then she appeared

When will February end? Seriously. It's the longest damned month. The calendar is a big fat liar. It is apparently: American Heart Month. Library Lovers Month. Black History Month. Children's Dental Health Month. National Cherry Month. National Embroidery Month. National Grapefruit Month. National Snack Food Month. National Wild Bird Feeding Month. Responsible Pet Owners' Month. I can get behind any of that. Those all sound great. But can they all be over already? I think I'm going to have to use a few of my precious vacation days next month, because bleah. I guess if I lived in the southern hemisphere it would probably be July or August that I hated. But I don't live there, so fuck you, February.

Next week is my review. My boss tells me it's all good, she's really happy with where I am, my progress, etc. So that's good. We'll see if it means more money. That would also be good. Patrick tells me that it will be prorated, since I've only been here six months. Well, that's still something. It's a stupid policy, because it's a whole year until the next raise, but they could give me nothing and it would still be a whole year until the next raise, so I guess if I get any cash it's all good.

I have been kind of moving right along lately at my job. I keep tackling problems and solving them. P tells me I've been good in a couple of his meetings. Feeling ok about all of it. I am enjoying the actual work. There are a lot of political maneuverings and machinations all around me, but so far it doesn't really involve me. I have a friend there (not P) who's in the thick of it and so I hear all about it from her, but we're in different groups so I am mostly insulated from it.

I have been very appreciative of the "no micromanaging" policy of my company, especially lately. When I started my boss told me that as long as the work gets done, no one is terribly bothered by clock-punching or facetime, and that I should just use my best judgement about things. I have used this rather liberally lately, as the weather has been terrible. Why should I go out on the roads and risk anyone's life if I don't have to? And it's fine. At my last job, it was a constant battle and stress and anxiety, but here it's nothing. I don't even have to tell anyone. I just stay home and log in and work. There's a guy who sits behind me that hasn't been in for almost two weeks now, and I don't think anyone other than me has noticed. (He has kids, it's school vacation. Pretty sure that's the reason.)(I've mostly noticed because about three weeks ago he dropped a bright green notebook on the floor in his cube, and despite being in a couple times, didn't bother to pick it up. Every day that I walk in past it I notice it, so I'm sort of tracking how long before it's off the floor. Secretly I hope he never picks it up. Statement of slobbishness or ennui? I choose ennui.)

SO basically work is good. I just wish I could get my shit together at home. Practically every single night looks like this: leave work sometime between 5:30-6:30. Pick up something at a store, usually for mother. Come home, make dinner. Eat dinner, tidy up. Do chore (sometimes trash, sometimes laundry, sometimes just load the dishwasher). Turn on desktop computer and tv, zone out playing FreeCell and reading the internet and watching tv. Phone alarm reminds me to go to bed. Get in bed with iPad, catch up on Words with Friends and Scramble with Friends. Read a bit of my current book. Sleep.

I seriously need to do more! I have somewhere between four and five hours of non-chores time after work before sleep, and I'm not using it productively at all. No jewelry making, no walking, no elaborate house cleaning, no organizing, no projects. Nothing! If nothing else I should get some more damned sleep.

Well, at least I can manage that last one tonight.

Fairly ordinary couple of weeks. Busy at work, but I feel like I am in a classic "two steps forward, one step back" pattern, so that's not mentally encouraging. My boss was in a casual conversation with the new head of Marketing about me and what I'd been doing, and the head of Marketing said something like "Oh, we should have a win there, maybe by February?" But with no indication what a "win" would consist of. I guess something that would be visible, that could be released to the company at large? I dunno. So I am quietly sweating that. I was going to try to work some extra this weekend, but I just don't feel like it.

Had a couple of fun social things, with a couple more coming this week. Hung out with Stephen and Val a couple weekends ago, which was good. Hadn't seen them in a couple of months so it was good to catch up. They have a giant 3D television that they were showing me, and I have to admit, it's pretty cool! You have to wear glasses, still, but they're fancy electronic glasses and the effect is pretty darn good. Probably not something I'd be willing to spend the dosh on anytime soon, but neat to know it exists. Apparently there is a whole section of 3D things you can watch when you have FIOS. Pretty cool.

