Seaweed in the Ocean of Life...

Today is definitely a Monday. I woke up in a haze of confusion, wondering where that noisy music was coming from only to realize it was my alarm clock and it was supposed to be making the noise.

When I finally made it to the office, I discovered a slew of emails requiring me to jump right in to work because there was urgent stuff to do. Why the urgent stuff can't be requested earlier is beyond me. I've never understood those people who say, 'hey, by the way, I need this stuff in about two hours' when they knew they would need it three days ago. Yet, as a sometimes-procrastinator, I suppose we all do it. I just wish they didn't do it in ways that affect me.

I also discovered that I have a meeting scheduled to for the time I normally leave so...yay me. I had every intention of starting my exercising after work again tonight having taken a break because of the insanity of buying a house.

However, on the plus side, it is a Monday after a lovely weekend. I didn't even do anything exciting, I just out with my family. It was a really nice relaxing weekend. For the first time in years, my siblings and I were alone at our parents with no significant others, no children...just the core of the family. It was unplanned but so nice.

Next weekend is also going to be fun. I'm off to Washington D.C. to visit with my best friend. I can't wait. She's one of those friends I can go out and do stuff with or just stay in and watch episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Prison Break and still have a great time.

So, really, even though I'm swamped already and I just walked in the door, I shouldn't complain. I have a lot to look forward to and a lot of fun behind me so work is really just that inconvenient thing that pays my bills and gives me something to do from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. I don't mind my job; it's interesting and I work with a fun group but...it's really just my job. I was watching a rather daft film last night, "The Day the Earth Stood Still," with Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connolly. I didn't like the movie because I tend to like alternate-reality where the aliens do destroy earth just because it's more interesting than the hero(ine) saving the day by the purity of her humanity. Ooops, probably spoiled that for you but, believe me, it'll save you the almost-two-hours of sitting through a movie that doesn't pay off.

Anyway, one thing that I did like about the movie is that it made me think a little. Jennifer Connolly plays an Astro-biologist. In the beginning, she and a bunch of other scientists are recruited to help with a Top Secret Government Operation. That's the part that made me think. Whether we're talking about my day job- software products specialist- or my 'evening job' of writing, it's not likely I will ever be important enough to be taken by a helicopter to a secret government facility to help save the world.

I notice that a lot in movies and TV and even in real life. There are those people who are so good at what they do, so specialized that there aren't many people who can do their job. I have a friend who is a rocket scientist, literally. I have a friend whose husband is a forensic expert in bugs and gets called to consult by the FBI. Then there's me...not likely to be called by the FBI unless I'm the one being investigated. Which....I hope not.

It's a strange thing to realize that in the giant ocean of the world, I would probably be the seaweed. It adds a certain something and those that like Asian food like to eat it but...it's not exactly something that gets featured by the Discovery Channel very often. It might pop up on the Food Network but it'd be pounded and manipulated so much that by the time it ended up in a dish, it would barely be recognizable.

You might think this depresses me. Well...not really. I admit, there are days when I would love someone to read one of my unpublished novels, love it so much that they rush it to publication upon which people would say, "your book changed my life." Yet....sadly, despite my overractive imagination I'm a realist.

Yet, because I'm a realist, I can also see that in my little corner of my world, the books that I write do change someone's life...mine. Each one changes me a little, makes me learn more about the world around me, about myself. With my day job, my role in this company may not be of earth-shattering importance but the mere fact that I'm required to get some work done urgently and quickly means that someone here needs me to do my job. To the place writing my paychecks, I'm a necessary entity. Without me, the work doesn't get done. Though someone else could be trained to do my job, at this moment in time they haven't been which means that at this moment in time, I am necessary and of vital importance. I might not be saving the world but I'm helping keep my company going.

That's something good to think about on a busy Monday morning.

Happy Monday.