I didn’t work any overtime last week.  In fact, on both Tuesday and Thursday, I left at 3:30, taking vacation hours to fill in that lost time instead of working those hours to fill them in.  When I left on Thursday, I left for the weekend.  I left for a doctor appointment where she told me that my blood sugar, triglycerides, and good/bad cholesterol levels are all only points away from being perfectly healthy.  So apart from being about 100 pounds overweight, I’m the pinacle of health!

Friday, we had plans with a friend to come over for dinner, but she rescheduled to Saturday, so instead we went out to see a movie with a couple other friends.  The movie was awful, but the company was enjoyable.  We went to Outback afterward and sat around until they closed and kicked us out.

Saturday, after sleeping in for the second day in a row, we did yardwork and got the house tidied for company.  And then we grilled corn and hamburgers on the grill.  The food was delicious and the conversation was delightful and we all stayed up much later than we should have on a night before having to get up for church.  A racoon walked up to the patio door while we sat inside on the couch.  He sniffed around with his tiny nose before scampering back to the woods.

I didn’t sleep well that night, between allergies and the thunderstorm that woke me, shouting and shaking, as thunder and lightening and pounding rain rattled the house and my nerves.  But the next morning, everything was washed clear of pollen and the air smelled clean and fresh.  After Justin went to help with set-up, I sat on the rug inside the open front door eating my breakfast and drinking coffee.  He came back to get me for church, which was wonderful, and then we helped with clean-up before heading home again.  We decided to nap, making up for the restless night, sleeping longer than expected, waking when another thunderstorm rumbled through, with hail bouncing and water pouring over the roof like a waterfall.  And then we slept some more, snuggling back into sleep by the sound of rain on the roof.

Today is colder than expected and I’d rather be at home, extending my weekend, than reading drawings under florescent lights.  The seeds I planted Saturday have probably all washed away, and the grill, now filled with soggy ashes, is sulking on the back porch.  But my lunch break is over, so I’ll stop complaining.  Time to get back to work.

EDITED TO ADD:

Sometimes there’s noise that only Rachmaninov can silence.

Monday, my department moved from one side of the building to the other and considering all that has to happen with that (people to move the computers, people to move the boxes and bookshelves and file cabinets, people to move the phones) and the number of people moving (about 30) and trying to get some work done at the same time, it went surprisingly well.  My feet ached by the end of the day, but I think it was the most smooth move we’ve done yet.  I got lots of compliments on how well I got everybody organized.  It almost makes up for how frustrated I was getting at the end of the week when people kept interrupting me to answer their questions about why the printer still wasn’t working or where they could get keys for their desk or what to do about it being so cold on one half of the room (the other half is warm and part of the problem there is that the thermostat for the warm half of the room is actually out in the hallway, and the thermostat for the cold half of the room is broken — we’re working on it).  Anyway.  It was successful.  I went home, Justin rubbed my feet, I fell asleep sitting in a chair, but woke up in time to watch Castle.

Tuesday, I woke up and couldn’t move my right arm very well.  I couldn’t raise it up above my shoulder and it hurt.  All day, I kept on trying to solve moving issues and try to get a document completed that I’m really late to submit.  That evening we went to the chiropractor’s office for adjustments and he (actually, let me put in here that when I say “my chiropractor” I could mean one of three people — it’ s a family business, so it could be the father, his daughter, or his son — but it’s just easier to be non-specific) (in this case, it’s the son) fixed up my shoulder blade so I could move my arm, commenting that I “really messed it up.”  Trust me, it gets worse.  And afterward, we stayed behind for a health talk and free pizza.

I have no strong recollections of Wednesday, so it’s safe to say it was a lot like Tuesday.  Answering annoying questions while trying to get work done.  Not making it very far on my work, but resolving a lot of moving issues.  I did manage to make a good deal of progress on one aspect of the project, though, so that was good.  Unfortunately, my shoulder was still hurting.  And I spent the evening working on paying bills and balancing the checkbook.

