Early meeting and a nap through the first hour of it

Yesterday, I woke up early for my 7 am meeting that typically lasts for four hours. I managed to sleep through the first hour after I said hello at the start.

It was a productive day. I worked on a PowerPoint presentation that I haven't had a chance to do in weeks.

On a completely different note, my friend and I made plans to get together on Friday night. Yay!

Speaking to a crowd and not being as petrified as I was in grade 7

Yesterday, I did a presentation online with an audience of twenty people who are my peers, including my manager's boss. I originally thought of creating a PowerPoint set of slides. One member on our team of four just said to present my points that I had summarized as my meeting minutes last week.

Well, I did. He decided to create a PowerPoint for his other group that he was leading. Geez, thanks!

On a good note, my presentation went so well that I have been asked to present it to my entire department. Yes, I will need to create PowerPoint slides. My minimalistic approach wasn't bad at all.

When I was in grade 7 and throughout most of my academic life, I was extremely nervous talking in front of roughly thirty people. I would rehearse a ton before doing any presentation. It helped.

I supposed that my work and life experiences talking within my team, training others, and hanging out with friends pre-pandemic have made me comfortable speaking in public. For yesterday's presentation, I didn't do much rehearsing or preparation work.

It's interesting how things change as you get older.

Early morning meetings and time

It has been a long workweek. I have had a conference call every day at 8 am, except for Tuesday. On Tuesday, my call started at 7 am and went for four hours. Luckily, this meeting happens once a month.

Needless to say, I am pretty tired of all these early morning meetings. I collaborate with folks in Europe and Asia. Thus, I get the short end of the stick and have to wake up early for these meetings.

Luckily, it's a long weekend coming up. I can relax before I do this early morning routine again next week. So far, I only have early meetings next Tuesday and Wednesday.

My manager is a time-waster. He books our weekly team meeting for two hours and seems to force spending the full two hours discussing anything under the sun. It's not a productive use of time, especially when he reads PowerPoint slides and doesn't comprehend what he is reading. The rest of us have actual work to attend to.

Anyway, I am off to bed early. I'm beat.

Just send me the f*cking PowerPoint... words of wisdom

When you first meet my guy, you'd find that he is knowledgeable, bright, and funny. He has everything under control.

In my case, in addition to these fine attributes, I see him as being attractive and great, among other traits.

My guy is a sleepyhead. He travels a ton.

The other week, when he was in Stockholm, he was with a number of peers. He often will take his lunch hour and nap, because he is jetlagged.

He couldn't do that all last week. Various folks did presentations. He had no choice but to nap through some of them during the lunch hour. I don't know why they couldn't stop and have everyone eat or do whatever they needed to.

"I need to sleep at lunch to replenish and relax. It doesn't matter whether folks see me napping," my guy insisted.
"Okay, as long as you don't drool," I replied.
"I didn't," he assured me. "I don't understand why everyone needs to present stuff. It's so boring. Just send me the f*cking PowerPoint!" he whined.

That last comment made me laugh. We both laughed about that. Employees at our company often have to do presentations and create PowerPoint slides. The fact that my guy feels comfortable whining to me is sweet and endearing.

I want that saying as a bumpersticker in my car. My guy will need to trademark the statement. It's brilliant and funny!