nails and knitting

Well, I learned something today. Actually, I learned several things today but this one I'm going to share with you. Apparently, if you're going to take a picture of your freshly manicured nails, you need to not use a flash much like when you photograph knitting. Who knew the two had so much in common?



I also learned that when trying to photograph your newly French manicured nails against your black cat (this was before I learned the whole flash thing) that you should let the said cat fully sniff at your hand before trying to take a picture or you'll end up with this:



One more thing I learned today, is that despite my best efforts and worrying myself almost sick, I can not make other people do things that will make their life easier. This was a harder lesson to learn today than the whole taking pictures of your nails thing.

See, we're starting with new things at work. Things that seem strange and awkward at first. However we were told to practice. To take time out and send a few test runs. The new thing we're doing has a serious effect on my job and I need to be very proficient at it. (I know. I could tell you what it is exactly but that would be long and boring so please just bare with me.) My proficiency will ultimately effect other people but most importantly, will make my day easier. Through lots of practice and questions, I have mastered this new skill. The people who cover for me when I'm not there haven't even practiced before we went live today. This bothered me. I'm not sure why it bothered me so much but it did. I worried about it. I fretted even. I encouraged people to practice. I felt like I kept running into a brick wall. It was almost lunch time when it dawned on me that if they didn't know how to do this task proficiently (or at all), it didn't effect me. It didn't reflect on me. All it did was make their jobs harder. I talked to a wiser woman than I about this and she agreed. Since then, I've tried very hard not to worry about it. Mostly, I've suceeded. However, I know I'll worry about the person who's covering for me tomorrow when I leave at noon. They're fairly new at the whole job anyways and in my opinion (and I do realize that's all it is is MY OPINION) not having this down could cause them to stress even more tomorrow. I like this person and I don't want them to think my job is even harder than it is. I want them to stay with the company because I think they are a great asset. But I can not do anything about it. I've done all I can. I may worry now (even though I'm trying VERY hard not to) but I will NOT let it trouble me on my trip.

This also falls in the category of being kind hearted can truly come back and bite you in the ass as I was telling one of our boss ladies the other day.

Now, I must go eat and pack. And if you're still here, thanks for listening to my ramble.

OH! You MUST go visit Dad and Pat's blog (link is in the sidebar). They're redoing their yarn and it's looking fantastic! I even helped Dad put those cool ass progress bars up on his blog!

Edited to Add: Thanks to Dave's keen eye and Dad's correction as well. (Yes, I am a yarnaholic!) I was trying to say yard in the above sentence but can't quite teach my fingers to type anything after "yar" except "n". Dad pointed out, it's not quite their yard but reroofing the house and building a porch but they're adding other little plots to grow veggies and all in and that's why I called it their yard. Either way, it's looking GREAT!! :)