So my project is mostly done. All the structural work and major bugs are worked out, so modifications from here on in will be small tweaks here and there, especially regarding the data that gets output as XML. Of course, it was suppoed to be more or less completely done (or something--the exact milestone was never clear to me) yesterday. But I didn't set that date, and I lost a few days to Windows/environment issues, and overall I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out, especially given that our partners who helped set the deadline won't be ready for any kind of testing until the end of next week.
I left early today to go to aikido, keeping with my promise to ramp my training back up; I started getting ready to go at 4:30, and didn't actually leave until almost 5, but Jerry (my boss) asked if leaving early on Wednesdays was going to be a habit, and then asked if I would be compensating by coming in early tomorrow morning.
While I tried to think of a diplomatic way of saying "Yeah, right"--he didn't sound like he was kidding--someone else grabbed his attention, and while we talked about some more work stuff, we didn't get into the Conversation About Expectations and Working Hours that we clearly need to have.
I think he's never had a minion before, so I'm sure we can work this out. I'm not sure what the rationale would be for my rigorously being in the office a full 8 hours each day: besides the fact that I work through lunch and sometimes at home in the evening, I was in the office 8-10 hours a day for the couple of weeks leading up to yesterday, so I don't think that was the deficiency that caused the deadline to slip. In any case my plan has always been to leave early on one or two aikido-in-Berkeley days (whenever those are), stay later the rest of the days, and for more aikido I can keep going to Aikido West in Redwood City, where the later class doesn't start until 7pm (and it's 15 minutes away, unlike Berkeley where class starts at 6pm and it can take me 90 minutes to get there). I'm certain everything will be fine and I won't have to get up any earlier.
Lots of new challenges in this "job" thing, and it's interesting to see how I handle them in this new phase of my life. I like paying attention and remembering that work is not the priority in my life, aikido and Zen and my friends are. If I stay focused on the Way, everything will work out fine. If I focus on something else, I lose all sense of harmony and I will be fighting the entire Universe.
Rachel keeps saying I look pale. I'm still fending off the Martian Death Flu that everyone but me has caught, so I'm sure it's that and working a lot. Maybe I'll start losing weight again. That'd be nice.