54 laps, meeting, aftermath

I swam 54 lap today - that's one and a half miles. I was fast and intense - hardly even slowing down on the turns. I outlasted everyone else in the pool.

I feel pretty good physically afterward - caught my breath in less than a minute and was composed before I hit the locker room. I swam through my lunch hour and just got a couple of healthy snacks instead.

The reason for this personal record-setting swim, however, was not a good thing. I generally try not to talk about work here - and when I do I'm impossibly vague - since that sort of thing tends to get people fired. So, I'm going to vent a little here, but I'm still going to be vague.

I got called into a meeting this morning and got dragged over the coals for things that were not my fault by someone outside our department. I took it personally - which was a mistake, I know. I think I'm good at my job because I care about what I'm doing with the big picture - but that same commitment was attacked today. This guy was belligerent, condescending, arrogant, argumentative, and a whole slew of unpleasant big words. Even worse, my boss got the meeting started and then left for most of it - returning only at the end.

I felt thrown to the wolves. We've done extraordinary work in very little time and this guy had only bad things to say about what we'd accomplished. I stayed polite, quiet, and civil - and managed, just barely, to keep my cool. Should have gotten some kind of award for not smacking the shit out of him.

I think the swim made use of "rage-propulsion" and most of that has burned off. I'm back down to my standard "slightly cranky" - and I can live with that. In the grand scheme of things, this guy was just an ass and with that kind of an attitude, life is going to punish him far better than I could. I'd still like to help punish him - I've even started a list - but we've got too much to do.

So, time to get back to it. I think I may go buy a CD after work or maybe some flower stems for an origami project. I think some good music and a little folding will do me wonders.


later