It’s a bit chilly in Cancun and here I sit in a house with no heater. I’ve been wearing jeans and long sleeves and have been thanking myself for dragging all those sweaters to Mexico because I’m using them.

I took a run today in the Parque Kabah and it was just like a nice crisp September day in Colorado. A hint of winter in the air, a gorgeous blue sky above with the sun out. It was perfect workout weather and I celebrated by doing extra stretches and extra sit-ups (I just wrote that to make you groan, I’m weird because I actually like sit-ups).

The other day I signed up for a Flash development class. I have skill with Flash now but have been feeling for a while that I need to deepen my knowledge. So today I did a dumb thing, today I logged in to the online classroom and got the reading assignment for the first week of class.

I think the teacher assigned almost 200 pages just for the FIRST WEEK, 200 technical pages, 200 pages full of programming examples and tech talk. I think I’m going to just roll over and die now. I’ve studied with this teacher before, and I know I have an aptitude for Flash, but 200 pages is going to KILL ME!

I suppose that if I get really frustrated with the Flash class I can just burn the book. It’s a big book, it might keep me warm for a whole hour!

For the past year I’ve been working closely with the magnificent and brilliant choreographer, Alison Chase (a founding artistic director of the famed Pilobolus), on her new web site. This week we made a big push and we are very nearly there…. And so I want to warm you up with a little video of one of Alison’s more irreverent and joyful choreographic works. Please enjoy Quarryography:

Remember those old Calgon ads for bath products? Well in Mexico it’s not common practice to put in bathtubs. In fact, in this house our bathrooms are small and square so there’s no room at all for a bathtub, we just have a shower in the corner. But I digress. I want to take a bath because I need to de-stress in the worst way. So I wish Calgon could take me away…

I’ve been killing myself for work lately. I’ve worked part of each day every day in the last 2 weeks, so I’m in need of a serious day off. It might happen next Sunday, but that remains to be seen.

I’m close to finishing 2 big web projects. Both projects have been difficult for me. Both have shown me exactly what parts of project management I happen to SUCK at.

One of these projects is for a non-profit in the U.S. I got the contract for it a long time ago. But I didn’t realize how much work it would be to get the client to make decisions. The work hasn’t ended up taking significantly longer than I expected. But the number of meetings and emails and conference calls it’s taken to make all the needed decisions has literally added ONE YEAR to the project. I’m dumbfounded by this.

The client has even had personnel changes since we started working on this project together. And guess what? My new contact person there seems to hate me. She knows nothing of the history of the project, just that it’s behind schedule. So I get the blame, all the blame. Today she destroyed a conference call by interrupting, being condescending (she sounded like a bratty teenager), and finally hanging up on the rest of us.

The project is finally within mere weeks of being done. And now it’s getting derailed by a bad attitude? Grow up already. Let’s just focus on getting this shit done and fucking be nice about it.

My husband is that champion of “fuck it all”. When he heard about her little snit he said “tell her to fuck off.” We are 98% done and he wants me to walk out on the project because someone treated me like shit. He has no tolerance for bullshit, and that’s what I love about him. But I won’t be taking his advice, not this time anyway.

I spent 2 days this week NOT answering email, NOT returning phone calls and NOT working on anything but the condo. I did answer my cell phone, but that was it.

When I got back to my desk after this 48 hour hiatus I had no less than 5 voice mail messages from people who were freaking out and were wondering if I had died. And I had no less than 45 important new email messages, not including the usual junk and jokes and normal emails. I’ll be up until midnight just reading new email. I’m not sure when I’m supposed to get any actual work done.

It’s nice to be needed, but this is too much.

My husband figured out yesterday that he’s working 90 hours a week right now (including drive-time). And, to be completely honest, I’m not far behind him. I do get a bit more sleep than he does, but I often work 10 to 12 hours a day and that doesn’t include the time I spend cleaning cat litter or taking care of my house. And I cannot, honestly, remember the last day I took completely off. I think, but am not sure, that it was in August. There might have been a day in August that I didn’t check email, respond to a client, work on the frickin’ condo or work on a client project. Maybe. Or maybe it was in July.

The good news is that hubby and I have plans to spend two whole nights and most of three whole days in Tulum, at an “eco-resort” (eco here usually means the hotel is not on the power grid). We plan to bring the nice bikes (we each have 2; 1 nice one, and 1 crappy-city one) which will give us a good way to see the sights and get some exercise. And, of course, the place is on the beach, so we can actually act like tourists and get lobstered and snorkel and hang on the beach. I might even have a piña colada.

I’m really excited to just get away, even though it’s not far from home. It will be a break in the rhythm, a break from this monotony of work and responsibility, and I hope that we can have fun. I expect it will be fun because one of my favorite friends here, and her lovely husband, will be staying there the same weekend. So we have built-in entertainment!

All I can say is Starbucks better not start charging tax on all the money I make in their coffee shops. Or rather, they’d better not charge tax on the potential income I could make based on the contracts I sign in their coffee shops.

Today I signed a contract, in Starbucks, worth quite a lot of money, if I do my job, which I have every intention of doing.

I can’t tell you more because then I’d have to kill you, or at least make you sign a non-disclosure agreement and provide proof that you have several million usd in near-liquid assets and certain required skills and intentions.

Sorry for the mystery, but that’s what it is.

At least Starbucks can count on me always purchasing a Mocha Grande Con Leche Light sometimes Descafeinado por favor, so they ARE actually getting paid, a whole $38 pesos.

I will say that it’s very nice to be working on a big project again. It’s been a while since I tackled something of this size, and I feel, well, I feel completely in my element. That probably sounds totally conceited. But it’s not meant that way. It’s more that I just feel that the importance of this project to the client will equal the effort I give it, for once. Normally it seems that I bust my butt and then get paid peanuts. This time I will bust my butt and then be able to afford go to Italy and finally see Michelangelo’s David in person!

But first I need to do my job!