Last night I went to Arisia, our largest local science fiction convention. I didn't go to actually attend the con, but to see people. My college science fiction club, fondly known as UMSFS, was having a 50th anniversary party. First up, however, I got to have dinner with Suzanne and two of my college roommates (a married couple). They moved to California a bunch of years ago, so it had been a really long time since I'd seen them. Really fun to hang out with them all night. When we were roommates, their son was born. He's now a junior in college! God I'm old.

We headed to the party after, and I got to see a bunch of people that I also hadn't seen in decades (and some I see all the time). Lots of them are Facebook friends, so your typical "What have you been up to?" question quickly proved to be kind of dumb, since I already knew who had kids, where they worked, and the kind of things they did for fun. But it was still good to catch up in person.

There was an amusing picture of me with C., the other half of the married couple, sitting on my lap in the photo album that was being passed around. I hope they scan it, because I'd love to have a copy. I must be 24? 25? in it, because I'm not wearing glasses and I look pretty young. C. pointed out that in every picture of her in the album she is being dramatic and center-of-attentiony, and she said something like "I guess I was THAT girl." Interesting to look back and glimpse who you used to be! I guess that's what reunions are all about, really. Anyway, it was a fun night. I really should have gone to the convention this year, got a hotel room, all of that. It would have been fun to stay up super late and not think about home. But I left around midnight and slogged through the snow, found a $40 ticket on my car (says I was in a residential parking zone and I totally wasn't! I was in a metered spot! I'll have to go back in the daytime to take some better photos and then dispute it), and drove home.

Next up is dinner with the new work crew on Tuesday. The company is having a big dress-up party at some yacht club on Thursday, but it's employee-only. No plus-one, which we all thought was stupid. So we're doing an alternate program with spouses invited, which means Patrick will bring Peter, and Charles will bring his wife, and the remaining three of us will blink quietly to ourselves (we're all single). Should be fun, though! Damn the man!

Thursday night is dinner with Jenn. Not sure where we're going yet, but I always have a good time with Jenn.

Three social things in a week is a lot of social things for me!

And a week later and I feel much better about work. The very next day after I posted that last, my boss and I had our weekly meeting and she said how impressed she was with what I'd been doing. I held a shit-ton of meetings with people this week and they were all productive. I took on an additional project outside of my actual job, because it totally is the same as what I do, but for a separate group (sorta).

So work is kinda good! I now have a metric buttload of work to do. METRIC BUTTLOAD. But being busy ensures that I won't have time to feel lonely or useless. Which is good.

So in non-work parts of my life, I finally went to the eye doctor for the first time in a few years. I went to Patrick's eye doctor at his suggestion, and I love him. He's very soft spoken and nice, but has a funny edge and listened to my questions and answered them, unlike my old eyedoc who was basically an android who ignored me while quietly humming to himself. The end result is that my eyes are healthy, I only need to go once per year, and I got a new prescription. I got one new pair of glasses through his place, because hey, he's swell and I have an eye plan that pays for a lot of it and he should make some scratch off of me. Then I got one through Zenni Optical, which I'd been planning on doing for YEARS, but never got around to. My glasses from them arrived today and they're totally cute and they fit and the prescription is perfect. And hey, frames for $19.00! Of course I needed progressive lenses and I got antiscratch coating or something so they worked out to a little over $50, but cool backup glasses for $50? I might get a different pair for every day of the week!

What else is new? I haven't been reading as much as I did this summer, when I was taking the train every day and read for a solid half hour each way, but I've been getting some reading in. I need to post my updated counts. I don't know if I can go back and review everything. Mostly I'd say "hey, this was pretty good!" about all of it, anyway.

Oh, and the car. Sigh. The car. So I bought the damnable thing in May of 2010. Happy happy joy joy! 2007 Mazda 3. Cute! Really fun to drive! Then in December it needed a new battery. Ok. Probably it still had the original battery, and the car had over 60K on it, maybe that makes sense. Fine. AAA puts in a new battery with a warranty. There were subsequent jumps, not sure how many. At least two the following November, because I have printouts from them. Pretty sure some in between. Probably right around there I got a warranty replacement battery because it finally tripped a sensor to say bad cell. So, 1.5 years, two new batteries. Ugh. Definitely got another warranty battery in October of 2012, because again, I have the slip. AAA getting annoyed with me. "They can't all be bad batteries." etc. I can't afford to be without the car for long enough to get it diagnosed, however. (batteries #1, #2, and #3)

May 2013, I get moved to new office in Boston. Car sits all week, because I am taking public transportation. Very first week I have to get it jumped.

