I thought, even as I was on my way home from work today that I would write a real post. When we were headed back from the dog park at 6pm, I still thought I was going to write a real post. In fact, up until about three minutes ago, I thought I had the energy to write a real post. But, I don’t.

This is how I survive the crazy- I surround myself with cuteness.

I’ve spent the last two days trying to help the directors of my department come up with over $XXXk in cuts. If we had expected this, it would have been one thing, but when I left work on Tuesday, our department was under budget by $XXk. I arrived Wednesday morning to an email from our VP asking us to cut over $XXXk (and, I don’t get to count the $XXk I was under budget toward the money I now have to cut from the budget). And, oh, by the way, you need to have your cuts input into the financial software by Thursday at 5pm.

So guess what I’ve spent the last two days doing? Providing budget reports to my directors (oh, and having to format them because our financial software spits them out in a way that is nearly indecipherable to people who don’t use it all the time), and then meeting with them individually and as a collective to decide our department strategy. As of tonight, we haven’t closed the gap completely, but they’ll get to meet with our VP tomorrow and argue about that.

So, it has been a stressful couple of days. I like my work, and I am good at what I do, though I made some stupid copy and paste mistakes (more than I find acceptable) as I was trying to get information to my directors quickly enough to give them time to make some decisions. While I work well under pressure (I am a procrastinator), I do like to have enough time to proof my work and not send spreadsheets with bad information.

To go along with that, this week I started taking a course through Coursera. I figured that if I’m going to write about how I think this is the future of education here, I should at least try it myself. I am thrilled that American Debt Project is taking this course with me.

And really, what could be cuter than a wagon full of puppies?

There are 6 8-12 minute lectures to watch this week and I’ve only made it through 4 of them. Tomorrow should be a pretty down day at the office (directors meet with the VP, I can’t make any more changes in the financial software until next week), so I’m hoping to watch the final two on my lunch break.

And now, the season premiere of Big Bang Theory is on, so I’ll leave you with this article from Liz Weston about Money Lessons from Our Pets.