All The Feels

My Dear Princess and Dear Friends,

Today was BUH-NONKERS. 

It just never stopped. I guess this is me paying the price for having an easy time of it last week with the team just running itself. This week we have had a seriously huge request come in from left field that has us scrambling. I've spent most of today debating and drafting and coming up with recommendations. 

Fortunately the team IS awesome and the debates have been fun. But still.

Ellie has continued to be a source of joy at work for me this week. And I think it is because she and I are both creations of Shenée, if you will. 

Ellie explained to me today how she would not be who she was at work (and certainly would not have advanced so quickly) if not for Shenée's encouragement and letting her be as creative as she wants. 

The thing is, Shenée doesn't care what your actual role is. She wants you to be YOU as much as possible and to make a role your own. In the past year, I consider my job title to be, "Professional Symon-er".

So Ellie and I have very similar experiences. Shenée just has this unique gift for recognising people's strengths and letting them off the leash to just goooooo... 

Gosh, I miss her. 

So today I spent a lot of time in meetings with Ellie and they were FUN! and PRODUCTIVE! But mainly FUN! We actually got a lot of useful stuff and things done in between larfs and I came away feeling good. But I was soon to feel even BETTER. 

"Sooooo... what are you doing on the twentieth?" she asked.

"Nothing!" I beamed because I know what SHE is doing on the twentieth. She is getting MARRIED!

And so yes, Ellie invited me and Caro to her wedding! I am very excited about this. If I have not been absolutely clear on this before, I just love Ellie and so it feels special to me to be able to go along. Plus Shenée and Craig will be there too so we are bound to have fun. 

Ellie apologised for the short notice but explained it was because she and fiance AJ had agreed NO WORK PEOPLE to keep costs down. Shenée was therefore a handy loophole as she is NO LONGER a work person. As for me, Ellie had to have words with AJ and basically cry that she wanted me and Caro there. Which somehow made it even sweeter. 

I haven't felt this level of affection and acceptance by a large group of work people since the height of RX. It is really something I cherish.

And Caro is also VERY excited because she now gets to spend the next three weeks answering the questions:

- What am I going to wear?*
- What am I doing with my hair?
- Also eyelashes and fake tan

We were discussing this on the train today. I took Caro to Kenepuru hospital (about 30 minutes away) for an appointment with a nurse on her rheumatoid arthritis medication, and how she is feeling on it. 

You will be glad to hear that she is doing well. It is still very early days and they can't really tell yet if they need to "tweak" dosages or not. But so far, so good. 

It felt good that I was there this time to support her. Caro appreciated it too, even though I was still taking work calls and even writing emails in the waiting room. Afterward we went to the mall and bought dinner before catching the train home again and I was STILL getting texts and calls the whole time.

Even on the train the texts did not stop. Some work related, some Shenée (having got the news) saying simply "Eeeeeeee!!!" 

The nice thing is that even the work ones made me smile. We are all just friends farting about now. Making the roles our own and having fun hanging out. 

Eeeeeee!! Indeed. 

S.

p.s. I have no idea what Ellie is doing in this picture. But she texted it to me after drinking whisky. And it makes for a good blip.

* Oh sh*t. What am I going to wear???