A tiny NO11 Victory

A couple weeks ago, at the Destination Wedding I've alluded to, I helped one of the bridesmaids alter her dress on the day before the wedding. Overall it went fine, it took awhile, but I thought the results were great. The main hitch was trying to hem the newly repaired sleeves with the matching, thick cotton quilting thread and it kept jamming my machine because of the stretchy, chiffon fabric. So I gave the dress back to the owner with a needle and thread and instructions to hand stitch those two little sleeve hems.

The next morning-- the day of the wedding-- as I was getting ready to head out to the hair appointment, she happened to mention that she hadn't found time to do the hems and would I like to do them for her. And... WAIT FOR IT...

"No, I won't have time either. If you must, find a sharp pair of sewing scissors, cut a very clean edge on the sleeves and let it go at that."

Booyah. NO11.

NO11

Learn to say no already is in full swing. The ordination reception I'm helping to coordinate is coming up next weekend... and as happy as I am for the friend being ordained, taking on one more thing in my life right now was a huge mistake... and the worst part of it is that I KNEW IT, I just couldn't say no. Grrrrr.

I really shouldn't whine, I don't feel like I've done that much, but it really is the one more thing right now that is pushing me to my limits. And I feel guilty for not having more time and energy to helping out. So it's really a lose lose situation. Sigh. Learn to say no already Reenie.

Maybe the second half of NO11 will be more successful...

NO11

While I have a long way to go for a successful NO11, I made two small strides this week:

1. I said no to a work meeting on Saturday ("just a half day"). Instead part one of that meeting starts at 7 am tomorrow, which is still infinitely better than working on a Saturday.

2. I reiterated to my boss that I am ready to get my life back. I must leave sooner. I am behind on everything and cannot seem to find more hours in the day. He's supportive and has been trying to help me get out the door sooner. There's hopefully relief in sight at least on the drama side of things and an item that has been sucking about half of my day most days lately. Hopefully Friday will at least help wrap that project up and let me just do my regular crazy job.

There. It isn't perfect, but I'm making progress. Go NO11!!

Balance?

Well, the week was far from balanced, but I did finally escape the office after working a mere 51.5 hours (only 1.5 hrs more than my goal). I had to fight for it, especially today. After a frazzling week, I could hardly face going in this morning. But I had an 11:00 meeting scheduled and prep to do for it. My plan was to leave directly after that meeting. Instead it got bumped to 12:00, and as we were meeting, E said he'd have me in his 1:00 meeting to go over some more stuff there. I was very clear- "I'm leaving early." So he said we'd talk my piece at the beginning. Then he got a text asking to move the 1 pm meeting till 2 pm. I looked him in the eye and said firmly, "I won't be here." So he canceled the meeting altogether. And I left the office at 2 pm. Whew.

Maybe next week we'll try for 48 hours ...

And for the count: NO11 Success!!

Another great reason to learn to say no...

Maybe you had last Monday off work, coming home from retreat. And then maybe Tuesday hits with a vengeance. You can't take two days off work without paying for it. Maybe there was interoffice fighting, right in front of you. Maybe it was the week before a big tradeshow. Maybe your job is more than one person can handle. So you work like a fiend all week. Trying to keep things going, moving on track, details, details, details. Maybe you're supposed to go to this meeting at the tradeshow Friday for everyone to touch base and make sure it's all set, and then you're going to go work from home for the rest of the afternoon to do prep for a big issue / meeting on Monday afternoon. Instead stuff at the show isn't set, isn't ready, and instead you spend the whole afternoon there, working, doing what needs to be done now.

Then you work the show most of the day on Saturday (longer than you should have, in fact). Exhausting but good. You finally leave, you've got one hour before dinner plans. So rather than attacking the large and time consuming project you were going to do Friday afternoon... and then Saturday afternoon... you clean the leaves out of the flower bed in front and prune the rosebush. It only seems right. You then take the evening off.

Sunday hits with a vengeance. The weekend is nearly over and it hasn't really begun. Work work work. You wake up dreaming about it. You go to Mass, relax for a few minutes (by which I mean enter "the zone" where you morph into some altered state of being totally devoid of thought, purpose, or ability to move). And then you have to run out for an afternoon meeting for this ordination celebration stuff... the stuff you absolutely want to get behind and support, but you are simply too tired, too busy, too overworked. You should have said no to begin with. Why on earth are you going to this meeting???

NO11 Fail. Learn to say NO already.

NO11

A good family friend of ours is becoming a priest this spring. I am very very happy for him! However, I was surprised to get a voicemail asking me if I would be interested in helping plan his ordination events. Keep in mind, I've known this guy for my whole life. He's a close friend of the family, but I can't say he's a close personal friend. He and I don't keep in touch or hang out or anything. But we have history. Deep family history. And then I got this voicemail asking if I would be interested in helping to plan his ordination reception and events.

Um. I was floored. Why me? Then I thought of my dad, who keeps in very close touch with this friend, and suddenly this smelled of KC. I called to berate him and he said it was the lovely deacon's idea. "Reenie is good at organizing. Maybe I'll give her a call." Still fishy if you ask me, but what can you do?

So back to that voicemail. I listened to it twice and groaned. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the minute I returned that call, I'd say yes to something -- and probably more than I can really handle right now. Heck, I can't really handle my own life lately, why on earth would I sign up to help someone else? And yet... I knew that the second I talked to him it would be over. I would be signed up.

So I put it off. And was out late a few evenings. And nearly forgot. Until that second voicemail, asking me if I'd be interested in helping plan his ordination events. Oh boy. So I waited 3 more days. And made the fateful phone call.

It was like watching a train wreck about to happen. I started the conversation saying that I was working really hard to not overcommit my life right how. He agreed, "great, yeah, sounds great." And heard myself agree to consider being the "head organizer." Not just on the team, but sure, why not... NO11 FAIL.

HOWEVER, I will give myself like 1/100th of a point because when he emailed to confirm the next step, I said I thought I should wait until after the committee meeting to actually commit to being the lead organizer since then I would know what I was getting into.

Okay, who am I kidding, I won't be able to say no face to face any easier than on the phone. NO11 FAIL.

NO11 Progress

I was really burned out this past Sunday (from an overly social and overly busy week)... and managed to say no to a friend I did want to hang out with but realized I was too blitzed to handle it and needed some solitude. Did you get that? I said No. Let's do it another time.

NO11. Oh yeah.

NO11

Any of you who know me at all or anyone who has ever stumbled across my blog probably know I have trouble saying no. "Hello, I'm Reenie, I can't say no." "Hi Reenie."

This relates very closely with my "Take down the sign Reenie" thing. I can't say no AND people I don't even know randomly pour out their souls to me and want to be my BFF.

Anyway, I'm working on both. I decided 2011 needs to be the year of NO. And, then realized one evening, that if you turned a 2 sideways, it could be an "N" and then my designer friend KFog made this brilliant logo for me.

And here's where you come in... This will be the front of the t-shirt or sweatshirt (can't decide which). But what about the tagline on back??? There are several suggestions floating around already and I'm sure you can come up with more.

"Maybe"
"The nodding of my head does not mean I am saying yes"
"So don't ask"
"Ish"
"Take down the sign Reenie"

I'm also thinking maybe I should get sweatpants with "NO" across the butt too, just for good measure and to be totally klassy.

NO11 probably deserves it's own category on here. I may have to record my successes (too many failures to count already-- did I mention taking my boss's kids home from work a couple weeks ago?). Anyway, here's to NO11. Any and all advice and/or encouragement and/or merciless mocking is appreciated.