alterkrmn | What a week... (Reply)

It was another exhausting week at work. Again. But at least there’s one less thing on the to-do list: yesterday was the second APA 7 training session I led (along with a coworker). It was the most tedious thing in the world, but we got it done, and our team leads seemed really happy with the result.

On top of that, Tuesday and Wednesday were office days, something that’s always stressful and drains me both physically and mentally. Even though I’ve gotten better at masking and can use it to my advantage sometimes, it still takes a huge toll. For example, I’ve noticed how exhausting it is not being able to sit like a pretzel, or drink as much water as I need without having to run to the bathroom a million times, or take breaks exactly when I need them. Another thing that wears me out is the overstimulation (all the lights and the constant murmurs around me) but this time, I combined my Loops with my headphones, and that helped a lot with the noise.

This week was especially draining because of all the meetings. Having video calls in a coworking space is stressful with all the background noise.

Another fun detail this week? My commute ended up costing more because rainy season has officially started (yay!), which drives up fares (not yay!). So I wound up paying double for each trip, and my wallet is still screaming at me. But afternoon transport is a nightmare. I live on the other side of the city, and the bus stop has no shelter from the rain. Plus, I can’t risk getting my work laptop soaked, and I’m already lugging around a heavy backpack… so, obviously, I had to take Didi instead. Just a wonderful series of circumstances, as you can see.

Normally, I use Thursdays to recover and regroup… after office days, and I try to take it easy. But this time, I had that team project with my coworker, so no luck there. And then, Microsoft access decided to glitch, and by midday, my Teams and Outlook accounts were locked. That wasn’t even the worst part… apparently, even the IT guys didn’t know why it happened, and they took forever to fix it. Some of my coworkers in the same boat managed to sort it out throughout the day with "help" from the Authenticator app on their personal phones… but in my case, it just wouldn’t work, even after I (reluctantly) installed the damn thing, uninstalled it, reinstalled it, and eventually lost track of what I was doing. The IT guy asked for remote access to my computer via AnyDesk, which interrupted my work for hours… hours… and I still had to finish a stupid presentation for Friday. By the time his shift ended (at 9 pm!), he apologized for the trouble and asked if we could pick it up the next day (on Friday). I had to tell him yes, but only after the training session I was leading. He agreed and logged off, but I still had to keep working. And since I took a break to eat something and shower, I didn’t finish until 3 am on Friday. A complete nightmare.

After that, I immediately went to bed, only to wake up at 7 to jump on a call with my coworker and polish up the last details of the presentation. Then we delivered the training, and if it hadn’t been for the whole IT access mess still needing to be solved, I would’ve gone straight back to bed for the rest of the day… Finally, at 4 pm on Friday (28 hours later) IT managed to restore my Teams and Outlook access.

And, of course, I forgot to mention... on Thursday, the water heater broke, so I had to use an electric immersion coil and bathe with a bucket... Not that I mind that method, but heating the water takes way longer that way...

Of course I’m exhausted. I need a vacation…