My professional life and my family life don’t often intersect. They are at opposite ends of the spectrum of my life. Mainly because I try to keep it that way.

At least for now…

It’s not that I don’t want the kids involved in what I do at work, it’s just that the kids are too young to understand what I do. The kids don’t know how to behave around my office and they’re too young to accompany me to meetings and other work-related events.

And besides, my job really isn’t that interesting to them like if I was a fireman or policeman or princess…

When I work at home they constantly interrupt me and if I’m talking on the phone they want to talk to whomever I’m with on the phone.

So, there is a stark contrast between my home life and my work life. At one I’m the boss, at the other I’m bossed. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which one is which.

But, sometimes because of the nature of my work, the two converge and my professional life overlaps into my family life. Problems arise and decisions need to be made that can’t wait until I’m sitting behind my desk at the office.

But when they do converge, they don’t necessarily integrate well. It is like two alternate universes colliding!

Here’s what I mean. One day recently I was off work and doing the family grocery shopping. I had a particularly long grocery list that day. I hadn’t been grocery shopping in over a week and I had resolved in this new year to try to cook more nutritional meals.

For this shopping trip I had assembled a particularly detailed list of foods and ingredients I needed to purchase for my cookery.

At my job much of my time and effort for some months now has been devoted to a construction project, which has also required the acquisition and development of a large tract of land.

So, while I’m at the grocery store, I get a call from our attorney who is working on the land deal. The conversation went something like this:

Attorney: “Can you talk for a minute?
Me (as I’m pushing my grocery cart down the snack foods aisle): “Sure”
Attorney: “We’ve hit another snag on the easements across the new property.”
Me: “Oh, no! Why does this always have to happen?”
Attorney: “Sorry, but these things are complicated.”
Me: “They never have those chocolate pudding pouches. They always have the vanilla and the banana ones but they only like the chocolate. This is so aggravating.”
Attorney: “You mean the property easement?”
Me: “No, the pudding…”

After talking to the attorney, he wanted me to call the surveyor and be sure we were on schedule to file the proper paperwork for obtaining a building permit by the deadline:

Me (as I’m pushing my grocery cart down the condiments aisle): “Can you talk for a minute?
Surveyor: “Sure.”
Me: “How are we coming on the legal descriptions for the easements on the property?
Surveyor:”We should have everything ready to file the preliminary plat by the deadline.
Me: “Great, that’s just what I was looking for!”
Surveyor: “I’m glad we could get it prepared on time.”
Me: “Yeah, that’s good because they like the peanut butter with the grape jelly mixed in it the best.”
Surveyor: “You mean the preliminary plat, right?”
Me: “No the peanut butter…”

A few minutes later and while still grocery shopping I receive a call from our architect who is designing the new building. The conversation went something like this:

Architect: “Can you talk for a minute?
Me (as I’m pushing my grocery cart through the meat and deli section): “Sure”
Architect: “We’ve tried to cut out some construction costs like you requested by eliminating the big parking lot to the west and adding a smaller parking lot to the north.”
Me: “Great, that will save some money.”
Architect: “Yes, we won’t have to move that sewer line either so that will also lower the construction costs.”
Me: “OK, that’s a bargain. They have all the ingredients for the crock-pot pot roast in one shrink-wrapped package so I don’t have to buy the meat and all the veggies separately. What a deal!”
Architect: “You mean the parking lot?”
Me: “No, the pot roast…”