TGIF!

Frenzy is absolutely justified, right?

It’s Friday, the last working day. I have the weekend, followed by two days PTO. I’m super stoked.

This week was crazy. Even though many team members were on vacation, my life wasn’t easy as I was supposed to finish an epic. With age, I’m becoming more forgetful about work-related stuff (I still remember the first story I wrote, and what it was about, but I forgot that the epic’s deadline was 30-Dec-2025 and not 31-Dec-2025.

What difference does one day make?

Plenty!

Those who work with deadlines, know. Especially if you have an alan (think anagram) boss, it becomes a nightmare. I couldn’t sleep that night (not that I ever do), more restless than ever. After Fajr prayers, I generally go back to bed, but no on Wednesday. I finished namaz, and logged in, thinking I’d be able to finish my work, close the tickets in my name before the rest of the team wakes up. Good idea, right?

Nah!

There is a sporadic know issue which prevented me from completing the flow. Did I need an excuse to go back to bed?

Yes, please!

And then I spent the day mostly glued to my chair, forget about all the reminds about:

• get up every hour,
• walk for a few minutes
• stretch body
• talk to mum and see if she has more stories to share (she’s a great storyteller, and I keep telling her she should write stories)

It wasn’t until around 5:30 PM that I felt at peace. Things were in place, and it looked good for me to sign-off and start my personal to-do list. The excitement is more because I’ve taken two days PTO next week. When the world around me was on a winter-break, I enjoyed working peacefully. Now, it’s my turn.

Today’s special was cleaning up the store room upstairs. My mum has been talking about it for weeks. Today, we did. And guess what? We found an abaya that has been missing for 2.5 years. We had searched for it everywhere and had even given an ad in the newspaper.

Missing Abaya: Light grey, sequinned, butterfly pattern.

Shabana Mukhtar