project manager tell me that I would have all the information for this week's release by last Friday. Starting this Monday, I had seven additional documents to create or edit. I have been stressed about it, but I am getting a hang of it as well.
I felt good because when I did have the opportunity to get help from my boss once he said, "You mean you haven't learned everything in a week that [previous tech writer] learned in a year?" It helped me put things into perspective and know that I was getting stuff done that I needed to get done, and that he didn't think I was as big of a failure as I thought I was.
And with that, I will write more frequently. I'm starting to adjust to the new schedules (including fighting traffic and waking up earlier), and I think I'll probably survive. In the mean time, I'll do what I can to pop in here semi-regularly.
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