One of those days...

And now for something unrelated to the little Kiwi.

Yesterday I had one of those days. The days when you're up at the crack of dawn because your mind won't stay quiet long enough for you to drift back to the precious dreamland you are longing for, and by the time your head finally hits the pillow that night your exhaustion is manifesting as physical pain throughout your body. Yes, one of those days.

I have been busy for weeks now, but since last Monday it has really been non-stop. This weekend I tried to relax with some coworkers on Friday night, but then spent the entire weekend indoors (despite Brent leaving me to go enjoy the gorgeous 27/78 degree weather on the beach!) typing on my loaned computer. I had my second deadline yesterday, and as usual, it required evenings and weekends in addition to our M-F work week to complete. So I arrived yesterday morning at work, disappointed to learn that we had a meeting scheduled for the morning (the deadline is at the end of the day). Working through lunch I pushed to finish the last of the writing and begin editing.

In the middle of the afternoon, just as I was starting to make progress, in to our office burst the director of the MBA program (our big beautiful office [I'll post photos of our balcony and stunning view later] is upstairs in their larger set of offices, rather than downstairs with the IPJ staff). She was demanding to know if we had received visitors that afternoon. No, we don't often have visitors. Then out pours an incredible story of how three staff members have just been robbed while in the office! They had gone to a meeting in a small office at the front entrance but closed the door. The two work study students who normally sit at the front desk had both left for about 30min (sounds suspicious to me!). The thief had brazenly come in through the main door and proceeded to go into the various private offices, look under their desks, retrieve their purses, remove only the cash from their wallets, replace everything and then leave!

However, we do not think he got away undetected! One of the other Peace Writers and I were sitting at our desks at the time, with both of our office doors closed (we sit in a large communal office with two entrances). As we were working, the far door opened just a crack. We called out to the person to ask if we could help them. A man opened the door about 6 inches and quickly asked if "Leah" (or some short woman's name beginning with L) had passed by. We said no, no one had been in there. He quickly shut the door and left. Once we found out about the theft we asked the other staff about him. He had come right when the theft had occurred, no one with a name starting with L works at the MBA office, and no one recognized his description as anyone that should have been there. Also, the fact that he used our other door meant he had moved through the whole office before reaching that door, which is where most of the thefts occurred. So, Bianca and I have become number 1 witnesses! Unfortunately, after my experience with campus security following the theft of my laptop I have little to no faith that anything will be done about this, even though over $400 was stolen.

Following all that drama, I had to keep writing late and eat dinner at my desk. I was still at the office because that night my Woman Peace Maker, Sylvie, had her filming session. This is a three hour interview from 7-10pm conducted by our Exec Director, Dee, on camera. I was reluctant to stay for such a late night especially after a deadline, but I wanted to support Sylvie and I thought I would just be sitting in a plush chair watching the interview. How wrong I was! After make-up and prepping all the equipment, Dee started asking the first few questions. English is Sylvie's fourth or fifth language, and while she is understandable, she occasionally misuses words, and the flow is often halting as she searches for words she doesn't know. Completely understandable for all of us that have tried to learn other languages! But for the film crew, this was disturbing their search for eloquent, flowing sound bites. So they stopped and asked if we could try the same answer in French. None of them speak French so they began quizzing me on how it sounded - how was the content? Did it flow? Was it more articulate? Before I knew it, they had decided to conduct the whole interview in French! I was told to switch places with Dee and suddenly I was conducting the 3 HOUR interview IN FRENCH!!!

Needless to say, by the time Brent came to pick my up at 10pm my brain was a pile of french mush. There had also been some emotional parts to the interview, and at one point Sylvie had broken down. Nevertheless, after she composed herself, she decided that she wanted to continue for the remaining hour. All in all I think it was a good interview, but because of the language and time, I have already been told that they would like one and possibly two more interviews with her - and once again, I'll be conducting the interview, at night, in French!

By the time I got into bed last night I think my body was ready to sleep for a week. Is it really only Tuesday?! I'm seriously considering putting me head down on my desk for a 20min catnap!

Well, after all that 'feeling sorry for myself' I'm sure you'll be happy to just hear about the Kiwi again ;-)

Hope you're all well,
From a sleepy Jen & Kiwi (and Brenty too)