TheBanyanTree: Top of the Morning

[Margaret R. Kramer]

St. Patrick’s Day

It’s been a wild week in Minnesota.  I began the week with a cold.  Usually
my colds sneak in with a sore throat and then explode.  This cold kept
sneaking in and sneaking in and just when I thought it was going away, it
exploded.  I stayed home on Monday, partly to rest and partly to catch up on
things on I didn’t get done over the weekend.  I paid bills and calculated
how much money we had leftover (which wasn’t much).

At work, the tension rose as the week went on.  We have a ton of
documentation to get ready for our meeting in North Dakota (the week of
March 26).  One of my co-workers is anal in his approach, thinking of every
possibility and then expounding on it, so a typical five minute conversation
turns into two hours.  My other co-worker is brilliant, but works only in
the moment.  If he’s assigned a task, he won’t get it done, because there
are so many other interesting things to do instead of doing that task.  If
we can get him to do the task as we’re talking about it, he’ll complete it
and complete it well.

Then there’s me, I am not detailed, I work at the big picture level, and I’m
a check list girl.  I love checking stuff off my list.  I’m not a
perfectionist.  I’m not anal.  “Just get it done” is my motto.  “Let’s get
it working and then we’ll worry about the details later.”

So, somehow my boss in Atlanta has to navigate between all our personalities
and guide us to complete our work.  He does a great job.  He’s patient,
listens, and then guides.  We usually get our stuff done, although it’s
late, and it gets to the client.

We were working at a fever pitch until Friday.  Our internet access was cut
off because of router that blew up somewhere in Pittsburgh.  We spent most
of the morning doing nothing, because all our documentation is accessed
on-line.  When the internet started coursing through our office again, I
worked hard until it was time to go home.  I got a lot checked off my list,
and I’m hoping Monday won’t be too bad.

Well, it’s St. Paddy’s Day, which seems to me a silly holiday, but we need
something in March to brighten the spirits and keep us smiling until Easter.
I’m German, English, Danish, and Norwegian (and was brought up Lutheran), so
St. Patrick’s Day was never a big deal in my family.

It is the perfect Saturday holiday, which is nice that it falls on Saturday
this year.  St. Paul had its share of Irish immigrants and has for years
featured a St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown.  I remember marching in it as
a high school band member and was a little freaked out by all the drunks
lining the streets.  Since I’m not much of a drinker, I was not found very
often in a crowded bar sipping green beer.

No, I celebrate St. Patrick’s Day like any other day by not doing much of
anything related to it.  I’ll do my usual Saturday chores.  I’ll put out our
Easter decorations.  Yes, it’s time to add a little pink, lavender, and
yellow to the color scheme around here.  The sun is working its spring magic
and melting the snow.  The buds on the trees are filling out.  And the birds
are in full chorus with spring songs.

Then my son, his girlfriend, and the boys will meet me in the late afternoon
so Susan and I can do an easy run to get ready for the Human Race tomorrow.
The Human Race was the original St. Patrick’s Day five mile and has morphed
over the years into the Human Race 5K and 8K to celebrate spring and St.
Patrick’s Day.  Susan and I have run in that race for the past few years and
enjoy it a lot.  Last year, the boys ran in the kids’ race, and the older
one came in second.

That’s the plan for this day of green beer and green rivers.  I’ll probably
wear a gray sweatshirt and jeans just to get into the mood.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net
margaret.kramer at polarispublications.com

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows
cold:  when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.
~Charles Dickens