I haven't been very good at writing in my journal lately. A lot has been going on. I went to Tennessee to visit my dad in September, and to train him on using his new website. I had a good and productive visit. When I got back, the next day, my mom flew back to NH from AZ to help me close up the cottage and then drive to Atlanta with the 3 cats. Closing up the cottage was a lot of work, and I had other things I was working on at the same time, too.

We packed up 3 boxes of bulky but light stuff that I wanted to take to Atlanta but wouldn't fit in my car, and 1 box of stuff to send to Dan, and took that stuff to the post office to ship. The night before we left (Friday night, Sept 28) we did most of the cleanup and moving of furniture and stuff that we do to close up the cottage, like bringing in all the porch furniture into the living room, stashing the kayaks in the bedroom on end, and covering all the couches with old sheets. We also did all the laundry and dishes made the beds up, etc.

I covered all the car seats with old bedsheets I got for $1 each at a thrift store (for cat fur purposes--my mom is very allergic) and loaded up some stuff in the car on Friday, but told my mom that I was going to need to do a significant amount more in the morning before we left, especially putting stuff in the roof topper we got for the car (a fabric one that straps onto the roof via webbing straps that come around and though the car).

Saturday morning it was raining, as it had been for 2 days. It was also pretty cold. Again, as it had been. I got up at 6:30 or 7... can't remember. Anyway, I started to finish loading the car, which I had told my mom I needed to do... she started getting upset with me saying we were going to be late, etc. She had wanted to leave the house at 8am... but she had never told ME that. If I had known she wanted to be driving away at 8am I would have gotten up earlier, because I knew I had so much more packing to do (stuff that really *couldn't* be done the night before, and it was difficult and awkward to load that car topper, especially being a short person).

We also had to sort out what food we were taking with us in the cooler, which food we were giving to the neighbors, and which food we were throwing out. Then the cooler had to be packed into the car. I put three pillows and then a towel over the stuff in the back seat (suitcases, cooler...) so that it would be comfy to lie down on for the kitties. I put a litterbox in the footwell on the passenger side.

Finally it was time for the cats. The cat carriers were packed with random crap and loaded in the trunk the day before--we weren't going to use them on the drive. We had bought each of them a comfortable velcro & buckle harness and a 5' leash. One by one I caught them and put them in their harnesses and attached the leashes and took them to the car. The handle of the leashes was attached with a carabiner to this thing on the back dash (my mom says it's something for child restraints?) so they were tethered in.

Then my mom and I got in the car and we were ready to go. She was a little annoyed that we were running so late--we were supposed to meet her cousin in New York for lunch at a specific time--but we were finally on our way!

Or were we? The driveway is just a wide dirt path covered in pine needles, and it's kind of steep... the cottage itself is just situated on a hill in the woods next to the lake. It's all trees, all around. And it had been raining for days. And the car was packed down heavily. So my mom put the car in Drive and put on the gas... and we moved forward maybe two feet and then the tires started spinning. After a few failed attempts at moving forward, I said I'd go get some cardboard. Lord knows we had enough empty boxes in the house.

I came back out and put cardboard in front of the front tires. My mom put on the gas. The tires spun, shredded the cardboard, and shot it like a cannon out past the back of the car. Ok. Cardboard was out. "I'll go get some wood," I said, knowing there was a huge amount of scrap lumber upstairs from the construction. I came back down with two boards, probably about 1"x8"s or 2"x8"s, about 5 feet long apiece. I put them in front of the tires and behold! The car drove up them!! Then when it got to the ends of the boards, the tires just spun out. I picked up the boards and put them in front of the tires again. The driveway was getting steeper at this point and the tires spun and I smelled burning... either rubber or wood or both. But eventually the car did make it onto the wood. However, the momentum it got carried it far enough that the back tires were on the boards. I couldn't bring them back around to the front again...

My mom sent me in for some of the old, ugly rugs that came with the house when it was purchased 47 years ago, that have been rolled up and stored under the couch ever since. I put the rugs, face down, in front of the tires. We tried to go forward again. I should add at this point that I'd also been pushing the back of the car each time we tried to move... and that I was splattered with mud up my arms and that the water in the cottage was already turned off...

The rugs worked, but they'd slip and bunch up behind the tires, so I had to move them a lot. Sometimes, one tire would come clear of the rug, but the other rug would still be pinned down by its tire, so the car wouldn't move because the wheel with the pinned rug would spin... so my mom went in for yet another old rug. Finally we made it up the driveway. It had taken us a full hour from the time we'd gotten in the car. And keep in mind, the driveway is maybe... 50'? 75' at most long.

I started picking up the rugs, boards, and cardboard (not to mention the shovel that my mom had gotten out at one point) but my mom said just leave it. The guy who comes to finish closing up the cottage could pick it up and move it inside onto the screened porch. I made a very quick and uncomfortable attempt at getting the mud and grime off my arms and hands with the only running water source still on--the spigot for the hose. The water was cold as hell (well water, in New Hampshire) and without soap or any kind of washcloth, I didn't really get it all off.

Finally we were in the car and driving. We were, of course, going to be too late to meet Casey for lunch, and she and her husband had dinner plans (we were staying the night in a hotel near their house) but we would have time to go visit her an see her house (my mom had been there before, I hadn't). We made it down pretty easily. My mom drove so that I could "cat wrangle" for her. The cats were taking a little while to settle into the whole "tethered harness" thing, and they kept wanting to climb onto my mom's shoulder like the do when I'm driving (see picture to the right--that's Ronon on my shoulder on the drive from MA to NH a few days earlier). I took one of my mesh fold-up laundry baskets, folded it up, and wedged it behind that area behind her headrest between her seat and the window. I wedged the folded up dash screen behind her right shoulder. This mostly stopped them from climbing directly onto her, though they frequently would lie down right behind her headrest.

