The good news is that they're closing the office tomorrow at noon, so I'll be able to deliver the date report I promised tomorrow afternoon.

In other work news, the psyCOO called me into her office this morning and gave me a rather generous bonus for sort of taking the leadership role in the department during the time that we've been without an executive editor. Of course, I told her that I couldn't have done it without everyone's supportive cooperation and uncomplaining acceptance of additional responsibilities and assignments.

She asked if there was anything else I wanted to say or comment on, and I had to do a hard thing. You know that she really rubs the wrong way with the senior member of my department, who's a little weird herself. Well, I had to tell her, frankly, that, knowing that one of the magazines dropping to six times a year was going to mean losing a person, that I would rather they let the most junior member go (a female in her early 20s) than the senior member (a female in her 40s). I don't want anybody to lose their job, but the one will leave a much smaller wound than the other.

This is the first time I've ever had to make such an opinion known. This is the first time I've been in this sort of downsizing atmosphere.

The psyCOO told me that I'd probably just saved the senior member's job. Which means I just cost the junior member hers. And I have to talk to the senior about her attitude. Whee.

Well, enough of this. It's business. I can't tear myself up over it. You may have noticed that work is not the highest of my priorities. By that, I mean that my family and my life come before work. Work is just a job; it's not my life.

To end on a cheery note, it looks like I might get to meet Pischina on my trip out west in January. How cool is that? You're all so jealous. I can feel it from here.