Am spending more and more time with SRB. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I really like her: she's cool and interesting and really, really independent, and she's curious and open. On the other hand, part of why we spend so much time together is simple proximity. She lives literally one block away, closer than anyone else I know by a good measure (except, obviously, her roommate, who is also cool). So I wonder what I'm missing out on by taking an easy path some of the time, and not having to work harder or make more of an effort or plan more to spend time with a wider group. After all, it's only been two months.
Don't want to oversell the situation, it's not like I've stopped doing stuff with other people or getting invited to stuff independently of her. Although I will say, at the Christmas Ball last Friday (more on that in a second) three separate people asked if we were together, and one asked if it was okay to still invite me to stuff independently of her (!!!). It is, of course, and we are not "together." We are in the same circle, more or less, so we'd end up doing a lot of the same things and going to the same parties regardless, so that's a bit of a moot point. She and I talked about expectations a little while ago and we both agreed that we're not ready to be in a relationship. Twofold solution: (1) keep planning and inviting more people to do stuff, and (2) have another frank discussion about what's happening.
TLDR: It's notable that I found someone I really like so quickly, and it's notable that a part of me is concerned about that.
Last Friday was the British High Commission Polar Express Ball. A black-tie affair, so I finally had an excuse to commission and wear a tux. The fit turned out really great, got several compliments, most importantly from guys who'd gotten tuxes made elsewhere and were envious. Only issue was the tie, which was a velcro affair and drooped rather embarrassingly. I took it off as soon as the dancing started. Need a proper black silk tie and a proper linen pocket square and I'll be golden the next time I need to do something formal.
The party was a little weird to start -- we arrived too early -- but ended up being fun. Much dancing, which is basically the only thing that matters at a party like that. Ended up at a good table, so dinner conversation was good.
The weekend was relaxing. Spent most of it, as aforementioned, with SRB. Yesterday afternoon played ultimate, which was fun except when I got clocked in the back of the head by my new friend and erstwhile Polar Express Ball dinner companion EM. Unintentional on his part: we were both going up for a disc and he swung his arm around and I went down. Slight headache for about five minutes but then felt okay, and I feel totally fine today. If I'd felt worse today I might have gone to the doctor.
Now, to the topic of today's post: shuffling. Shuffling schedules and tasks, to be specific. Our senior management team and a few senior managers from the other agencies spend last Wednesday to Friday in a leadership training. This was fine: trainings like that are only as good as the trainers and we had good ones. But AI had not given us permission to drop or put off other stuff. So we had to push meetings around, work late, and work over the weekend to make up for the 24 hours we spent away from our desks. That is...not ideal. If I am ever in a position to send my employees to a training, I like to think I will give them the space to take advantage of it without stressing overmuch about their day jobs.
One of the tasks that we were not allowed to kill last week, despite a concerted team effort on the part of myself and the two education advisers, is a proposal to the Brits that I may have mentioned previously. It's not good enough as it stands, and there will be another opportunity to apply later next year. So we could put it off. But AI didn't want to because it's politically difficult for us to do so: the narrative for the other agencies involved will be "AKF isn't pulling its weight, why did they do this to us? we could have just applied ourselves." Regardless of whether that's fair or not. We'd convinced him anyway, but then the Brits extended the deadline and so again, today, there was shuffling. I cleared my schedule, and got a bunch of other senior people to clear their schedules (with AI's help in a couple of cases) so that we could break down what we have and make it better, together. The draft is with a couple of colleagues in Karachi now. Will find out tomorrow whether it was worth trying again on such incredibly short notice. Fingers crossed.
Don't want to oversell the situation, it's not like I've stopped doing stuff with other people or getting invited to stuff independently of her. Although I will say, at the Christmas Ball last Friday (more on that in a second) three separate people asked if we were together, and one asked if it was okay to still invite me to stuff independently of her (!!!). It is, of course, and we are not "together." We are in the same circle, more or less, so we'd end up doing a lot of the same things and going to the same parties regardless, so that's a bit of a moot point. She and I talked about expectations a little while ago and we both agreed that we're not ready to be in a relationship. Twofold solution: (1) keep planning and inviting more people to do stuff, and (2) have another frank discussion about what's happening.
TLDR: It's notable that I found someone I really like so quickly, and it's notable that a part of me is concerned about that.
Last Friday was the British High Commission Polar Express Ball. A black-tie affair, so I finally had an excuse to commission and wear a tux. The fit turned out really great, got several compliments, most importantly from guys who'd gotten tuxes made elsewhere and were envious. Only issue was the tie, which was a velcro affair and drooped rather embarrassingly. I took it off as soon as the dancing started. Need a proper black silk tie and a proper linen pocket square and I'll be golden the next time I need to do something formal.
The party was a little weird to start -- we arrived too early -- but ended up being fun. Much dancing, which is basically the only thing that matters at a party like that. Ended up at a good table, so dinner conversation was good.
The weekend was relaxing. Spent most of it, as aforementioned, with SRB. Yesterday afternoon played ultimate, which was fun except when I got clocked in the back of the head by my new friend and erstwhile Polar Express Ball dinner companion EM. Unintentional on his part: we were both going up for a disc and he swung his arm around and I went down. Slight headache for about five minutes but then felt okay, and I feel totally fine today. If I'd felt worse today I might have gone to the doctor.
Now, to the topic of today's post: shuffling. Shuffling schedules and tasks, to be specific. Our senior management team and a few senior managers from the other agencies spend last Wednesday to Friday in a leadership training. This was fine: trainings like that are only as good as the trainers and we had good ones. But AI had not given us permission to drop or put off other stuff. So we had to push meetings around, work late, and work over the weekend to make up for the 24 hours we spent away from our desks. That is...not ideal. If I am ever in a position to send my employees to a training, I like to think I will give them the space to take advantage of it without stressing overmuch about their day jobs.
One of the tasks that we were not allowed to kill last week, despite a concerted team effort on the part of myself and the two education advisers, is a proposal to the Brits that I may have mentioned previously. It's not good enough as it stands, and there will be another opportunity to apply later next year. So we could put it off. But AI didn't want to because it's politically difficult for us to do so: the narrative for the other agencies involved will be "AKF isn't pulling its weight, why did they do this to us? we could have just applied ourselves." Regardless of whether that's fair or not. We'd convinced him anyway, but then the Brits extended the deadline and so again, today, there was shuffling. I cleared my schedule, and got a bunch of other senior people to clear their schedules (with AI's help in a couple of cases) so that we could break down what we have and make it better, together. The draft is with a couple of colleagues in Karachi now. Will find out tomorrow whether it was worth trying again on such incredibly short notice. Fingers crossed.
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