One at a time (ok, sometimes two at a time) I'd let them sit in my lap, because otherwise they just would NOT stop trying to get into the front seat. Eventually they did calm down:



We ended up having a very nice time at Casey's house, and then we went to the hotel for the night. We had separate rooms to give my mom's allergies a break from the cats. Also, the hotel didn't allow pets, so we had to sneak them in one by one wrapped in a towel. We turned the TV on so you couldn't hear if they made any noise. I put towels over all the upholstered furniture (2 chairs) and I think they were glad to be out of the car.

The next day we drove down I-95, stopping along the NJ Turnpike to see geobabe1, unclebill35, and the twins, who came out to meet us at one of the rest areas. It was great to see them (omg those boys are HUGE!) but sad that we couldn't stay very long. Next we went to Sterling, VA to see Rob and Amber's new house and pick up Dominic. It was nice to finally see where he's living, and of course always good to see them in any case. We picked up Dominic and then went to a restaurant we used to eat at pretty often when we lived in the area, a diner called Amphora's in Herndon. We met anitavacation there and had a nice time eating lunch-ish.

Eventually it was time to take the kiddo back to Rob's, and get back on the road. We had a reservation at a Motel 6 another hour or maybe a little further down the road. They accepted cats, so that wasn't an issue. What was an issue was that we weren't sure we wanted to leave the big rooftop thing on the car, since it didn't lock or anything, just zippers and velcro, and would be easy for anyone to steal from. (The hotel the previous night was in a much nicer area and we didn't really feel as worried). So my mom and I unbuckled it (no easy task) and then hauled it off the car and into my room. It was very heavy.

I did take the opportunity to pack it better while it was on ground level, though, so in the morning when it was time to put it back on the car, it was both easier to do and sat easier and was less lumpy. It was the final day of the road trip. We were on our second audiobook. We made it in pretty good time to Atlanta, arriving after the really bad thunderstorms and tornado warnings were over, thankfully. We went to the extended-stay motel that I had reserved a month at first, mainly to let the cats out and get the keys (the office closes at 8pm) and then we went to have pizza at my cousin's house. I haven't seen my cousin or her husband in about 6 years, and I had never met their two daughters. Also, my aunt, who I haven't seen since I don't even KNOW when was there, because she lives here now. It was a good visit.

We were a little unnerved about the motel because there were tons and tons of unsupervised small children everywhere you looked. Some of the people looked fairly sketchy, too. Everyone was nice, though, and they did have one of those bellhop carts for us to unload all of our stuff with (I'm on the 3rd floor)... The room has two beds, so mom braved her allergies and stayed with me. The next day we ate at IHOP and I eventually had to take her to the airport so she could fly back to Arizona. I was so grateful that she'd flown back to help me out... we said goodbye and I went back to the motel. I hit up the grocery store, the dollar store, and Walmart for some supplies, and started trying to make the room livable. It's small, and all of our stuff was everywhere.

There is a lot more to tell about what has happened in the week and a half since that day, but I'll write it tomorrow. The highlights:

• Motel maintenance lets Ronon escape the room while I'm gone! Bands of unsupervised children join the search! Much crying ensues! There is a happy, surprise ending...


• I go to several government agencies with various subsets of paperwork to get more paperwork. Much waiting ensues!


• I obtain a Georgia driver's license!


• Medical stuff is begun (since I have no insurance, yet need both regular doctor's visits and prescriptions), more paperwork, more waiting.


• I have a job interview! It lasts 4 hours!


• I get hired to do a website for a pizzeria in New Hampshire, where I had killed time while I waited for my mom's bus to arrive from the Boston airport two weeks earlier... (I had several hours to wait due to a misunderstanding via text messages.)


• My car battery dies and has to be replaced!


• I find an apartment I want and apply for it... still waiting to hear on that one


• And finally, and still in the future as of this writing: tomorrow morning I begin a trial run working at my old company that I used to work for 6 years ago!

So I realized today that it's been... months? since I put on makeup. Probably Dan's going away party from his residency. I alway feel better when I put makeup on. So I did. And I did. So I took some pictures (learned how to use the remote on my DSLR, too!) and uploaded a new headshot to LinkedIn.



I've been teaching myself Javascript using the plan set forth here. I'm currently learning about Variables in Functions. Oh boy!

Wow, it feels really weird, but this upcoming week is my last week at work. Last week at Brandeis. I work Mon-Thurs, so Thursday after work I'll be driving back up here to New Hampshire for the last time as a work commute. I'm staying with my friend Melissa Mon, Tues, and Wed nights.

I can't believe I might not see most of these people ever again. Wow. I will miss them. I've really liked working there.

So I went to the doctor today and was diagnosed with allergy-induced cough-variant asthma, for which I was put on Prednisone and two inhalers. I've been coughing for well over a month. I hope this kills it. She also told me that my excessively dry and cracking lips are due to a vitamin D and Zinc deficiency, so I picked up some supplements at the store.

Dan hasn't signed a contract anywhere yet, but he's got a couple of leads down south. One in Marietta, one in Chatanooga. His residency ends at the end of the month, and our lease is up June 30, so we've been trying frantically to downsize. We're getting rid of a lot of stuff, including some major furniture. Going through boxes of stuff that never got unpacked because we didn't have the space... going through stuff in general and deciding what we really need and what we can get rid of. I'm taking a lot of pictures of things that are sentimental but will never be displayed, then getting rid of the actual item. Some stuff is going on ebay, some on craigslist, some I will try to sell at our group yardsale with friends in two weeks... some I'm just throwing away or donating. It's a long and difficult process.