May 13, I have it towed in to the dealership. I figure ok, I don't need it for M-F, they can keep it all week and diagnose and fix the problem. Left it there for three days. "Nothing we can find. Sorry! We even checked with Mazda to see if they had any ideas. Nope." They charge up the battery. That should do it!

June 10, dead again, back to the shop. Left it there three days. "Can't find any draws, starter is fine, diagnostics say everything is AOK. Must be the 'aftermarket' battery. We recommend a Mazda battery." Uh-huh. Ok, fine. Put in 3 year warranty battery. That should do it! (battery #4)

July 30, dead battery. Dead dead. New battery put in under warranty. Found a corroded connector on the battery terminals. Cleaned that. That should do it! (battery #5)

Stopped working Boston job end of August. Started driving car daily again.

October 12, 92K on car, clutch craps out. Put in $1400 new clutch. Unrelated, but relevant to frustration level. Helpful "Full Circle Service Report Card" on back of expensive receipt gives battery a green and says 100% charge level! That should do it!

November 5, dead cell in dead battery. Diagnosis, must be the battery was defective. Uh-huh. New battery put in under warranty. That should do it! (battery #6)

November 20, 15 days later, car starts hard. Was the first really cold morning of the year, so while I had the dread sick feeling, the eternal optimist was all "oh, it'll probably be fine". Left work that night, car started hard. Ugh. Drove it extra, so it could charge up? Be warm? Mostly because I felt like if I performed the right series of rituals it would all be fine.

November 21, car won't start. Battery not dead, but really drained (I could open the door locks and the dome light came on when I got in. When it's dead dead I can't do those things). Had towed to dealership. Told service guy if they couldn't find the problem this time and they tell me it's fine? They have to buy it. He laughed nervously.

Phone call end of November 21: "We found two problems!" (I might have some of these details wrong, because I took the call at work and was slightly distracted, so don't hold me to this) Apparently my hood pin sensor (something) was disconnected, which told the car that the hood was open all the time and kicked on an idiot light while the car was off. I never noticed it??? Sounds unlikely. And something about the starter needed cleaning and adjusting, it made it start harder when it got jostled, and that is a known problem in Mazda 3s.

IF IT'S A KNOWN PROBLEM, mightn't someone have thought of that back in MAY? When they supposedly contacted the mother ship who said no, no known issues with starting in Mazdas. (They probably asked if there were any known issues in battery draws so they missed the obvious?)

ANYWAY, they think this time that they've got it for sure. The sensor light drained the battery enough that the starter issue kicked in. They reconnected the sensor and cleaned and adjusted the starter. They're keeping it overnight. Going to see how it is in the morning. That should do it!

Can't wait to see if it makes it past three weeks, this time. Thankfully all of this shit (except the clutch) hasn't cost me much. Two batteries. One small diagnosis fee ($60). Whatever it costs tomorrow. And my blessed AAA membership. But the annoyance factor? I feel like I've aged 10 years!

I don't plan on buying another Mazda after this one, which is a shame, because even with all of its problems, I heart it. I only have $5k left on the payments, universe. I've only had the car 3.5 years. It's only six years old. CUT ME SOME FREAKING SLACK!!

So that's my week. How's yours?

Well! I am officially unemployed, at least for another week. I had my last day at work Friday, and there was pizza and a card signed by everyone and an amazingly delicious cake (made by my culinary school grad pal Joanne) and then after work there was dinner at BBQ place Sweet Cheeks, near Fenway. It was all pretty awesome, but also totally bittersweet. After I dropped off one of my coworkers at her place, I was finally alone and burst into tears! Stress, I guess.

