Still Learning the Balance of Work

I know for a fact that at least one of you who will read this entry has been in a job where MOST of your job is an interruption. As in, you wouldn't have a job if it weren't for the interruptions -- those pretty much ARE the job. I've had one of those, and I really did enjoy it -- I kind of like being the Answer Man.

However, I don't have a job like that right now. Currently, I have a job that requires actual concentration and relative quiet. I have to synthesize technical information and make it come back out into a highly structured document that any fool could understand AND have it be translatable into, say, Korean or Dutch. Now, concentration is a skill I have shockingly little of, even though I don't have ADD. No, really I don't. Oh, look, a chicken! Um, anyway, right now, it's truly not my responsibility to do any of the following:

• answer everyone's questions regarding things they should have learned had they listened while attending the same meeting I did. (I saw you there, bub. I did. And I managed to learn this stuff even while blood was spurting out of my ears as a direct result of sheer boredom.)
• create tools for everyone to use to do his or her job better.
• listen to people conduct 7 hours of personal business on the phone (no shit.)
• answer every walk-up query regarding grammar, punctuation, and fashion.
• answer every walk-up query TWICE.

All I'm saying here, people, is that I KNOW I'm social. And usually I'm up for some chit-chat, joke telling, and showing off of the new tattoos. But if I have my headphones on, and LOUD music playing in there, and every time you walk up, I have a hard time concealing the fact that my eyes are rolling back in my head, MAYBE YOU SHOULD LEAVE ME ALONE. Maybe you should listen in those mind-numbing meetings so we can both get our jobs done.

Or, maybe I should go out in search of the Optimum Margarita on a government grant. I bet I could get one.

--Stacey