In other news, I won 3rd place in a local art show, which runs through the end of June, so that's cool. I also sold some art to the electrician who came to fix the bathroom ventilation fan. Go me!

I can't believe we're only going to live here for 3 more weeks. We haven't scheduled a truck... have no idea where our stuff is going (storage? if so, in what state?)... The plan for me is to stay on friends' couches on work nights for the month of July, going up to the cottage in NH after work on Thursdays and coming back Monday mornings (I don't have to be at work until 11 on Mondays). Dominic and the cats will be up with my mom at the cottage. Dan is probably going to head down to Atlanta and stay with family and look for a position. It's all so up in the air right now, and it's so close... it's very stressful and anxiety inducing.

Dominic's stuff will get packed in the back of the truck and we'll drop it off at Rob's new house (rental) in Virginia on our way to Georgia. After he spends time in NH Dominic will be moving in with Rob, his girlfriend Amber, and three of her kids. Her eldest child, the one who I was concerned about, no longer lives with her and will be 18 by the time Dominic gets there and will not be living in the new house with them. So that makes the whole living-with-dad thing much less of a stressful concept for me. I think Dominic will be in a lot more stable position to finish high school with Rob than with Dan and I, since our immediate future is so completely up in the air right now. I also think Dominic will benefit from living with other kids. He's often lonely and I think that will help.

I'm going to miss my job. I like the people I work with and I like my job duties. It's going to be sad leaving. I'm also going to miss all of the friends I've made in the area. At least I have the cottage in NH that I visit every year to give me a reason to return to the area, so I can visit them.

I have all these things I want to write about, but I'm so frantically busy that I don't have the time. I want to write a review of The Hunger Games, but can't find time... etc...

Well, that's about all I've got in me for now. More later.

So last weekend was my friend muttstain's 3-day weekend gaming party that he hosts several times a year. We made it all three days for the first time ever. Saturday night I left with several of my friends to go to another friend's birthday party for a few hours, then came back to Matt's. We played Cards Against Humanity a few times, with some added cards that I made (which you can download at that link). It was a lot of fun.

Monday morning I left for work at what should have been the right time, but when I got in the car I realized I really needed gas, which was going to make me a little late (not really a big deal at my job--I just stay a few extra minutes at the end of the day and everyone is ok with it, but even so...). So I stopped at the gas station close to my house, which happens to have a full-service Dunkin Donuts inside. I decided to get a breakfast sandwich and a latte, but that was going to add even more time. I decided I'd run inside, order, pay, run back outside and fill the tank while they made the food and drink (which takes a few minutes anyway) then run back in to pick up my order.

When I got inside there were two people in line ahead of me. I said resignedly "there would be a line on the day I'm in a rush..." to myself, but aloud. The woman in front of me turned and said "oh, are you in a hurry? You can go ahead of me--I'm not." I thanked her and went ahead of her. I turned and asked her what she was getting. "oh, just an iced coffee," she said. "What size?" I asked. "Medium," she said. It was my turn to order so I said "I need a medium iced coffee," and turned to her and asked "anything in that?" She gave me a surprised look and said "oh you don't have to do that!" And I said "well you didn't have to let me go in front of you. Go ahead and give him your order..." So she said she wanted caramel in it. "Good choice," I said to her, "I'm getting caramel in mine, too." I turned to the cashier and ordered a medium caramel latte and a veggie flatbread sandwich and asked "can I pay you now and then run out and fill my car while you make it?" He agreed and I paid. The woman behind me thanked me again and I raced out the door to fill my car up with gas.

Just as I was finishing that and starting to walk back toward the door, the woman came out and said "you don't need to go inside, here's your stuff" and handed me my latte and a bag with my sandwich in it. I thanked her and got in my car and drove to work. I was only 9 minutes late and nobody even noticed. I got all my work done, left work about 10 minutes late, and everything was fine.

Wednesday my friend hnybny came over to my house after I got off from work and helped me go through more boxes of stuff. We mostly looked through boxes of stuff that I got from my grandparents. One box hadn't been opened in a very long time; it was marked simply "China." Inside was a lot of china, one full set in perfect condition from a German company called RIS--beautiful stuff--and there was a creamer and sugar bowl from a Noritake set (Japanese) and one from China that didn't have a name. We decided which of the stuff was likely to be sell-able on Ebay, which stuff should go on Craigslist, which stuff was maybe yardsale then donation material, and some stuff which just needed to be thrown away.

The two stand-out items were an Italian brass swan magazine rack, which we saw on ebay for $600 and $1200, and my grandfather's old Schell medical bag (he was a pediatrician) which we found on ebay empty for about $200, but his was full of vintage medical equipment which I could either sell in the bag as a lot, or sell separately.

Tonight is game night at Matt's house, and tomorrow I'm doing a taste-test for Greek yogurt, for which I'm being paid $50. Woohoo! This weekend, my aunt and uncle who live in Rhode Island are coming up for dinner, bringing at least one of my cousins, maybe two. We're having chimichangas and margaritas. Mmm.

Oh no! I was late this morning! How the heck did that happen?? On my Droid 3 (smartphone, and also the only alarm clock I have) I can have as many alarms set up as I want, and one of mine is a persistent alarm that goes off at 8:30am every Mon, Tues, and Wed (the days I work) and doesn't go off the rest of the days. There is no reason to ever turn it on or off--it's automatic. Today I woke up at 10:30 and freaked out. I looked at my phone and the alarm "on/off" checkbox was unchecked!!! How on earth did this happen??? I guess I'll be using an hour of vacation time on my timesheet this week!

