I worked from home today, since we here in my Delicate Southern Climate were hobbled beneath maybe, oh, an eighth of an inch of ice on the roads, and Lord knows that’s a Sure Sign that The End Draweth Nigh. To protect our sensitive Michelins from the elements, the entire city shut down. (Before you burst out in raucous laughter, we went through this on Friday, and it was a mess. We just aren’t equipped to deal with icy roads that may occur once every five years or so. The responsible call was to avoid travel.)
So, anyway, I’m sitting in my cozy little make-shift home office (a.k.a. my warm bed, with a coffee i.v. flowing) because of Houston Snow-pocalypse-The Sequel, and it dawns on me that a brilliant assistant is on the premises. Her name is Harley, but her nickname in the business community is Helen Waite (as in, “If you need anything from me, you’ll need to go through Helen Waite”).
As is her custom, she arrived late for work:
“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.” -Dave Barry
After I got Her Royal Highness a steaming cup of joe, she commenced to peruse the day’s tasks:
“I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” -Jerome K. Jerome
That proved to be exhausting, so she took a Union Break:
“I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.” -Charles Lamb
Thoroughly refreshed by her break and her third cup of coffee, she dug into her work:
“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Alas, that didn’t last long:
“Don’t mistake activity with achievement.” -John Wooden
After a proper scolding, she grudgingly returned to her duties:
“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” -Douglas Adams
After a full day of emails and schedules and deadlines and projects and collaborations and research and SOPs and a bunch of other business-y sounding stuff, we called it a day:
“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” -Aristotle
Now we’re settling down for the evening: 5:00 a.m. comes awfully early, and tomorrow’s another busy day.
