going bonkers, one meeting at a time

    I was 10 minutes late for the meeting. I could have left an hour early and I'd still have been late.
    Didn't take the laptop. Frankly, I didn't have time to wrap up the cords and things and bag it before I left. I spent way too much of my early morning ogling the adorable mason. It's just as well, because since I was so late I got a crappy seat (as I slunk sheepishly into the room) and wouldn't have been able to plug in from where I was.
    The meeting itself: ugh.
    There were two relatively friendly faces in the room. One sort of friendly. Two facade-friendly but notoriously two-faced. The rest fall into two categories: 'mediocre' or 'openly hostile'. The latter group is headed by one profoundly annoying woman who I would gladly smack the crap out of. ("Out of whom I would gladly smack the crap"?)
    Several of the agenda items (not "bullet points" but rather "data daisies") were relatively noncontroversial (considering the group) and so took very little time. It became contentious maybe an hour in. I attempted to restore order, which is impossible, and did what I could to hold my tongue when I was personally disparaged and the group from which I sprang was disparaged, collectively.
    I lunched with one of the friendlies (the new chair of the committee) and two of the mediocre, who fall on the more positive side of that insult. (Which sounds so awful but seriously, if you knew these people, you'd know what a gift it is.) The meal itself was utterly wretched. The company could have been much worse.
    Ninety minutes remained after we regrouped. The contentiousness increased exponentially with every item covered. It was downright ugly. It was all I could do to not literally muss a couple of people the fuck up.
    Afterward, one of the two-faced people snagged me so he could tell me what a joy it was to see me, and how he appreciated my presence and input "as always." What a giant crock of hooey. He probably appreciated that I didn't give in to my violent thoughts, which were playing out clearly on my face.
    Once he was done with me, I scampered out to the car, stripped off the bitchy black blouse (leaving the white cami--much more comfortable for the drive north in bright sun with no clouds), cranked up the 3 Doors Down CD, and hit the highway. I made very good time. I also made a couple of "friends" driving trucks, hee hee. (Much waving and honking.) It was a lovely drive, very fast and absolutely gorgeous weather. I'm never out at that time of day; I loved it.
    Back at the office, I'd thought to get 90+ minutes of work done. Ha! As soon as I logged on, the Sleekster popped in with some IM yapping (which is a good thing), coworker G wanted to talk (which is a good thing), and the head cheese came in to debrief. And just to "bond", I guess. (Her best buddy is taking a couple of days off, so she's lonely. Obviously lonely. It's pathetic, how obvious she is. About her second-choice-ism.) She sat hunched over my desk, destroying a great opportunity to IM with Sleek, intervening in a great conversation with coworker G, and basically making a pain in the ass of herself. Surprise, surprise.
    So. Now, home. Pedicure ("Blushingham Palace"), a very light dinner, and the Cubs. And a little more Sleek, assuming he can keep from being too pervy. In all, a pretty good day. (Man, what a great drive.) Hope it was likewise for y'all, too.