Fortunately it seems like it's a slow day so it's not like I'm all behind on stuff or that I inconvenienced anyone, but I still feel bad. I've never been late before.

Saturday night my friend Melissa had invited a bunch of her friends to go out with her to a bar in Boston. My friends Cheryl and Gary were going to go but not drink and not stay later than midnight, so I asked if they wouldn't mind if I rode with them (leaving my car at their house) and they said sure. We grabbed the EZ-Pass out of my car since we weren't sure we had enough change for tolls on the Mass Pike.

We had a lot of fun at the bar. I limited myself to a fixed number of drinks, drunk early, and then gave myself the rest of the time to make sure I'd be ok to drive at the end. Cheryl got a free Coke for being a designated driver, which was cool. We hung out with Melissa and I ate a grilled cheese sandwich and shared my sweet potato fries with her. Eventually it was getting late and Cheryl and Gary and I left. When we got to their house I came in for a little while and we talked about stuff for a bit, then I said goodbye and drove home (I remembered to get my EZ-Pass back!).

I got home around 1:30, checked my email and such, took a bath, then got in bed and read my book until about 3:30am...so I slept until about noon. When I got up, Dan told me that this guy David, who he went to podiatry school with, was coming to visit the residency program (4th year students frequently visit programs they are interested in going to to see how they fit in and get the lay of the land so to speak) and would be staying at our house for the next two nights.

WHAT?! The house was a mess! Still all cluttered from Christmas, though we had broken down most of the shipping boxes and put those in the recycling. Dan had gotten up much earlier than I had and had already done a lot of cleaning in his room, the kitchen, and the bathrooms. I started to help work on the living room and putting away the clean dishes and such, but I had to leave at 2:30pm because I had to go to the Secret Santa swap that a group of my friends had organized and it started at 3pm.

I got there a little bit late but didn't miss anything. And I wasn't the last to arrive by far, so I didn't feel too bad. I brought some food and the gift for my Exchangee, as well as the birthday present I'd gotten Melissa (she didn't want me to bring it to the bar the previous night). We all sat around socializing, eating, and finally exchanging gifts. I got Kymberly a decent quality (at least it was highly rated) chef's knife and a knife sharpener that had been on her wish list. I got a Seinfeld trivia game, a cannister of Grand Marinier filled chocolates, a bamboo placemat and chopstick set, a small mortar and pestle, and some socks.

I finally left there around 8pm and was home by 8:30 or so. David was expected to arrive any time...

When he finally did arrive, he got his bags settled into his room, then realized that his carry-on bag, with his medication and laptop in it, which he had gate-checked in Ohio, was not among his bags. He was on the phone with the airport people for probably 45 minutes. Then he came out and talked with us for a while, then called them back and was on the phone for another 30 minutes. They were trying to figure out if the bag had been left at LaGuardia where he changed planes, or if it has made it to Boston. If it was still in NY, it would either be on the last flight into Boston that night or the first one in the morning.

I think they finally decided that he'd go to sleep, get up, go with Dan to the hospital and do the morning stuff, after which there was a break in duties during which he could dash off to the airport to retrieve his bag, and then come back to the hospital for afternoon clinic.

I went to bed last, turning out the light at about 1:30am. Woke up at 8:30, went to CVS and had some prescriptions refilled, then went to work. Monday is payroll day, but since most of the people I do payroll for are student employees, and there were hardly any students working last week, it was a breeze and I was done with payroll in under an hour.

Some time during the late morning my cell phone beeped at me that it was at 15% battery, which is weird because I can usually get to the end of the work day with 80-90%. I plugged the phone into my computer but a few hours later I tried to check something on it and it wouldn't turn on. I tried pulling the battery (twice) but it wouldn't turn on. I figure it hadn't been charging somehow, and had drained completely. That made me feel weird--not being connected. I like my cell phone! Anyway, when I left work and got in the car and plugged it in to the car charger, it powered on again. So now it's plugged in here at home and charging like a champ. Dunno what happened at work.

So now I'm here at home, and depsite having asked Dan via email and text message, as well as trying to call him, I still don't know if I'm supposed to cook dinner tonight for everyone (including our guest, David) or if we're going out somewhere. It's really bothering me not knowing, because I need time to plan if I'm going to have to cook for us all.

So far I've been making do with my lightly lined wind-breaker-ish jacket that I got this past summer at LL Bean. Sometimes I'm a little nippy by the time I finish the walk between my office and my car, but so far nothing really uncomfortable.

I didn't go out yesterday, but Dan did. And he told me later that he didn't think it got above freezing all day yesterday. Today before work I looked at the forecast and saw that it was currently 22F and only supposed to get into the early 40s at the warmest part of the day, so I put on my big winter coat for the first time. It's a heavy, waterproof Cabela's* coat that comes down just past my knees, has a soft, warm, zip-out lining, and lots of pockets, both inside and out. The only thing it's missing is a hood.

Yes, it's probably a little overkill for a day that gets up into the 40s, but it was nice this morning at 22! I tried to find a link to the coat online but they must not make it anymore. All of the women's coats I found by Cabela's were much shorter than mine. Too bad, because I'd recommend it to anyone in a cold climate. I got through a couple of Cleveland winters and a couple of Boston winters with it so far and it's nice and cozy.

Now my big problem is that I can't find the gloves I bought at LL Bean this summer! I really thought I'd tossed them into the back seat of my car, but there are no gloves anywhere in my car. I saw some in the house but I thought they were Dan's. I'll have to ask him. Because my hands DO get cold. And they take forever to warm up. Feet, too.

