Work & Life & McCalls 8098

I am feeling rather thoughtful, but it's not organizing into the broad strokes just yet.  I have started a few extra paragraphs to this post but it's not... flowing.  It's too detailed to be sortable, too long to be a bullet list.  So we'll start with a few details and maybe this week I'll gain some perspective.  I know there is something floating around in my head.

In my last performance review, I stated that I enjoyed teaching and it was something I'd like to do more of.  I sure am getting that opportunity, but it's wrecking havoc with my Mondays.  They should be spent on ad hoc projects or administration stuff, meetings with my manager, that kind of thing.  Lately my day seems to fill with meetings, the small spaces of time are filled teaching someone something and I get to 5pm and realize I still have my own work to do.  Sigh.

I am enjoying the time instructing others.  It's refreshing to see our data through new eyes and appreciate my own knowledge.  The one guy I'm working with is like a 24 year old puppy, so eager to make us all happy and show us how much he can do but you just want him to sit for a bit.  Working directly with people like that is good for me, it keeps me focused and productive.  I don't leave feeling useless like I did a few months ago.  Still, I worked quite late last night because I needed the quiet to focus.
The dinner with my family went... okay.  Mr. Lina found he couldn't look at my SIL and hung out with my brothers playing on very old gaming systems, like Super Nintendo, possibly even breaking out the Atari.  My SIL parents were there and they made things awkward at times.  I spent most of the evening avoiding them as they fawned over their daughter and talking about the baby or being grandparents or whatever (English is their second or perhaps third language so none of this phrased particularly tactfully but I get it's not intentional).  My other SIL (the one separating from Scot) was there and I'm still not sure who knew what.  Scot waited until Clone was out of the room to ask Mr. Lina if he knew, so I'm suspecting Clone didn't.  She said things about her new apartment around my mom so maybe they know, but Mom never said anything that confirmed that she did or did not know.  It was a very strange evening of keeping track of who to say what to.  I managed to stay sober and I didn't cry.  That's a win.

I did spend an awful lot of time in my sewing room this weekend.  ElleC graciously added McCalls 8098 to the "orange stash" I won in a giveaway.  I thought it might be nice in the silk noil.  The catch is that my bust in my (now favourite) retro styling bra is 44".  The pattern is for a 32" bust.  That's some serious grading/FBA to do.  My waist was about 10" off, hips 8" (as much as I have a round bum and like pants for curvy girls, sewing emphasizes I'm not a pear).  A LOT of flat pattern measuring was going on all weekend, figuring out my size, the pattern size, the ease, where I needed the extra inches and how much to add.  So, I am making progress, I spent a lot of time in my sewing room, but I don't have much to show off beyond really bad bust darts.  I'm hoping fresh eyes will see how to fix that particular problem.  The left side looks pretty terrible as I remember. The worst part is that the dart was fairly large and I trimmed some of the extra fabric, so just moving it up is not so easy.  Let's file that under "learning the hard way".  Last night it was too late when I got home to really do it justice, hopefully I'll do better tonight.  Mr. Lina is golfing tonight so I have the evening to myself.