Anyway, now I am pretty mellow about all of it. I'm sure come Monday Sept 2, right around 8pm, I will start to lose it and get nervous again, but for now all is calm. I have a few plans for the week. Sunday I went to Stephen and Val's new beachfront place for dinner. Their place unexpectedly made me totally jealous (in a good way). The second floor deck looking out over the ocean! I want a deck looking out over the ocean! It was so nice to just sit there and see the waves and watch people walk by. My pals are a little light-sensitive (due to illness) so it's almost funny how shaded and blinded everything is. I imagine that if I lived there I'd take down all the shades, have a few sheers, and fill the place with plants. OK, I'd have shades in the bedroom and bathroom, duh! But it would be so nice to just live with the changing weather. I grew to appreciate the weather this summer being high up in my building downtown. Weather is so much more interesting when you can basically see the clouds form. Anyway, I love their new place.

Thursday I'm driving to western Mass to see Suzanne and go to the live show of "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" out at Tanglewood. That should be fun! I'll be spending the night at Suzanne's, as the show doesn't start til 8pm and I'm assuming that by the time it ends, Tanglewood to Boston might be a bit too long a trip to complete safely. I plan to go to my favorite Valley places while I'm out thataway, too, so more BBQ is in my immediate future.

Speaking of BBQ, my weight has gone totally to hell. By hell, I mean it's all gone totally to my gut and boobs and all the other unpleasant places weight goes when it comes back with a vengeance. In one year I've put back on 30+ pounds. PISSED OFF. Hoping that now that the uncertainty and stress of this job thing is mostly behind me I can get my shit back under control. There's a free gym at the new office. Hoping that will encourage me to get some workout time in. I think also having the ability to take a walk at lunchtime might help, too. I didn't have that at the downtown office. By the time you waited for the elevator, walked somewhere, got food, came back, waited for the elevator again, etc, most of break was over. The new place has a cafeteria in the building, and I'm hoping I'll bring lunches again. It was harder to bring lunches when you had to lug it around with you on the train and bus and whatnot. Plus my day was already too long. I couldn't deal with taking 10 extra minutes to make and pack lunch. Anyway, I probably won't try to start until I get comfy at the new place.

I think Sunday I am going to go see Elysium with Stephen, which should be good. Really loved District 9, and the aesthetic looks similar so yay, apocalyptic bleached-by-the-sun landscapes! I might try to sneak in one other movie at some point this week, also. I didn't do my classic "watch the worst movie I can find on my birthday" thing, due to working, so I am a little bummed about that. I guess I don't have to be a slave to tradition. Maybe I'll go to the best movie I can find, instead! I have been renting Redbox flicks, and saw a few really good ones last week ("Mud" was a standout) so there's that.

So that's all the news. I am spending some time getting the house a little more orderly than it has been since my stupid commute started. Deep cleaned the bathroom. Washed down some floors. Tidied a few other places. Been pounding laundry like mad. Got a lot more to do, but since I only have a couple of things planned, I should have time (and hopefully some enthusiasm) to get a bunch done. I wish I could have taken more time in between jobs, but the week is pretty good.

Apparently I still have pretty deep food issues, because I've been seriously sad all day, and I really think it's about Hostess closing down. Which is SO WEIRD, because honestly until today I haven't had a Hostess or a Drake's product in about a year and a half. But man, I loved them all: Cupcakes, Donettes, Pies, Twinkies, and on the Drake's side, Yodels, Pies, Yankee Doodles, Sunny Doodles, Devil Dogs...I can't go on.

When I was a kid, my mother would hand me cash and make me go to the convenience store for her, to pick up her cigarettes and some snacks. She was partial to snacks I didn't like, like those sugar-covered jelly "fruit" slices, but I was also allowed to get myself something, and inevitably it would be either a Hostess or Drake's thing. It was a bright spot in my day, and the one time my mother could be relied upon to be happy with me.

I think it's also that some things seem eternal. I mean, no one eats Wonder Bread any more, right? But you always expect to see that cheerful wrapper in the bread aisle. I really can't imagine wandering around the snack aisle and not having cupcakes as an option! And I guess I've been very loyal over the years: I've never eaten a single Little Debbie product. They seemed WRONG.

