Exhausted

This has been one very exhausting week at work. We knew that we would have two new employees starting in our department on Monday, but we were surprised to learn that a third would also join the team. We're all really excited to have some new people in our department, because we certainly need the help. But anytime you have new employees, it takes a lot of training to get them used to our systems and procedures. Fortunately the people we hired are all very smart and bright and seem to be picking things up very quickly. They are already starting to take on a few projects, and I'm sure it won't be long before they are carrying full loads. So the week was full with training and welcome lunches. But it was also full of unusually and extraordinarily long meetings. Several meetings we had this week lasted about two hours. When you're training all day, having longer-than-usual lunches, and two hour meetings, you don't have much time in the day to do any work on any of your own projects. I was still able to send a book to press and able to send manuscripts or page proofs to authors or freelancers, but I was a little stressed and frazzled as I tried to do any of this. Needless to say, I brought home a huge box of manuscripts and proofs that I need to work on this weekend to make up for time I lost during the week. I guess it will be an exhausting weekend!

But, to blow off some steam and to try to relax a little, a very lovely friend and I spent last night having drinks and dinner. We first went to the Purple Martini and had some appetizers and wine. (We decided to pass on the martinis last night.) We then went to Laudisio, an Italian restaurant, had some more wine, and shared some calamari, a salad, and a bowl of risotto. This had to be the best dinner I ever had in my life! The calamari was perfect, and I can't even find the words to describe the risotto other than "it was heaven." The night was absolutely wonderful. Good wine, good food, good company, and good conversation. It can't get much better.

Current mood: tired
Current music: Tori Amos. Scarlet's Walk