Tuesdays Are Tough

A long time ago when I was a teenager I had a class where our final grade was to write an argument of sorts. This argument would have to be then explained to the class in a presentation. You could choose whatever you wanted. The only requirement was that your evidence and your writing be convincing enough that the class agreed with your point. I am not sure how but I decided to argue about the days of the week. In the end I ranked the days or at least explained the best day of the week, the worst, and how the others generally felt.

The general principle behind my decision for best day of the week holds for many things and situations. It has to do with anticipation being almost always greater than the result. More importantly, I explained why Tuesday is in fact the worst day of the week. I won't bore you with my argument here, but I use this as my preface to present day. At work, Tuesdays are lab meeting days. These means everyone (or at least 14 of the 18 students) are in the office that day. It means overcrowding, it means prepping for and presenting at the meeting, it means listening to everyone, taking notes, and then drafting the notes and sending them to everyone. It is also that time when I am supposed to tell everyone the progress on everything over the past week. It will disipate a bit as things progress but right now, the all eyes on you - tell us everything is done and going smoothly - bit is stressful. Combine that with lab meetings always ending with me somehow gaining 10-15 new tasks and there is my Tuesday mornings.

I love my job and I am more than pleased with my co-workers. That is not to say that certain days can be overwhelming. Tuesday, if there weren't enough holding it back already, is the day where these meetings fall. Today was an exceptional Tuesday and it must have shown because my undergrads told me at the end of the day that they better see me tomorrow and they were concerned for me because I just looked a combination of lost and worried. There is a big project I have been coordinating for a few weeks that is due into our review board by July 1st. We found out today that there is another major part that we need everyone involved (including past researchers who are still being credited) to complete and get to me. With only 48 hours the dread of not only asking them to do this, but have it back to me in time definitely was all over my face.

Things will work out, I hope. And if not, we'll figure something else out. On the bright side - three day weekend coming up! I am anxiously anticipating my return to the Big Apple.