Thursday I worked from 7am to 8pm and it was exhausting.  I had to finish up as much of my project as I could, so I eventually put on my headphones and put up a sign saying that I was trying to finish up this project, so please let me concentrate.  And I’m pretty sure that my lead started turning people away and telling them to let me work because I was able to get a lot of work accomplished without being interrupted.  I was still there after everyone left, but I managed to get it done and sent out for review and I might actually get it submitted before the middle of next week.  Still VERY late.  I went home, Justin drew me a bath, and I sat in the bath, reading, until after 10, when I got out and went to bed.

Friday, I slept in a little before going back to the chiropractor’s office again because my arm was feeling even worse.  He (the son, again) started poking at different spots on my shoulder to try to identify the problem.  Once he found the spot and I stopped gasping in pain from him poking a finger at it, he took his activator (hammer thing) and tried to put it back into place.  Once I stopped crying from the pain (seriously, it hurt SO MUCH! it was like an 8 on my pain scale), he put a cold laser on it and then gave me a cold pack and said that if it wasn’t feeling better by morning, I should come back in and he’d take an x-ray.

What I hurt, somehow, was my sternoclavicular joint, though I’ve got no idea how I really did that because usually it takes something like getting punched in the chest or something with a contact sport.  But let me tell you, it hurts.

I went to work after getting an ice pack from home and managed to get caught up on another project that I’d been neglecting all week and left after about 4 hours of working.  I went home, kept putting ice on my collarbone and relaxed.

I was still in pain this morning, (I keep moving wrong in my sleep and hurting it) though not as bad as the last couple days.  The constant pain has dulled down to a localized dull ache from a pressing pain across the whole shoulder and I have a lot more range of motion through my arm.  I still went back in and the chiropractor (son, again) took an x-ray.  It didn’t show anything, which was a little disappointing.  But I guess that’s still the better option rather than having something broken or obviously wrong.  He put the cold laser on it again, did NOT hit me with the activator (I think I might have punched him if he’d tried again), and told me to rest it and keep in icing it.

And that’s the plan.  Rest.  Ice.  Tomorrow I’m singing at church and Justin’s running the projector from the back.  Today we have no plans.  So I’m resting.

Yeah, it’s been a little crazy around here. 

Starting on the work-front, since I’m doing this on my lunch break, has been insane.  We finished two projects earlier this week and are hoping to finish another one this afternoon or tomorrow.  And besides that, I have three documents that I was supposed to have submitted on Monday in order to get into a 30-day window for it to be reviewed, and I’m still not done.  And they’re moving the date back a week, so I have even less time now to do it all.  PLUS, we’re moving from one side of the buidling to the other side and everybody packing and trying to figure out what can fit into the new area because it’s smaller than where we are now and what’s going to go where, and because there’s two groups of us in the area and such very little space, there’s been low-level fighting with the other group about who gets to use which space.

If I didn’t enjoy moving so much, this would be more challenging.  But I kinda like it, so it’s kinda fun.

I’ve been working super-late (7:00) for the last couple days to get things done and catch up on some time that I was out for a meeting Tuesday morning, so my evenings have been very short once I get home.  I’m trying very hard not to work tomorrow, but right now (just before 12:00), I’m not sure how that’s going to go.

I did manage to bring something home from work, apparently — there’s been a nasty cold/flu thing going around and although I haven’t had any effects from it (tea and water and hand sanitizer and yea!), I think it skipped right over me and into Justin, poor guy.  He hasn’t been feeling great the last couple days.

On the away-from-work stuff, we’re still waiting for the Admissions department from Justin’s school to process his letter and get that started.  There’s nothing we can do until they open it up so he can start school again, so we’re just stuck waiting.

This Saturday we have a couple people coming over to play cards and have cake with us — one of them has a birthday on the 22nd, so we’re sharing cake.

Um . . . what else has been going on….  Last Saturday we helped Habitat for Humanity in a place they’re working nearby.  It was mostly moving mulch around and making the properties look nicer.  But it was still hard work and good stuff to do.

Last Sunday I sang with the band at church and it was a lot of fun.  This Sunday is my birthday and I’m hoping for a pretty low-key day.  Order a pizza, watch a movie with Justin.

Anyway, yeah.  Most of my brain right now is stuck:  What else needs to get boxed up and labeled for the move?  Is there anything else I can plan ahead for in order to make this go more smoothly?  And what is up with the drawing for the monitors for my document?  Why can’t I find the drawing that shows me where the monitors go?  And the 50/60 Hz power?  What’s up with that?

