I Suck At Meetings

It's a good thing that I wake up very early these days thanks to our newborn daughter's (Briana) feedings.

On Monday, shortly after feeding Briana in the wee hours of the morning, I decided to start work a little early. For anyone curious, I have the luxury of working from home most days of the week. I do, however, have to go into the office which is located in Marblehead at least one day during the week. That day is usually Tuesday.

Thinking that things were business as usual, I figured Tuesday was my day in the office this week. It was not until one of my coworkers sent me an email asking about attending a meeting on Monday that I started to doubt my schedule.

Apparently, I suck at meetings. I have never been big on meetings. Throughout my professional career, the majority of the meetings I have attended were an inefficient waste of my time. My time could have been better spent on actual work as opposed to listening to someone reading from a document as they go over the subject matter for the meeting. (Why not just send me the document? It would be so much easier for me to read it myself as opposed to listening to someone else read it... only to have to read the document anyway.) Yes, I dislike meetings.

Monday's meeting, however, was a meeting that I actually do enjoy... the collaborative meeting type. Those collaborative meetings have exchanges of ideas between group members, which to me are great learning experiences because they provide an insight into another point of view.

Sure enough, I had to be in the office to collaborate during the meeting on Monday. And unfortunately, I missed my usual window of opportunity in terms of beating the morning traffic. D'oh! Under normal circumstances, I'd probably rush out the door and drive like a maniac up to Marblehead. That, however, would prove to be a futile endeavor due to the bumper to bumper traffic.

Anyway, two hours or so later, I made it just in time for the meeting... with about 5 minutes to spare. That was a relief. Needless to say, Monday night Karen and I (and Briana) went out for dinner at Not Your Average Joe's in Norwell. Karen thought it would be a nice way to unwind from the day's activities, and I could not have agreed more.

In an effort to try something different at Not Your Average Joe's, both Karen and I ordered something from the menu that we had never had before (which may have been a little difficult because we do frequently go there a lot). Needless to say, the food was delicious as usual. I had the sweet blue burger. (Cue Rachael Ray's "Yum-O" sound.)