The beach rocked. Thankfully I am no longer glaringly white. I am, however, quite pink in a number of places. But the sunburn on my legs is tolerable now. Which is happy. And it was great just sitting around, reading, swimming, and eating for a few days. The weather was excellent. Good fun for all.
Now I'm back at work. I'm not particularly upset by being back. I mean, yeah, being at the beach was better, but work isn't bad. Quiet. I'm unmotivated at the moment, but happily the day is passing quickly. I think I want to take a nap. Plus, I'm trying to write a letter to send with AOTA's book proposal form. All I can come up with is, "Dear ______, Enclosed is a copy of the AOTA book proposal form. Please complete the form and send it back to me." I think Krishni wants a bit more than that.
Oh, and apparently Krishni and Meghan went out to a Japanese steakhouse this past weekend and now I'm all jealous, a) because I love Japanese steakhouses, and b) because dammit, I want to do social things with them. If they go again, they better invite me.
Sleep now. Only dammit, I still have 90 minutes of work left. Oh well.
Current song in my head:
"That's the Way I Like It"
Yay! I'm about to head off to the Jersey Shore for a few days of relaxation and tanning. Now hopefully people won't be blinded by my horribly white legs. And yay that Carrie is staying with me. :) Other people around! It's a good thing. But anyway, hope you're all doing well. Byeee!!!
Current song in my head:
"Fins" (?) by Jimmy Buffett
I find it astonishing that my gross pay to date this year is $18,766.18, yet I still feel like I have no money. Damn taxes and rent and food.
Current song in my head:
The stupid little Nokia theme
Ever have one of those days when you just have no motivation to do any work? I'm so there right now. And Krishni's leaving around 1. She's clearly enabling me. Oh well. Maybe I'll be able to catch up on the "Live Feeds" thread on the Big Brother thread on MBTV. Whee, fun!
Current song in my head:
"Saturday Night's All Right (For Fighting)" by Elton John
Two fun experiences this morning: I went and got my permanent crown put in, so YAY, after my regular checkup in two weeks, I'm done at the dentist. And then I got to work to discover that my computer had a virus. A first for me. But luckily it wasn't a bad one, and one of the IT guys came down and got rid of it.
I'm approaching my one year anniversary here at AOTA and I keep thinking back to the position I was in this time last year. A year ago I was scrambling around frantically, trying to find a place to live, facing a completely unknown job front. I had a job, but was doubting whether I'd like it. The only person close by was Brent, who was still a good 45 minutes away. Everything seemed uncertain.
Now I'm loving my job. Steve and Brent live less than a half-mile away. Carrie, Jody, and Lucy are moving down. I'm going to get out of my teensy apartment. A lot can change in a year. I still miss college a lot, but the real world isn't too bad.
Current song in my head:
"I'm On My Way" by John Mellencamp
It's great when you can look to the future and be really excited about it. Yesterday and today were pretty stressful for me, but now I look forward...and am excited. There may be changes in AOTA's book program, but that won't be for a while. Plus, Krishni kept emphasizing how my job shouldn't be in jeopardy ("I'd bet my salary that you won't lose your job," she said). Then she went on about how I'm a strong writer and how Jeff thinks I'm great--why else would he want the company to pay for me to take a writing class? So work is good. Plus, I'm plowing through those permission requests.
Plus, moving in with Carrie, Jody, and Lucy? That should totally rock. I'm so psyched for that. A new place, friends close by, paying less rent...what's bad about that? It still sucks that my folks are moving to Portland...but I'll live. They'll move back East in a while. I just need Kathy and Robert to move a bit closer...
Plus, Big Brother rocked tonight. I loved the whole silent movie take on Nicole and Will. And the Ophelia and trampoline montages were great. I loved Ophelia. Oh well. Hardy was being a dork, but he isn't quite dead to me. Not yet, anyway. He is, however, sliding down my list of favorites.
Current song in my head:
"Just What I Needed" by the Cars
My stress level is through the roof at the moment. It's just a bunch of stupid little things that really shouldn't be getting to me…but they've built up and I'm ready to explode. I got into work and the Internet and email were both down. Which meant that I couldn't tackle the huge pile of permission requests (because I need to get to our online database to confirm article citations) OR the research (more research! Argh!) that I'm supposed to be doing on the whole backpack initiative because that also involves going to websites. However, Krishni needed help with the big report she's doing, so I got to proofread that and make sure everything was okay. Of course, both of our printers weren't working. Then Suzanne comes in and asks me to check changes and proofread the hip consumer guide for today, like I don't have anything else to do. Krishni and Suzanne could already tell that I was about to blow up; if Suzanne had asked me to mail something, I think I would have.
Add to all that the fact that it's all cloudy out (and has been all weekend) and I'm all sort of PMSy, it equals up to not goodness. This weekend was just one of those weekends that made me long for roommates. The sooner I get out of my efficiency, the happier I will be.
Current song in my head:
Just a low hum as I try to keep from completely losing it
Things I don't appreciate: Coming into the office on a Thursday morning, wandering blearily into the kitchen to put my lunch in the fridge, and being greeted by a very loud, "Good morning, Barbara! How are you?" My response: "Okay." "Just okay?" "Well, it's a bit early for me to be much more than that. I'm not a morning person." "But you should be! Come, join us in the land of light!" My response: Shuffle back to my cube with an inarticulate grunt. I hate how morning people feel they have the right to tell night people that they're living their lives wrong. Grr. I should go over to his house at 11 p.m., when I'm wide awake, and be all perky to him then. See how he likes it.
Anyway...life goes on. Very busily. My parents are moving. Again. To Portland, Oregon. A place my dad swore he would never move. I'm not pleased about this. I'm not partial to the idea of my parents living on the other side of the country, if for no other reason than it means that holidays will suck. Oh well. So that means a lot of trips to Richmond in the upcoming months to sort through my stuff there. Like I haven't already gotten rid of enough stuff in my life.
On the positive side, looks like Carrie, and hopefully Jody and Lucy, will be moving to the lovely metropolitan D.C. area. Roommates? Lower rent? Woo hoo! Of course, the housing situation until such time that we can move in together should be interesting.
Current song in my head:
The theme to Mr. Belvidere
I'm not dead. Just thought I'd reassure you, since it's been over a week since I last blogged, which is some sort of record for me. I've just been really busy at work, blah blah blah, whatever.
I have a lot of things to say, but don't feel like saying them at the moment. Whether that's because there's about a million things swirling around in my head, or because I got home at 1:15 a.m. last night and am perfectly exhausted, I can't tell you.
Current song in my head:
"Vacation" by The Go-Gos