So that’s that.  I really hope I don’t have to work tomorrow.  I’m probably going to be here again until 7:00 or so tonight.

It’s been a really loooooooooong week.

It’s going to be a busy week for me.  Work is trying to get a lot accomplished with a bunch of people out of the office this week, so it’s going to be interesting.  Plus, we’re going to be moving from one part of the building to another (amusingly, back near where I was before they moved us last time) and we’re not sure when that’s going to happen.  Any time before the end of the month, is the rumor.

Outside of work, I’ll probably be at the gym late on Wednesday (Raid Night for Justin), I’m hoping to have a friend over Thursday to watch a movie (Girl’s Night), Friday is Game Night with friends online, Saturday we’ll be helping Habitat for Humanity (ServeFest with the church) . . . and I just realized that I can’t have Girl’s Night on Thursday because I’ve got band practice (unless it’s canceled and it is so often) so I can sing on Sunday morning at church.  And then Sunday afternoon, I’m helping someone clean out her closet while Justin works on her mom’s computer and we’re getting paid in Puerto Rican dinner.

It should all be fun, though.  Just a little hectic.

Today is gloomy and rainy and I really didn’t want to get out of bed so early.  I wanted to stay home, wrapped up in blankets on a pile of pillows reading a book or watching TV.  Or baking.  Baking would be fun, too.  But instead I’m at work, reformatting documents for people who don’t understand Word heading formats very well and trying to decide if I can just cancel the 5S meeting for today because I haven’t had a chance to prepare for it.

Upside:  For lunch, I had shredded turkey (frozen after Thanksgiving) with cuscus (leftovers from Friday) and mixed veggies (also leftovers).  All mixed together in a bowl, it makes a very satisfying and colorful meal.

All said, though, I think I’d rather be at home.

P.S.  I forgot to write about Justin’s meeting with the Dean last week.  It turns out that the professor that Justin didn’t get along with is no longer with the school, so the dean was someone he actually liked!  And it went really well.  He had to send a letter to admissions stating his intention to return and his reasons for leaving.  Later this week, he’ll get back in touch with the dean (and/or his advisor, I can’t remember which) and they’ll go over the changes to his major since he was last in school and what matches up with what he’s already taken and what he’ll need to take in order to finish.  And after that, I guess, they’ll figure out how exactly he’s going to go about getting those classes in — the whole long-distance thing.  So it’s good news!  And  hopefully we’ll have more good news again soon.  Thanks for praying!  Please keep it up!

It wasn’t a bad week, though.  I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole three-day weekend thing.

• Monday, when I wrote last, we went running and I was tired.
• Tuesday, nothing much happened.
• Wednesday, we went running again and had a pleasant evening. 
• Thursday!  Thursday evening was band practice and I had the opportunity to sing with two ladies who are either hoping to join the band or just wanted the opportunity to sing along with practice, I’m not sure which.  One of them has a similar history to me, with a family who would go out singing in different places, complete with microphones and everything.  She was really good at finding harmonies to compliment the harmonies I was singing.  It was a lot of fun!
• Friday kept confusing me because I didn’t get up to go to work.  I slept in.  I poked around the house.  I can’t even remember what I did with my day, other than go to the chiropractor’s office.  And we tried to play games with the guys online that evening, but the program that we use had a major hissy-fit, so we ended up just playing games on our own while sitting on Skype and chatting at each other.  And I made cookies.
• Saturday was the best day of the week.  We got up and did a rush job at cleaning the house and making a pan of brownies.  And then, with a piping hot pan of brownies and a bowl of cookies, we went to a book club meeting to talk about Ender’s Game for an hour and a half.  At the end, we set up dinner plans with one of the guys from the book club (and his wife) for a couple weeks from now. 

After the book club meeting, we went back home to finish cleaning the house so it’d be ready for our friend who was coming for dinner and Munchkin.  She arrived and we made meatloaf, potatoes, and broccoli (and broccoflower) and sat around chatting for a while before playing an exciting game of Munchkin Impossible while waiting for the food to finish.  We had a delicious meal and sat around talking for a while longer before she had to head home.