Obviously I try not to eat foods like that, now. If I'm going to pile on the calories I want it to be genuinely delicious and not just super sweet. But one of the ways I've managed to mostly stay on track with my weight was to remind myself that the things that I used to love will always be there, and I can have them later, when I get closer to my goal. BUT! Now I can't, ever again! And so what, right? But I guess it's a big deal in my head.

I'm pretty sure it's also tied in with my company going through bankruptcy and purchase. We got our offer letters for the new company yesterday while Hostess' news was everywhere, and somehow they've become inextricably linked in this management vs. workers morass in my brain. I feel so bad for the Hostess workers. I hate their management for blaming the workers and their strike when in reality it was them and their enormous bonuses and their terrible management practices. I hate my management for screwing up our company and making a lot of people lose their jobs. I hate that even the people who are getting new jobs with this new company are stressed beyond belief because we just don't know what is next. I hate that we have been treated like lower-than-second-class citizens during this process. I hate the injustice of the way we currently do business (we, the country). I hate Mitt Romney and everything he stands for, and I just know he'd be just like the CEO of Hostess that I saw on tv today, blaming the strike.

There's also the local Johnnie's Foodmaster sale, mostly to Whole Foods. Another local chain swallowed up by a giant non-local chain. I was walking around the store the other night and I found it unbelievably sad. It was totally a community center; local teens all worked there, the bulletin board was very active with lost cat notices, people looking to do odd jobs, etc., and due to its central location everyone stopped there for supplies all the time. But now it's a hollow shell, and all the employees are going to have to interview with the Whole Foods corporate people to see if they can get a position at the new store — which won't be open for many months.



This morning, on my way to work, I stopped at my local convenience store and bought a pack each of Donettes, Yodels, Chocolate Cupcakes, and Orange Cupcakes (that's all they had other than SnoBalls, which I never liked). If I can find Devil Dogs somewhere I'll get some of those, too. I've eaten the Donettes and the Yodels today. I want to eat the others, but once I do they're gone forever, so I don't know when I will. (It's just like how I've still never seen the last episode of Firefly because once I do, there will never be another new episode of Firefly to look forward to.)



I know they're planning to sell the brand, and some day, probably soon, there will be Twinkies and Cupcakes and so forth again. But knowing that all the workers have been discarded after decades of service, I don't know that I'll ever be able to bring myself to eat another morsel of their food. It won't be the same at all. And that just makes me so sad.

So I feel angsty, but I don't have a particularly concrete reason. I have a couple of new things that are contributing to the angst, but one of them is six weeks off, and the other one is dumb. Still, they're affecting me.

I am the trainer at my job. Everyone new in the department goes through me. I also train external people — all the new consultants at the firm get an hour with me. I train on topics, sometimes, also, in classrooms ranging from 2 to 35 people at a time. So when our department managed to snag an external client of our very own who decided that they wanted some training for their own people, of course I'm the resource. The client is a large cosmetics company based in New York, and they want us to hold on-site training in Powerpoint and in using their template (which we've built for them). Fine. Scary, a bit, but fine. Free trip to NY, which is fun.

Except now they've ratcheted things up a bit and it's going to take place over 2 days, with a full day the first day and a half day with "power users" the second day. So that means I need to train for 12 hours. I need to have 12 hours of things to say! That's a LOT of hours, people.

I taught a computer science class for seven years at the college level. The classes I taught, even with lab, were never more than three hours per day. I've led large classroom training sessions at work, but never more than two hours. When I train our internal department people I spend an entire week with them, but I always send them off to do exercises for hours of each day. So ... I've NEVER done this before.

And! We have to basically write the entire curriculum in the next six weeks. I mean, almost nothing that we already use in-house is relevant, because everything we do is customized — we have specific toolbars and macros that we built to make our working lives easier, and almost every training document we have is based off the custom macros.

So! I am about to DROWN and I'm very nervous.

And! I have nothing to wear! New York City! Cosmetics company! I'm sure I can't show up in my jeans. AIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEE! It's like all my personal horrors in one two day event. AWESOME.

