Head aches

Been a long time since I've had a headache at work. Hmm, last August perhaps?

I had one today. Felt like someone was taking a baseball bat to my head, then trying to balance an anvil on top of my skull. What's causing the headache?

Let's see... Europe pulled the plug entirely on the project. They don't think they can meet our deadlines, they don't think we've thought this through far enough for end game consequences.

In some ways, they are right, we haven't thought this all the way through. Had I known my boss better in December, I would have sat her down and tried to get some of this done. Here we are, the end of January, and we're just now planning this puppy out?

Part of it is issues no one anticipated, which is part of the problem. We just had a meeting yesterday that should have taken place weeks ago with purchasing and the company that gets us our licenses. What we really need is a software asset management tool. The software provider has one, for a cost, that can do some of what we need.

Got out of that meeting with a note to track down two others that are working on the Infra project. They happened to be standing in the hall next to my cube when we got there, so we had a chat with them about what the current needs are and where Infra is at. Infra can do all the things we need it to do - in phase 2 which is 15-18 months away.

So what do we do in the mean time? Manually manage this project? Talk to the Infra people again about what database they will be using so when the time comes we can easily slip this into the existing structure? There needs to be a body managing this. What about Asia Pacific, where a lot of their software is bought locally, outside of our current procurement methods?

I'm also scrambling to get communications out. The email to the cost center managers went out this afternoon, so now they are aware of what is happening and why. Got some feedback from a couple of them thinking we need to go to the Citrix boxes and mass licenses, like we talked about previously.

My boss is going to re-arrange her schedule, again, so we can take her task list, my mind map, and put the two together so we can get a timeline and task schedule set up. We need to meet with a few more groups to nail some things down to go forward.

Now do you see what caused me to have a headache? Got to the point I had to take the hair clip out and let my hair hang, cause my scalp hurt as well. Still does.

See where this thing takes us. Get the process and procedure documented, get the project done and see if they want to go forward with more.
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Had a bit of an aha yesterday morning, about Raini. Metaphors.

Usually Raini comes and meditates with me in the morning. Some mornings she paws at the comforter so I lift it up and let her snuggle under the covers with me. She'll put up with it for so long, then sneak out. Sometimes she will sit on the back of the recliner, other times she'll lay down in my lap, then she'll hop down and go eat or sleep somewhere else.

I've lost the connection between the metaphor and what I was thinking yesterday. If you see the connection, let me know.