We had a *great* time and I really enjoyed it.  I’m hoping to hang out with her some more.  I feel badly about part of the evening because I asked a question that brought up something that made her cry and I really didn’t mean to make her sad.  And she (along with the three other girls I’ve made friends with lately) is thinking of moving away from here, which is a bummer, but completely understandable.  Anyway, I hope to hang out with her again really soon.

• And Sunday morning was church, and I was there early for band practice and there late to clean up and Justin was stuck at home because his car wouldn’t start, which stinks because it was a good service.  The afternoon was spent relaxing and getting little projects done, fixing seams in my pants and buttons that had come loose while watching Justin fight battles with the Zerg on his StarCraft II game. (“Science hurts!”  “Need some triage?”  “Base is under attack.”  “You gonna give me orders?”  “Mineral field depleated.”)

And now we’re back to Monday and this morning was rough.  I didn’t want to get up as early as I had to, and we need to do laundry, so I’m wearing a fairly lightweight skirt in a day that’s unexpectedly chilly and windy and rainy.  And I spilled coffee on my lap while driving to work, so I arrived at my desk cold, wet, and scalded.  Fortunately, I had a cloth napkin in the car to help soak up the coffee and the skirt is the color of cappuccino already so it doesn’t show.  But it made for an exceptionally grumpy morning.  Add onto that calling different medical offices to ask about paperwork that we’ve received and all the hassle that comes with that.  I’ve been ready to go home since about 8:00 this morning.

Five and a half more hours to go….

• First day of vacation! Sleeping in!
• And then cleaning the church offices really well
• So long that I go to the chiropractor’s office directly from there instead of going home to shower first
• And then go home to shower and get ready for a party
• And then spend the evening at a party with a bunch of very fun people until very late at night

Saturday:

• Did I mention the late night party?  Sleeping!
• And then poking around the house
• And watching TV
• And basically being very, very lazy

Sunday:

• Up for band practice at 7:30
• Church at 10:15 and it was great!
• Home after church for lunch and cleaning house
• And then off to Savannah to look for Christmas presents
• Followed by Olive Garden to use a gift card
• And Tron in 3D with free tickets

Fantastic way to start my vacation!

Yesterday was really a lot of fun.  We got up and went to church, which was good.  And “good” isn’t really the right word.  But “powerful” isn’t the right word either.  “Compelling” is closer, but still just not right.  So we’re just going to stick with “good” and hope that you all kind of understand what I’m talking about.

After church, we rushed home so I could head up to Beaufort.  At the Halloween party at our house (that I still haven’t written about, have I?), we met two girls who live in Beaufort.  The three of us got along really well, so we emailed back and forth and set up a time to hang out.  Unfortunately, one of them wasn’t feeling well, but the other one and I went to Hunting Island and hiked along the beach for a couple hours.  Well, we hiked along the beach until we ran out of beach, and then we stuck to hiking trails back to the car.  The picture I was going to put up was to show the amount of erosion that’s happening on the island.  They used to have beach-side cabins along one end of the island, but now one of the cabins is gone completely, another one is out in the middle of the water, and a couple others are falling apart because the water is washing out the foundations.  So we hit the island at high tide, which was beautiful and interesting to see how far the water was coming up the shore.  But made for difficult beach-walking when there wasn’t any beach to be seen.

Anyway, we went out to the island and then went back to their apartment and chatted for about an hour before I had to head home.  All in all, I had a FANTASTIC time.  My legs and feet were sore from the walking and I broke out in hives from their cat when I got home, but sitting and chatting with these ladies about games and anime and Ren Faires and other randomness was probably the most fun I’ve had with people in many years.  I had so much fun!

And then I came home and finished up the Jim ‘n’ Nicks with Justin and was playing a game with the guys when the internet died.  So we finished folding the laundry, Justin told me my face was red and puffy (which explained the itching), so I showered and took an allergy pill, and then I sat around organizing the folders on my netbook for a while before curling up with a book.  And then I went to bed and slept like the dead because of the stupid allergy pill.

And that brings us up to this morning!  Another Monday.  And I’m so looking forward to next week’s long weekend.  And according to my Excel formula, I only have 22 days between now and the end of the year, and 4 of those are Fridays.  Bring on the holiday vacation!