The second thing? I read Bob Harper's book "The Skinny Rules" yesterday. He's one of the trainers on The Biggest Loser, and he decided to put down a bunch of rules about how to get skinny. And currently I follow exactly none of them. I mean, a lot of the rules make sense. Drink a large glass of water immediately before every meal. Go to bed hungry — meaning don't eat anything for several hours before bedtime. But then there are hard ones, like no carbs after lunch. He wants women to only eat 1200 calories a day. I have a hard time sticking to 1800 right now. I can't IMAGINE 1200. So I'm feeling like I'm doing it all wrong!

Patrick pointed out that I am losing weight, am off several meds, feel better. That he's trying to sell his book by making me feel bad. That what I've been doing has been working for me for a year, and that, anecdotally, I should have gained back everything I'd lost by now plus 10 pounds. I guess that's all true. I picked the book up because there were recipes and stuff, and I know he's a veggie fanatic and I need veggie help. I need to really be more selective about what I'm taking out of the book, I think.

Anyway, I had a week. It was fine. Worked out Wed (20 min bike, 5 min elliptical, 20 min swimming). Thursday was our summer work outing, which this year was a cruise on Boston Harbor. They had predicted terrible downpours and lightning and stuff, but it was just partly cloudy and hot, so that was pretty nice. I can't remember the last time I'd been on the harbor, so that was nice, too. The food was decent and although only appetizers, pretty plentiful, so I counted it as a "cheat" day and proceeded to eat All The Things. The best part? My coworker Joanne and I scurried away when the karaoke started and hid up on the deck. Because otherwise I might have leaped. I really gotta take up drinking.

Despite feeling perfectly fine on the boat, I woke up on Friday with an inner ear problem that made me dizzy all day. I read that that's pretty common after you've been on a cruise. I had to skip going to weight class that night, because I thought I might fall over with a barbell and that might be bad. Driving was occasionally a challenge, too! Was better by Sunday, and is mostly gone today.

Dinner and a movie (Mary and Max on Netflix) with P Saturday night, Sunday was lunch with P and some light shopping, then today was chores day with a dollop of Y action (25 min bike, 30 min walking, 45 min weights). I was trying hard not to think about the training thing until I go back to work tomorrow, but Mom (sigh) pointed out I'd need something to wear and that threw me into a tizzy, and then it basically ruined the rest of the day for me. CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE in a big way. I did feel better after the gym, however. Beat the angst out of me. Hard to worry about something far away when something close by is heavy and needs picking up and putting down.

So last week I felt pretty good about life, and this week I feel unsettled. I guess that's fine.

We have a new guy starting at work on Wednesday. One of our colleagues in another office decided to become an Exec.Ass and they decided to fold that headcount into ours. I've seen the resume of the new guy since I'll be training him, and he's been doing my type of job since 1983. Nineteen Eighty Three. I graduated from high school in 1982. That's a long-ass time to be in a field.

And now he's a new guy, low man on the totem pole in my office. Makes me feel...unsettled. I trained another new guy a few months ago. He's 23 or so. Feels right. This guy, though, who I haven't met yet; this guy makes me unsettled. He's probably a few years older than I. His resume says he spent the last couple of years freelancing. To me, in this market, freelancing means "I got laid off from my job and managed to cobble together some work while I applied for new jobs". If I were interviewing him, I'd certainly want to know more. I'll probably subtly question him while I'm training him, find out what happened at his last job.

Because sure, I've had this job for 11 years. And I've had a lot more jobs than most of the people I work with. (An aside: that's kind of weird to me. They all had a couple jobs in high school and college, but then started at this one job or maybe this job plus one other. I've had, like, 30 jobs? Maybe more.) But really all that means is at a new job I'd be low man on the totem pole again. No matter what. So I guess I want to see what it's like to be my age (or more!) and starting a new job. Because I'd really really like to get a new job.

Skipped last night somehow. Ooops. So this will have to be more awesome to make up for it. Three anecdotes make an entry?

