In a Strange Turn of Events...

...Monday started out well and ended shitty.

So I started my morning by taking Pepper for a little walk before work. It was crystal clear, not a cloud in the sky, and plesantly crisp and cool. The sunlight had that quality it gets right at sunrise where everything seems so... sharp. We walked once around the block on the leash, and once off. Pepper was such a good girl and stayed right near me. She even came back to me every minute or so to "check in." She did run off to chase a bird at one point, but came right back.

I went to work and prepped for my 9am meeting. My goal was to sell my idea for a process improvement to the second facility lead. It wasn't a total success, but I did get the go ahead to start stage one of my plan. I think once I get the database going and show them what I can do with it, they'll agree to the rest. I was pretty stoked. And my lead is happy with me.

Most of the rest of the day was finishing investigating the scope of an issue. Somebody found an error in one of our calculations. We had to figure out how many other calculations contained the same error. So all of us started sifting through every single calculation, going back to 2001. We found 131 calculations with this one error. Somebody will now have to revise those 131 calculations to fix the error. Somebody like me. Oh joy! But at least it's work, and it's engineering, so I won't complain too loud. At least not 'til I'm on my 15th calc...

We had a quick group meeting. All 5 of us. It was lively. My lead told us he had been offered the position of our recently passed coworker and he accepted. We're all really happy about that. He's an awesome guy, and really a pleasure to work for. He's also going on a much needed vacation for the rest of the month. After that I thought about working on my Annual Review. I wanted to wait until I knew for sure if I passed my test or not.

My test results were in the mail when I got home. I had Brady open them. I, for the third time, failed the California State Specific Seismic portion of the Professional Engineer licensure exam. This means I have to go back to California and take the test again. Which means I have to spend another $500 or so before I can get reimbursed. And my reimbursement is only going to be about $2,500. I figure I've already spent over $5,000 on this test. The worst part is letting my friends and family down. I feel so bad that everybody was rooting for me and I still failed. *sigh*

My man made me feel a bit better with some delicious (and healthy) cedar plank grilled tillapia and roasted potatoes with herbs fresh from the garden. Then I was off to the gym. I didn't feel like going, but was kind of hoping it'd make me feel better. Not so.

Today my personal trainer actually managed to make me cry. I did a very slow 10 minutes on the treadmill. Then Brian directed me to the stair stepper. I wasn't thrilled, but I'll give anything a go at least once. Let's just say it didn't go well. I thought we had already gotten passed this, but I guess I have to say it again: for the most part, when I say I'm done, I really mean it! Well, I tried to tell him I didn't have any more to give, but he kept telling me not to quit, so I kept trying. At least until I was crying too hard to breathe properly. Finally I just stopped and refused to try anymore. Finished the shitty workout with 10 minutes on the rowing machine. I'm glad I don't go back 'til Friday.

Trying to salvage the rest of my evening by rocking out to Pandora and buying some new music for my iPod. Trying not to think about having to put "complete PE" on my development plan for the fourth year in a row...