One small hiccup this morning: I'm in charge of bringing in a half gallon of half & half for coffee for the little co-op I founded when I started working at the university. There are only four of us, everyone chips in a dollar about once a month, and the carton lasts about that long. We ran out last week so I was supposed to bring a new one this morning, but after I left the house (about 10 minutes after) I realized I'd left my cell phone at home, so I had to turn around. After that I was worried about being late and other things and totally forgot about the half & half. I sent out an apology to the others and promised to bring it tomorrow. And I put a HUGE half-sheet of paper's worth note on my purse to remind me. We do have powdered creamer for emergencies, at least.


*yeah, I know, the idea of vegetarian me buying Cabela's clothing is out of character!

Friday night Dan and I went to the Sheraton Framingham ballroom for the hospital employee party. They had a cash bar and light hors d'oeuvres both passed by waiters (including these tiny little mushroom pastries/tarts that were to DIE for but almost impossible to find the right waiters for. All the waiters I kept finding had some kind of sesame chicken or something like that. It was really frustrating. But I digress.)

We sat at the table with the podiatry folk, of course, and a few others that were friends of the podiatry folk. Much fun was had by all, and several times we all ended up dancing 'til we were sweating hot. The party went quite late... not sure if it made it to midnight or not but it was close.

The following night (Saturday, for those not keeping track) was the party for the doctors in the hospital. It was at the same Sheraton ballroom as the previous night's party, but it had an open bar, a full sit-down dinner with dessert, and a live band instead of a DJ like the night before. However, the band had two singers, a man and a woman. That morning, the woman woke up with laryngitis. I hope they got some money back for that, since she couldn't sing and that's what they'd paid for. Anyway the music was much more limited in style and while the older folk were out dancing, the younger crowd didn't really feel it. I didn't even dance a single song. And by 10:30 the party had petered out.

Several of us retired to the hotel's bar to keep the party going. We had a couple of drinks and sat around talking about all kinds of things and having a good time until they kicked us out because they were closing.

Overall I'd say that while it was nice to get free booze and a full dinner, the employee party was actually more fun.

Sunday was a day of lounging around the house for me. Dominic drove (with Dan in the car) to his friend's birthday party and stayed there most of the day, then Dan went back and picked him up and let him drive home. I didn't get out of my pajamas all day Sunday. It felt good. We got Chinese takeout food for dinner and watched Dexter on the TiVo.

So this morning I hit the snooze once because I was tired. I don't give myself a lot of time in the morning between alarm and out the door, so I didn't have time to cook breakfast or make a latte. So I went to Dunkin Donuts. I do this every once in a while but not too often. I have four different DnD's to choose from on my commute. One really close to home and just a block out of my way, one a little further out of my way but still close by, then depending on whether I stay on I-90 the whole way to Waltham or get off in Framingham and take Rte 30 the rest of the way to work I have two other DnDs to pick from.

I chose the really close one. It's attached to a gas station but it's a full service Dunkin Donuts, not one of those situations where they get some stuff delivered to sell and don't make the stuff themselves. My normal breakfast is an egg and cheese sandwich on flatbread. It's pretty good, and less greasy than on a croissant, which was my former breakfast. This morning I noticed on the menu: ham and swiss on flatbread. So I asked "Can I get egg and swiss on flatbread?" only to be told that those ham and swiss ones are premade and they can't make a sandwich with swiss in-store. This struck me as really odd. They make everything else, why single out that specific sandwich? Anyway, I went back to my standard.

Next I ordered my medium gingerbread latte with whole milk and 3 Splenda. The guy gets this look on his face and says "I'm really sorry to say this, but we are all out of espresso." It turns out the manager the week before had not ordered it. He offered me a coffee, which I accepted (with a shot of gingerbread and whole milk and Splenda)... Now, I don't know how specialized their machines are. They probably take little packets or something of coffee to work, but it struck me as odd anyway that they could have COFFEE but not be able to make ESPRESSO. It just seemed wrong in some way. A part of the back of my head was saying "run away! Hit up the other Dunkin Donuts!" but I didn't want to make another stop, so I got what I got and it wasn't so bad. But it was pretty strange. It was almost as bad as Starbuck's saying they didn't have espresso, you know?

The day turned around, though. Everyone at work was very nice. Payroll went smoothly. I got to change a lock on a door that I've been wanting to change for a few days but didn't have the new lock--today the whole door handle assembly was sitting on my desk, waiting for me to take the lock out and put it on the proper door.

We weren't super busy other than a few things here and there. I didn't have any anxiety incidents. I didn't eat lunch but wasn't hungry so that's no big deal.

I stopped at Whole Foods on the way home from work to pick up a few things. I wanted to try at home the "nut roast" that the neighbors served us at Thanksgiving, and so I'd texted with them and found out where they got it. Sure enough, I found it. It's expensive so it will be something we don't eat often, but I can't wait to make it this week. I think we should probably get three servings each from it, which really brings the price down when you think about it. I'll make it with stuffing and mashed potatoes so it's more holiday/festive. I'm also making another batch of the pumpkin soup I learned to make last week which turned out really well. I may make that later today and just refrigerate it. Tonight's dinner plans are leftover Chinese from last night.

I also got my holiday shopping for my brothers and sisters 90% complete. There is just one thing I'm looking for that I can't find anywhere. It's something I had when I was in high school and loved. I'll make a friends-only post after this to see if any one else can help me find it.