1. They've started the construction on our hallway at work, so today Tracy and I crept into the taped-and-walled off construction zone to take a peek, and I have to confess it does seem like it might be ok. Because it is my workplace, however, I am certain that they'll fuck it up somehow. For now? If I can get one of the desks by the window I won't actually weep. Construction is slated to continue for another few weeks. I really need to sneak back in there with my camera. There were giant insulation pads everywhere and Tracy was certain we were breathing asbestos, so she made me leave quickly. I reminded her that the building is way too new for asbestos, but she reminded me that it's our workplace, so...yeah. Her point was especially valid this day, as they had scheduled server downtime for maintenance for 6am-12pm, and by the time we left at 7pm it was STILL down. They aren't...the best, there.

2. Saw Patrick's play "Unspoken Arrangements" (written and directed by PJC!) last night with Brian, and it was (as expected) awesome. His work friends totally packed the place, for once outnumbering his family. To be fair to the fam, they'd probably seen it before. He's had it produced at least three other times (altho the one in L.A. wasn't really attended by his east coast peeps). Anyway, it was great. I hadn't seen it, and I can't imagine why. I usually see everything he does. Both of the actors were great, playing six different people with no costume changes and barely leaving the stage. They did plenty to differentiate the characters, however, using different voices and physical mannerisms, so it was pretty easy to keep track. I heard P say to someone afterward that his favorite part of having an audience watch something was when they start to get something that the character hasn't yet understood, and seeing their reactions. It was indeed pretty neat!

3. An added benefit of going out was getting to watch Super Hot Russian Guy. The evening consisted of three one-act plays. One was Chekov's "The Bear", in Russian. Which was easier to follow than you'd think — plus they threw in an occasional sentence in English just to keep us going. Apparently at the last minute the guy playing Smirnov, the lead, couldn't make the performance. So they brought in a ringer, who (as Brian put it) looked, in his tall black boots, like he just stepped off the steppes. Magnificent! And he was fiery and passionate and shouting in Russian, and we totally agreed that he was just something to watch. And Patrick said up until people started walking into the building he was running around with the script in his hand, running his lines. So he totally nailed it AND he was totally winging it. We didn't know until afterward which actor it was that had been replaced, and it was impossible to tell. Theater can be exciting!

And those are my anecdotes, and now we are finished.

Ooh! Except: I still feel pretty damned good! I am almost completely convinced it's that I've been taking my meds regularly every single day now, as opposed to missing the occasional dose here and there. But whatever it is, I'm going to try to keep it!

Hmm. Not a lot to report. Yesterday was a busy day at work. One of my favorite things (no, not really) we do for our consultants is recreating PDFs into editable powerpoint files, and I got to do that all day. Whoo! When I got home, Brian made dinner and I did basically nothing all night. Around 9pm, Brian finished some work he was doing and we decided to head out and do something fun. Drove into Harvard Square, actually found a parking spot, and hit the Harvard Book Store for a bit. Found a few things, but didn't find what we were specifically looking for. It was pretty cold and 11pm by the time we were done, so we headed back to the car and drove home.

Today was another work day, and it was the complete opposite of yesterday. Not a lick of work all day. I'd brought in a few projects from home in case it was slow, but we were too chatty for me to get much done. Saturdays are our bitch-session days at work, as there are no management-types (or really anyone) in the building. We talked more about the hallway. And then the shooting happened in Arizona, and we followed that for a long time. I don't think we had one positive thing to say all day. I dialed up a Ren & Stimpy video (the one with "Happy Happy Joy Joy" in it) just to shake off the negative a bit. [When I got home Brian also sent me a link to some Maru videos. Ah, Maru! Can't stay grumpy with Maru in the world.]

By the end of the day I felt pretty sick — I hope I'm not getting the crud that everyone seems to have right now. There was some snow accumulation on the roads, so the drive home was a little more white-knuckled than it needed to be. I had a bit of a lie-down when I got home and by 9pm I started to feel a bit better. My guess is I won't get much done for the rest of the night. But tomorrow I'd like to tackle my list.

Tonight I think I'll just watch a few tivoed shows and relax.

So I'm converting a poorly faxed legal contract via OCR so our legal team can edit it. The OCR software is trying very hard, but occasionally it gets something so wrong it becomes so very right. One example is the word "WORK" -- it's reading it as the word "WORD".

Notwithstanding the foregoing, all payments due hereunder are conditioned upon OUR CLIENT’s written acceptance of the WORD.

Well, hallelujah!!