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Sunday, November 17, 2013

In sickness and in health: Our November

 First Vincent seemed to have a tummy bug and then later he started coughing, which meanings gagging and puking. Then it got worse. Like, "Point me to the nearest insane asylum because I'm too exhausted to deal with a toddler acting like a newborn" worse. We brought him in. Thank god our pediatrician offers urgent care hours on the weekend. When he was finally seen, it was the prolonged listen to his chest that had me worried. They suspected pneumonia, and it was running around his school. So he got his first stab at a nebulizer and walked away with a prescription for an inhaler and an antibiotic. By Monday he wasn't showing improvement, so we brought him back in. A chest x-Ray was ordered and it turns out, he was having infection induced asthma, whatever that means. The good news, he's acting and feeling like his regular self. Bad news: all his hacking all over us got me a nasty strep-looking throat with Jonathan tagging behind. Being both sick really sucks and we started out being sleep deprived on top of it. 

Monday, November 11, 2013

But, but

One thing I've always known about myself: I'm not a leader. I'm the best damn second in command you'll ever have though, but when you work in journalism (and I'm sure this is true for many professions), you have to be your own leader, and it's a constant struggle for me. I like collaborating. I love taking ideas and perfecting them. But to lead, brew ideas and serve them up, not my cup of tea. 
In my professional career lately I haven't been giving it my all. Contributors to this: a weak boss (who isn't a leader and more often than not expects me to lead), poor pay, and a disconnected company. I hope in the next few years I can move on to something else, something hopefully out of publishing and much more gratifying. Yes, yes, magazines are wonderful, when you're not reading them for errors and content; oh, and when the subject isn't about cable connectors and PAs. I'm sure that a different subject matter might be more exciting, but the production would still be the same. So for now, I'm thinking I better dig my heels in, refresh what I did learn once upon a time in a leadership class, and put on the conductors hat. Toot toot!