That's pretty much today. Dominic's homework grades have gone up since we've implemented the new system (he does homework once I get home, rather than alone before I get home). So that's good news. We also got his holiday travel plans squared away with Rob. I'm going to have to work with my boss to pick up Dominic at the airport, though, as it's right in the middle of my monday work day. I may be able to come in early, take a long lunch and bring Dominic back to work with me for the rest of the day or something. It's a Monday though, so it's payroll day, so I really can't just say I want to take a vacation day that day. Especially since we get the entire previous week off.

So anyway, that's my life as of today.

Beginning next week I'm changing the hours that I work. Currently I work 9:30-3:30 and my afternoon commute is a little over a half an hour, but my morning commute is anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours. It's almost impossible to know what time to leave the house to get to work at the right time.

So I talked to my boss and she ok'd me shifting my hours to 10-4. Hopefully 4pm will still be early enough to miss afternoon rush hour on the Pike, but 10am will be late enough for the morning mess to have cleared up. We'll see. It would be nice to use less gas getting to and from work, too. I go through so much gas :(

I was experiencing some female problems and called my doctor to see if I could come in tomorrow. Tomorrow was booked, but they had afternoon slots available. Since I get out at 3 on Wednesdays I took a 3:30 appointment, figuring it takes about 20 minutes to get there from work.

I left work 5 minutes late because I lost track of time. Strike one.

Strike two: I got to the car was frustrated that my remote unlocker doohickey wasn't working. Annoyed, I unlocked the door with the key and got in. I turned the key in the starter and nothing happened. Oh shit. Hoping it was just a dead battery I started trying to find someone who could jump start my car. Finally a car pulled into the lot with two college-aged girls in it (I work at a university so this is to be expected). I asked if they'd help, mentioning that I had the cables. They said they didn't know what to do but I said not to worry--I did. It took a few minutes (part of which time was the driver trying to figure out how to pop the hood of her car--she didn't know how) but we got it started pretty easily and I thanked them and threw my cables back in the trunk.

Strike three: I was leaving campus and had driven about a quarter of a mile down the hill when I had to stop and wait for a train. Seriously. A train. When I'm already late for two other reasons.

My luck. Anyway, I called the doctor's office and explained that I would be a few minutes late and they said it was no problem. I ended up getting there just before 3:45 so it wasn't too bad.

Yesterday I took Dominic in to work with me so that we could leave for the cottage in New Hampshire straight from there and only drive just over 2 hours instead of me driving home for 45 minutes then driving 3 hours to the cottage. Dominic read all day at work, even though I brought the laptop for him.

We had Thai food for lunch (we do every other Wednesday). I had forgotten about it and had spent all my cash on my copay at the doctor's office, so I only had $5 on me. I asked Todd, the guy who orders the food, if he could float me until Monday. He said sure, not to worry about it. Dominic ordered a Vegetable Rainbow dish or something or other and I noted in my email to ask if they could add some tofu to it (for the protein). I got massaman curry with tofu. Well, when the food arrived, Dominic's had chicken in it. Todd admitted that he'd messed up the order and told me we're cool on the $15 I owed him. That was nice of him. Dominic picked out the chicken (which was in big, obvious chunks and easy to do) and ate the rest anyway, and my food was fine, so I'm at least going to give him some of the money back even though he says I don't have to.

Anyway, we made it to New Hampshire in good time after work. We left early, just after 2pm, because I'd worked late the day before to cover the hours. There was no traffic. It was great. So much better than driving up on a Friday afternoon when the entire city of Boston divides themselves into two groups and proceeds to parking-lot I-95 and I-93 respectively.

Today we went into town (North Conway is the nearest "real" town) to run a few errands and eat lunch at a place my mom had a Groupon for. The first errand was to drop off couple of prescriptions that I needed filled. We went to CVS (which is right at the beginning as you get into town) but they were out of one of the meds (the one I was completely out of myself) and so we went to Walgreen's. They were out of it as well. They said they were pretty sure Walmart had some, so we went to Walmart.

What.

Yeah, it was about 1:50pm. The Groupon we had was for a place that closed for lunch at 2:30 on the complete other end of the town's main strip. So we waited until 2pm when they reopened the pharmacy from lunch and I had to explain that I didn't have my insurance card on me, but that CVS said they'd give them the insurance info over the phone if they called them. Also, they were out of the other medication I needed, but I said to just give me the prescription back because I had enough to get by until I get back home. They said it would take a while since they had to call and everything, but I said we'd come back after lunch since we had to get going anyway.

Lunch was decent. Nothing great, but including what my mom paid for the Groupon we only paid about $17 to feed three people (before tip--I have no idea what the bill was before the discount so I don't know how much tip my mom left). We went to the Jockey outlet store and bought Dominic some underwear that was on clearance (yes, you wanted and needed to know that!) and then went to Home Depot where my mom ran in and grabbed something while we sat in the car. Oh, and we stopped at this place called Rafferty's Restaurant & Pub and got some of their flourless chocolate cake to go because when Dan and I were there last time it was to die for.

Anyway, we finally made it back to Walmart where I had to stand in line at the pharmacy for just about forever (5 minutes? 10? It felt longer) but I finally had my meds! Hooray! Then it was one last stop at the grocery store before heading back to the cottage.

What was waiting for me at the cottage but a package by the front door! Our phones had arrived! After putting away the groceries I immediately unpacked mine and started the process of getting it set up. I've been doing that ever since. It's a Motorola Droid 3 and what I had before was a Motorola Droid, but they're quite different and I'm having to look a lot of things up. I'll post more about the phone when I feel like I know it a little better. It has two cameras! One facing away and one facing toward you, so you can do video chat! Nifty. And since Dan will have the same phone, that means he and I can do so! Of course I don't think I know anyone else with a front-facing camera phone, so he'll probably be the only one, but that's ok.

