The beginning of the end?

It's really late...way past my bedtime. We're at a hotel in Houston, and I'm thankful that I was able to hijack free internet access from the room because I'm not about to actually pay for it.

I had a really rough day at work that might just mark the beginning of the end for me there. Forget all that crap that I said a few posts ago about accepting where I am and realizing it's not that bad. That's totally out the window now. Game on.

So, here's how things were supposed to play out...I was supposed to leave the office at 12:15 in order to go to a lunch meeting until 2 at which time I was going to head home and we'd hit the road to Houston for the weekend. We'd enjoy our time here, and it would be an extended break from work again for me because I was scheduled to attend a conference in Austin on Monday.

But, here's what happened. At 12:00, I got a phone call asking if I could be available to meet with one of the big bosses at 1pm. It wasn't really a question or option. I was being called to the principal's office and I had no idea why. In short, I got completely blind-sided by a meeting with several of the uppity-up's and completely put on the spot to address systemic problems in my unit. It was awful. I now have to come up with some solutions to these issues before we meet again on Monday afternoon. So, obviously, no conference for me on Monday. I debriefed with my direct supervisor afterwards (who is certainly an ally and an advocate for my unit), but had to leave because it was already after 2:00 at this point. I still had not eaten, I had not packed, and we needed to be on our way to Houston already.

I told K tonight that he might get a phone call from me one day (perhaps soon) in which I inform him that I quit. And, I think it will happen if there are more meetings and days like this. I'm a good clinician with quality training and credentials, and I don't deserve this crap.

And, breathe.

K actually made the drive down here because I wasn't in the right mindset for it by the time I got home. We got a later start than intended since I got home from work late and needed to eat and pack. We hit the road around 3pm, just in time to hit traffic in Houston. Seriously, I don't know how people live here or anywhere for that matter where they have to deal with that on a daily basis. I know I-35 in Austin can certainly be bad, and I guess I'm just fortunate that I rarely have to leave a 5-mile radius for anything from where we live.

We rode the Metrorail over to Reliant Stadium so that we wouldn't have to pay the outrageous parking fees ($20-$30). It was super easy and convenient. As expected, the crowd was colored in a sea of orange, but Memphis fans certainly represented too. My favorite part of the Texas-Stanford game was the designated unofficial tree mascot for Stanford. It just cracked me up that this was actually considered a mascot...
The highlight of the Memphis-Michigan State game for me was wondering whether Neitzel was going to even score. Seriously, I can't believe I even know who that guy is. Thanks, K.