Today Was a Good Day

My glasses and I are a bit wet from our drizzly walk to the supermarket and back, but a few items were needed for tomorrow's "feast" so it had to be done. It's chilly, foggy and sprinkling, but it's nice out all the same. I know that sounds strange, especially considering I wouldn't normally describe an evening like this as nice. I think it must be the mood I'm in today. The fact that a branch leaped out and hit me in the face on my way home didn't sour my mood either, oddly enough. Okay, so it didn't come out of nowhere, but my glasses don't have windshield wipers, and I had no idea the branch was sticking out right there in front of my face; had I known I would've avoided the branch naturally. ;)

This weekend I was not in such a great mood. Two people I know had visits to the ER. Once was released the next day, and the other is still there at the hospital. Both are doing just fine, but both have fairly serious health issues if you think about it. So I'm not thinking about it.

I am seriously behind on my NaNoWriMo word count. I'm one-fifth of the way there with a little over five days to go. *headdesk* My own fault, but I still have hope for this coming weekend.

The beginning of the week was not so nice for me at work. Nothing bad happened, it's just that the paperwork is piling up, and there are no helpful hands. I've got piles and piles of stuff to do, and the hands that are supposed to be helpful simply give me more stuff before leaving early for the day so it appears that the hands have done their work, while not following through on anything I've passed along to those hands. Leaving me to do take care of that as well. And that's the most polite way to describe it. C'est la vie.

And I intended to have several Christmas ornaments made for the etsy shop by this weekend. That hasn't happened yet. I did start on one Saturday, but then I put it all aside when the Bean came over, and never picked it back up again.

Today, however, went really well. No one yelled at me at work. Not one person. This is always a good thing. :) Everyone was in a pleasant mood, at work, outside of work, at the post office, in the coffee shop. :) To top it all off, I received two lovely letters today. One from my Dad (yay!). The other from someone I hadn't expected to write me back so that was a real treat. Two lovely surprises from two lovely people, and tomorrow all the sisters will be here for Thanksgiving. So it's a good mood for me all around. All kinds of awesomeness.

Oh, and "The Philanthropist" will be released on DVD, January 5, 2010! In time for my birthday. :) (and yes, that's a hint!)

p.s. Thaer Abdallah, my friend Sheila's hubby, has another art show in December at the 1369 Coffee House in Inman Square if anyone's interested. Opening reception is this Monday, December 7, courtesy of Out of the Blue Art Gallery.

Is Big Foot Next? *g*

Just got home about 15 minutes ago. I thought Monday would be dreadful. Today was very, very long.

I'm still working on my spies, and I wanted to start planning for this year's NaNoWriMo. No writing for me tonight though. My eyes are sleepy so I won't get much accomplished. I just wanted to quickly point out this short little article I ran across: Chupacabra Found! I see or hear "chupacabra," and I think of The X-Files. Bees, oil, corn fields, the hantavirus, chupacabra and more .. all forever associated with X-Files. ;) Mulder would be pleased.

Oh! and Bean has enjoyed her first few days of K. :)

Must eat now.

Best Laid Plans

A few minutes after the last post, the Bean returned from her playdate and decided she wanted to stay over night. How can you say "no" to that? So all the plans for yesterday afternoon, evening and night fell away. Same with most of today. As of 6:40pm my time the Bean was safely on her way. There's still time to do things .. just not so much. Simply a typical weekend for me. My time is hardly my own.

But it was fun. She's only this age for a blink in time, and I'm very lucky she wants to spend some of her time with me. :) Blink! She's grown some more. *sigh* Her first day of school is tomorrow. She is excited, and I'm excited for her. The school sounds very child-oriented, which you would think a school would be, but many aren't. She's smart, a fantastic listener, a really good kid. She should do really well in school. She keeps telling me she wants to learn about science. :) Learning to read is another thing she's looking forward to. :)

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.. I wish I could extend this weekend and not have to go into work tomorrow. I dread tomorrow. It'll be a miserable day, and I'm almost guaranteed to be yelled at by at least two people, if not more. Definitely one person. It won't be fun. And I have so much work to do .. and not much help in getting it done. (But really, who in the world does, right? We all have this problem. I know it; I'm not alone.) *sigh* Every single person expects me to give him or her all my time and attention. Which is nice. I want to do that. But there are only so many hours in a day -- the lights shut off at 10pm so I can't be at the office beyond that -- and there are too many people vying for my attention. Plus, the boss adds extra work each day. And the coworker hands me off her work all the time. And then there's the work I'm *supposed* to be doing. I figure each person who wants my time & attention takes, on average, anywhere from 15 min. to 5 hours. That is, some take far less. Some require more - maybe several days or weeks of time & research - blah! And any given day there are at least five new people looking for attention and three carryover people looking for attention. Tomorrow will be a day filled with more demands on time than usual (some polite; some not so much) because it's scheduled as a very busy afternoon, and I figure that I won't be leaving until late yet I still won't be accomplishing much .. except for being yelled at. Again, I say, Blah.

Days Off Should Be Required Every Week

Thursday and Friday were days off for me. Yay for sanity! Boo for next week's pay check. ;) If only I could afford the sad paycheck, I would opt for sanity every time. Anyway, I finally got myself a new library card. (#32 of 101 in 1001? Check!) I did that Thursday after running errands and going for a nice walk but before the Bean was dropped off for a sleepover.

On Friday, we'd intended to attend St. Anthony's Festival in the North End, and Bean wanted to join us, but it turned out the festivities wouldn't start 'til 7pm. Much too late for Bean. So we had a little walk along the waterfront instead. Unfortunately, the Bean wasn't up to it so we couldn't do much. She did have a wonderful time, though, running up and down some stairs, admiring some yachts, watching one of the ferries turn around, gazing at the harbor seals and then riding the carousel. She also tried some chicken terriyaki and decided she wanted that for lunch instead of a hot dog. :) At one point my mom's hat flew off her head and made its way to the middle of Atlantic Ave. A very nice man went out to retrieve it for her. My mom commented that he was a gentleman, and the Bean agreed that he was kind before she decided my mom was in love with the gentleman and wanted him to be my mom's boyfriend. Beanie declared it was all very romantic. :)

Today Bean's at a playdate but should be returning soon. Later, after all the playing is done, I'll probably write a bit (working on those spies!) and continue with Halloween items (bookmarks, most likely) for Estella Dawn. One thing I won't be doing is thinking about work. Not openly anyway. Monday is going to be an awful mess in more ways than one. (Oh, yes! and one man commented to me today that my printing is smaller than a typewritten word. Yeah, somewhere in my adult life my penmanship went seriously downhill, and I often have to fit so much info. in small spaces on forms or in notebooks at work. I think my dad calls my writing "scritchy." *g*)