Anyway, time to get back to setting up my phone.

So yesterday Dominic flew home from Rob's in DC. His flight was supposed to arrive at 5-something and that would put him on the 5:30 or the 6pm shuttle bus into Framingham (which cuts about 65 hours off of our trip to pick him up, for the low, low cost of $12). I work on the other side of Framingham from where we live, so instead of coming home and driving back, I worked out with my boss that I'd stay late and go directly, then leave early on Wednesday.

Wednesday, you see, I'm driving Dominic to the cottage in New Hampshire to spend the rest of the summer with my mom (and to stay for myself until Sunday), and it will save an hour of dirving not to have to drive home to pick him up, so I'm taking him to work with me. With a laptop, of course, so he can play games and not die of boredom. Plus he can play with Bella, the dog that is always at the office.

So the time comes and goes for the plane to take off. I get a text message that it's late. I get a text from Dominic saying storms in Massachusetts are delaying the flight. It ends up not even taking off until after it's supposed to have landed. By then I've been at work 45 minutes longer than I told my boss (so I am not counting that time--I was just goofing off anyway) and everyone was leaving, so I decided to leave myself.

I went to the Logan Express bus terminal where he'd be arriving, but he wasn't going to be there for nearly an hour. I called Dan (who was home by then) and asked him if he wanted to come eat dinner with me, as I hadn't eaten lunch*. There was a restaurant right across the street from the bus terminal, so Dan drove in and we ate a nice dinner together utnil Dominic arrived, at which point I left Dan to pay the bill and collect the leftovers and I went and picked up Dominic. We let him eat the leftover pizza for dinner.

Today Dominic stayed hom and played while I went to work, then we went to a friend's house for a B movie on DVD that was fun except for the few parts where I fell asleep.

Tomorrow he has to get up at 7:30am to eat breakfast and make sure he's ready to go to New Hampshire. He'll come with me to work (I work 9:30-3:30 most days, but because of Monday I'm leaving at 2pm tomorrow) but we have to leave early as I'm nearly out of gas. Hopefully he won't be too bored at work. I'm bringing my laptop. We'll go to lunch and I'll introduce him around and hoperfully it won't be awful.

Then the 3+ hour drive to the lake in NH. Once we are there, however, it's several days of bliss until I have to drive home.

*they bring donuts at work on Mondays and I had one around 10am...wasn't hungry by lunchtime, and after that I figured I'd spoil my dinner.

So last week I went to Rochester, Minnesota for the IJA (International Jugglers' Association) annual juggling festival. As a for-fun event we really couldn't afford for me to go, but I went for a different reason.

The IJA puts out a quarterly magazine called JUGGLE. At the end of the year the current contract is up and they solicited for bids on the new contract. I decided to bid. The guy who's been doing the magazine for the last 10 years at least also put in a bid. So did one other person/company.

The contract involves becoming the editor and publisher of the magazine. The job entails everything from soliciting and paying for articles to editing to writing articles to laying out the magazine and doing all the graphics to designing the cover to printing to mailing. Everything. Basically the IJA pays $X and the members of the organization get a magazine at their house four times a year, and everything that happens between those two events is the responsibility of the editor/publisher. Which would be me, if I win the contract.

Currently the organization is paying over 135% of its income from membership dues on the magazine. They're way over budget and have been for years. I have no reason to suspect that the current guy's bid will be significantly different from what his last one was, and if that's the case, I'm coming in about 20% under him in cost.

I know that he outsources things like layout and graphics to someone else, who I assume he pays, and I wouldn't need to do that. I think I can get the same people who've been writing for the magazine to keep writing for it, and I know about what he's paying them. I got several quotes on printing and mailing costs, and I know ballpark what they're currently paying as well.

If I get the contract, I won't be getting rich off of it, by any means, but it will make a significant improvement to the finances at Chez Opal. It will also be a lot of work, but it is work that I can do.

I mocked up two sample magazines using content from my website and stuff I'd written for classes in college as material. I laid it all out in magazine format and submitted pdf files with my bid (they required two samples). I also had both "magazines" printed at a local printer and brought them with me to the festival, where I showed them to the members of the board, who are the ones who will vote on the bids.

While I was there I got to talk to several of the board members about my bid and hopefully I made a good impression. They know me and my work already because I've designed their magazine ads on numerous occasions, designed and laid out their festival programs, and designed t-shirts for them in the past. I think I have a good shot at it.

They don't vote until October, though, so in the meantime the suspense will be killing me.

Other than the business side of it, the festival was fun. They kept the venue WAY too air conditioned, but other than that I had a good time. There was a lot of juggling and I went to a lot of shows and competitions. Saw some pretty impressive stuff. Got to hang out with Tim Furst and get to know him better (one of the founding members of the Flying Karamazov Brothers). We sat together for two Renegade shows. Those are sort of late-night open-mic shows that they do after the regular shows. They're known for being raunchy and over the top, and for the most part they were fun. Tim walked me back to my hotel after the show on Saturday night, which was very kind of him as it was like one in the morning. He also lent me a long-sleeve shirt Friday night that he let me keep until after Renegade on Saturday, which helped my comfort level greatly.

So I had lunch today in my office at about noon. I had vegetable lasagna. It was tasty. About 3pm I was in the bathroom and washing my hands when I glanced at my reflection in the mirror and smiled for some reason. That's when I saw the GIANT CHUNK of spinach stuck in my front bottom teeth. It covered about 80% of one whole tooth. It was dark green.

