Fore!

I made the mistake this morning of asking Dog if he wanted to go for a run.

I woke up at five, a consequence of waking up that early all week to head into work before anyone else so I can actually get some work done, threw on a sports bra and some shorts, threw some food at the animals, and went out to the garage to search through my car for the running shoes I haven’t seen since I had to wear them for a last minute trip to the Par 3 – a month ago.

By the time I stepped back into the kitchen to put on my socks and shoes and wonder why my running shoes smelled faintly like stale Bud Light Lime and lawn, Dog and Dog’s Cat had eaten their kibble, and Dog was looking at me with that expectant look in his eyes.

“Do you want to go for a run?” I whispered to Dog.

He started barking. Loudly.

“I guess you do,” I laughed and let him pull me out the front door before he woke up the whole house. Then, I told him, “You know, no one likes a big barker, Baby.”

Dog just looked back at me, and, I swear to you, he smiled.


Work. Something is so totally wrong when that’s all you do. All you want to do. I leave home at six-thirty in the morning and get home at seven o'clock in the evening and once everyone is settled and fed, I think to myself, “I can go back right now and get more done.”

I haven’t gone to Bikram all week. I had to MAKE myself go to the barn this week. There was a Pilates class I wanted to take. Work won.

I'm completely reorganizing the way my department does business. This is how that conversation with my team went, “We’re going to conduct business completely differently than we have for the past eight years. The transition is going to be painful, and I need everyone to work longer hours for a couple of weeks and come clean with every project you haven’t gotten finished or even started for the past six months. You have my word that it won’t reflect in your reviews.”

I’m big on transparency, so as my reward for my non-retribution policy, I got to see firsthand what everyone has been hiding in their file drawers. Hence my long, LONG workweek. I really do believe this “work smarter, not harder” plan will work, though, and, yeah, I’m heading back into the office today.

I’m just thinking that with all this work that wasn’t getting done before, we should all have had more time to make it out to the Par 3.