I never did get downtown for the arts and crafts show.  We did make it down for the fireworks, but it was a little disappointing.  We made delicious dinner after getting home, though.

Church singing today was good — three-part harmony on wonderful songs.  I wish you could have heard it.

And I finally finished the book I’ve been working on since the beginning of July.  Seriously.

And now it’s late and tomorrow is going to be brutal.  All this week is going to be brutal.  So I’m going to sleep now so I can be ready.

We thought we were making progress with people from church.  And we do get along well with several people at church and chat amiably with them when we see them on Sundays or when we run into them other times.  But apparently when I stopped going to one Bible study and joined another, that was highly offensive to a family we through were friends.  And since the end of August when I made that change, the wife of that couple has yet to have a full conversation with either Justin or myself.  So we don’t really know what the full situation is, but it was upsetting and frustrating and made us think that we needed to explore other venues to find friends.  (Again, not that we don’t like the people at church and get along with many of them when we see them.  Just that we might want to expand our search for people who would befriend us.  I mean, really.  We’ve been at the church for 2 years.  We should have made friends there by now.)

So I started an intense search for geeks in our area.  I mentioned back in August that it’s hard to find geeks because we tend to stay inside, out of the sun, in front of our computers.  If you’re lucky, though, you can find their trail online.

Around the beginning of September, I found a group of geeks in the area and started poking around on their website.  They have a site for planning gatherings and chatting.  So I stuck my nose in and said that we’d love to meet people in the group.  And a bunch of other people thought it’d be fun, too, so at the beginning of October, we had a party.  For 10 hours.  It was AWESOME.  We sat around chatting and playing games and munching on food.  There was fighting with foam swords.  We played “Apples to Apples” for about 5 hours.  I almost hyperventilated laughing.  It was a fantastic day.

Justin and I have emailed back and forth with several people in the group since then.  We’re getting together with another couple for dinner.  We’re planning another party at the end of the month.  Another guy wants to get together with Justin so they can duel with shinai.

I’m hopeful about it.  Sad as it is, gamer geeks tend to be more accepting than people at church.  The day of the party, there were multiple discussion about political and religious views and the group has opinions across the whole scale.  But no one got upset about opposing views, outside of their discussion.  I mean, there were some pretty heated discussions, but at the end, everyone was still willing to be friends.  So I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to fit in because of that acceptance.

I’m also looking at a book club through the library.  There’s a science fiction / fantasy book club starting at the end of October and I’m planning to attend.  Maybe I can find more girls who’d be willing to sit down and chat about literature and more sedate geeky-ness than hitting one anther with swords, foam or otherwise.  I’m looking forward to the meeting.

And it’s nice!  Finding people who are willing to chat and hang out.  I haven’t really had that since 2003, when I left college.  Seven years without someone to go to movies or get a cup of coffee or go shopping (other than Justin)?  Very lonely.  We’ve been in this house for more than 2 years and we haven’t had anyone over for dinner. The years we were in Savannah?  We had people over twice:  my roommate and our marriage counselors.  We kind of fail at making friends.

So I’ve been putting a lot of energy into this right now.  Last night I went to a gathering of women through church, mostly the Bible study group, but also other ladies from the church.  While there, I was invited to a meeting at one of their homes tonight, but I think I might postpone until next week, because tomorrow we’re having dinner with a couple from the geek group and Justin and I would like an evening to relax a little bit.  I have to call her and see if that would work out okay.

But we’re making progress!  And it feels really good.

Today, I handed in another and I’ve got another one started.  The one I handed off has been kept by that coworker and I hope to not have to do anything with it because I have another one that same day that I need to look at updating.

But tomorrow I’m taking a vacation day.  Followed by another vacation day on Friday.  Followed by yet two more days of weekend.  And I’m really looking forward  to it.

Expecially because next week I’ll have to prepare for being out of the office for a week and a half, which will involve a little bit of frantic working.  And then when I get home from work, Tuesday I have Bible study, Wednesday I have a meeting about a committee at church, Thursday I have band practice, and Friday I’m taking a break from chuch activities and hanging out with a bunch of geeks online.  And then Sunday, I’ll be at church early for more band practice and stay late for the Servapolooza.

And then on Monday we’ll head out for the Symposium.

I’m not going to be bored anytime soon.