So if last week was the single worst week of my professional life, then this one is a significant improvement! I went into the office today for my annual performance review and learned that I'd received a promotion! My boss hadn't been sure when our teams budgets would allow for a promotion, so she initially set my expectations pretty low; thus today's news came as a huge surprise - not because I wasn't ready to be promoted but because I just didn't think it would happen in this timeframe. I was planning for six months down the road!

Until today, my official title was one well below my skill-set, and I was happy there for a variety of reasons: when I was first (re)hired I was still in school and just needed a job that paid well but that I could handle easily and not stress me out too much. And then my MS hit and so I continued to need something fairly low-key-ish. But I've now been working full time again for more than a year and growing increasingly anxious and bored with the work I was doing: I just wasn't being challenged.

It's looking like, in this new position, I'll get to do more of the things I really enjoy doing - planning and management - and less of the day-to-day, in-the-trenches type work. It's also looking like I may get to manage someone directly!

And, on top of the yummy lunch my boss treated me to and the promotion (and a raise!), they also upgraded my laptop to Vista, so it's been an interesting adventure getting used to that... I've been using Windows XP for so long it's hard to get used to doing things a new way!

So it's been a pretty good day. I'm even feeling better rested and a bit more mentally stable. WOO! And I've got a week-long vacation on the books for early next month plus a long-weekend scheduled for the end of this one. Time off is good. Having a vacation in sight makes going to work every day much easier!