How many people did I talk to or smile at in those 3 hours? :smacks head: Why didn't anybody SAY anything?

On Sunday Dominic woke me up (at 11am--he wasn't mean) with breakfast in bed. It was scrambled eggs, veggie bacon, an English muffin, and a latte. Delicious! Then he made me a card. Then about 2pm he asked me if I wanted a rum & Coke. I said sure, why not. Over the next several hours he proceeded to make me another 3. Dan and I watched two TV shows that I totally didn't remember watching the next day, so I had to watch them again the next day. Ha! Guess 4 drinks is enough to make me forget things. So my kid got me drunk for Mother's Day. I think it's hilarious. We went out for Thai food for dinner and I ordered "green curry fu" instead of tofu, apparently. I do remember dinner.

Sunday night I didn't sleep at all. I lay in bed, awake, in the dark, for hours and hours. I know you're not supposed to, but I knew that if I got up and did stuff I'd definitely be up all night. Turns out I was anyway. Then my drive to work, usually about half an hour, took an hour and a half. The turnpike was a parking lot. I got off halfway there and took surface roads the rest of the way, but apparently my idea was neither clever nor unique because they were jammed and slow, too.

I did payroll all day at work and managed to stay alert and focused, though when I got home I was feeling rather frazzled. I thought for sure I'd sleep well Monday night. As it turns out, that did not happen. I did end up finishing the new Sookie Stackhouse book, so I guess the night wasn't a total loss, but I never really slept. I think I dozed off a couple of times between 6am and 7:30am, which I'll generously call "an hour of sleep" though it wasn't an hour all together, if it even totaled that much at all. The ride to work was normal, at least.

Again I was able to stay focused at work, though I was clenching my jaw a lot and I have sore spots on the inside of my mouth and on my tongue, which is something I do when I've missed sleep.

So that brings me to now. Dan is at the dentist and Dominic will be cooking dinner for us all when Dan gets home (ginger stir-fry, which he's quite good at) and then I expect we'll watch the series finale of Stargate: Universe. The big question of course, is will I be able to sleep tonight? My boss recommended Valerian, which is perhaps the only OTC sleep aid I haven't already tried (and I've tried most prescriptions, too. My two nights of no sleep were both with a 10mg Ambien) and I'm so glad she warned me about the smell! I'd have thought there was something wrong with them if I hadn't been forewarned. They smell like putrid gym socks! I took one Monday night but obviously it didn't help. I'll try taking two tonight. Along with my Ambien. I see my doctor on Thursday and I'm going to ask him to switch me back to temazepam since it's been 2 months that I haven't had it, so my tolerance has probably worn off. When I don't have a tolerance, that's one of the only things that really works for me.

Why does my body rebel against sleep so much? I mean, I LOVE sleeping! So why is it so hard to do? ARG.

So yesterday I went back to work. The ride there in the car was rough, so I took one of my Percocets when I got there. That made me a little groggy, which was annoying. I offset that with lots and lots of coffee. I worked on payroll most of the day but then the Percocet started wearing off and even though I was sitting on a pillow it was really starting to hurt. I couldn't take another Percocet because I had to drive home, so I decided to leave early.

Normally I work Mon-Tues-Wed but I decided to give myself some more time to heal before coming back in. Ideally I'd have come in on Thurs & Fri, but I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday so I had to make it Wed & Fri.

The drive home was miserable. I was in so much pain I almost cried by the time I got home. When I finally got home I took two Percocets and went to bed for a couple of hours. Nightmare over. I am home today and doing ok. I hope by tomorrow things are enough better that the car ride isn't so miserable.

One good thing was that last night I was able to take a shower for the first time since surgery. It felt great to wash my hair and get clean in general. I'm still not supposed to take baths, so my bedtime ritual is still out the window, but being able to shower is a pretty major positive step in recovery. Sponge baths were getting old.

So I saw in the forecast that we were expecting rain later in the week and since the handle broke off my [cheap and kind of crappy to begin with] umbrella a while ago I decided to buy a new one. I took the opportunity to order one on Amazon (with Amazon Prime free 2 day shipping) that is the kind that I've wanted since I was a kid. It's one of those clear bubble umbrellas.

It should have been delivered yesterday or today but it wasn't. Got an email today saying it should be here tomorrow, which doesn't help me as I have to work tomorrow and it's about a 5+ minute walk from the car to my building on campus. Dang, 'cause I'd really have liked to have that umbrella for tomorrow as it's already started raining. Oh well. I guess I'll use my colorful and pretty Cirque du Soleil umbrella which isn't very big and thus not as effective as I'd like, especially if there is any breeze whatsoever. Fooey.

I can't complain too much, however, as I've always gotten great service and deals from Amazon and in general they're my favorite online retailer. It's very rare that there is a delay like this, and at least they emailed me to let me know about it rather than leaving me to wonder where my crap is!

Edited 3/11/2011: Now they're saying it won't get here until the 18th! WAAAAAHHH!

Woohoo! I'm working for Brandeis University as a sort of nebulous does-a-lot-of-different-things person. My job title is ever so descriptive: "Department Associate."

I only work 17.5 hrs per week, which I'm going to do on Mon, Tues, Wed so I have 4 day weekends.

So I've been looking for a job and it's been scary. Not having had a "real" job since before I went back to school in 2006 I felt like I wasn't very marketable. Well, today I got a call with a job offer! The job is as a Department Associate at Brandeis University. I start on the 28th. It's part time, not full time, but that leaves me the ability to still do freelance work, plus the schedule is flexible so I can stay registered with the temp agency and do side jobs if I can get them.

Woohoo!