I should be asleep, as I've got a long drive ahead of me tomorrow, but my need to get back by a certain time is no longer extant, so I can leave a little later if I want. Probably will. Need a shower. Not that it's worth showering, as I'll be in a hot car with the windows down. Hrm. Decisions, decisions.

I have had a lot of fun this trip. The birthday celebration for my mom went really well, including the Sooper Seekrit Project, which was a PDF called "60 Reasons We Love Louise." I also made a cake, and it was tasty and didn't fall apart when I put the layers on top of each other. Win! My mom is totally awesome, and I was glad to have the chance to show, at least in a small way, just how awesome she is.

Had lots of fun hanging with my sister and her boyfriend. We watched Push, which I enjoyed, even if we did mock the plot holes and I kind of had to shut my brain off because the plot actually got a little too complicated to follow. (Or maybe not the plot, but the plan the heroes had. Or something.) We played some Wii games.

I even got a bit of work done on the screenplay. Or at least planning for the screenplay. I think maybe I've reached a point in my writing where I can actually attempt to get some of the ideas down first, before attempting to soldier through the story. (Since I usually find I'm telling the wrong story about 1/3 of the way in!) We'll see how it goes. Haven't done any actual writing, but that'll take time to get to that point. The two major scenes that I have in mind will actually be able to be altered to fit the redirected vision with very little effort, I think.

All in all, a really nice vacation. Wish I could be on vacation all the time. :D

The Other Manager yesterday got all riled up about something. My intern had been following instructions from OM's assistant. Said instructions were wrong/bad/caused problems with contracting. Her solution? Have my assistant retrain the intern. I looked at the problem. It was not a training issue so much as it was a weird situation in the document he did and the OM's assistant being lazy and incompetent. The poor intern is actually quite competent and thought it was weird, but he does what he's told. He was anxious. I felt bad for him. Today, I will buy donuts for the floor, because I feel bad for him. (And it's also a short week, which, while nice, seems to mean that everybody is just that much more stressed, trying to cram 40 hours of work into 32 hours.)

Got my room tidied a little bit and solved the worlds (and some of our own) issues with a friend. Slept. (Amazing!) Had strange college-related dreams.

This morning, I woke up at around 6, so I got up and spent some time with the Wii Fit. I have goofed around on the internet. It is now time to get dressed and head to Dunkin Donuts. (If only there were a Krispy Kreme on the way in, because I HATE the DD commercials. Ah well.)

So, my toe has been hurting the last couple of hours. I figured my sock was bunched up funny or something. When I got home just now, I took off my sock and found that somehow a piece of hair had wrapped itself rather tightly around the three middle toes of my left foot, right exactly where it hurt. The indentation it made is mostly gone now, and the pain is fading. It's probably one of the more random things to happen to me in quite some time.

Did some more of the Wii Fit this morning, even though I didn't particularly feel like it. Ventured into the aerobics portion and totally failed at doing the hula hoop. Big surprise...not! Think I may need to have shoes handy for the run-in-place thing.

Of course, now I feel like going back to bed, not going to work, but ... ack! Time to go!

Been awake too long already. *yawn* Sleep is getting off again. Not pleased. Dreaming of the sun setting at around 11:30 pm is probably a bad sign.

Did the Wii Fit this morning. My balance seems to be getting worse!

Was not killed in Metro accident, and fortunately by ONE TRAIN neither was one of my friends. So glad!

The BNP does not identify the Normans as an indigenous Caucasian group, but the Norse and Anglo-Saxons get a pass? History-fail, IMO. My Welsh blood does not approve.

Really going to work now, I promise. *yawn*

I got the Fit set up last night and did my first body test, as well as a couple of the balance games. This morning, I re-tested (lost weight in the night, hahah), then did some balance and the first two yoga exercises. (One of which is deep breathing, which apparently I'm really good at. Convince my allergist.) ;)

I think this may just be the best investment. I've been thinking that I really need to be in charge of my routine, without relying on another person. The Wii tracks all sorts of stuff, but it won't feel disappointed in me if I don't show up. So it's my choice if I do it or not.

Also, considering how badly I'm out of shape, it lets me do stuff in increments. I'm not in a class with a lot of other people doing something better than I am, so I can stop after the first real pose really made me shake. I don't have to feel bad about that. I've been talking about needing to do this in baby steps, and this seems like it'll be a good way to do that.

So, time to find an office-ready shirt and get out the door. And work on my posture. :D

Call it an attempt to stimulate the economy single-handedly. I bought a Wii and Wii Fit. Um...I hope this was not a bad decision, but I needed to do something different, and there's actually excitement in me about this, so ... here's hoping! And if not...there's always craigslist...

My alarm didn't go off, but I woke up anyway. I suppose that's a good thing. I pretty much wasted yesterday. Seems to be a running theme, one I want to fix but am not yet sure how. Saturday was a busier day. Had brunch and got a bunch of errands done with one friend, then had a two-hour nap, then spent the evening hanging out with an old co-worker and eating at a really good Lebanese restaurant. (As in, the food tasted good. No idea if it was actually true to Lebanese food, having never had it before.)

I have completely fallen off the gym wagon. Last summer/fall, I had really good motivation. Then something killed it, and I can't even seem to recall what having that motivation was like. Right now, most of the things that seem to be pushing me in that direction are very negative things, like negative self-image, depression, and guilt. That's not going to be a recipe for success, as none of those things actually get me to the gym. Time for some more mental spelunking to see if I can't find and resuscitate that enthusiasm. (And 'resuscitate' has the right number of S's in it, but they're in the wrong order, imo.)

Kristen Chenoweth was born in the town I spent most of my elementary school years. Totally random.

So it's been a couple of days off the antibiotic, and the pain has gone. Can't imagine why it was so localized. Maybe I just pulled a muscle or something. Just bizarre. Glad I didn't waste a trip to the doctor. :)

Today is our company picnic. I am so not looking forward to it. I feel weird spending time with most of my co-workers in casual situations. There are too many people for me to know anyway, so there'll be strangers. Stranger danger! (I never heard this phrase until an episode of Psych, but I love it, even if I'm using it in a different context.)

I also have to do the final performance assessment, and it's one I don't really know how to address, 'cause the issue is more a nebulous "We'd like to maybe see more creativity, if you get a chance," since it's not like our clients particularly like us to be creative. (Especially lately.)

Ah well. Time to "woman up" and get on the road. (And yes, I went there! Most guys I know are terrible whimps, so I refuse to say "man up.")

I know next to nothing about Iranian politics, but I can't help be amused at a quote from this article:

"Such insults and accusations against the government are a return to Hitler's methods, to repeat lies and accusations ... until everyone believes those lies," [Ahmadinejad] said, quoted by local media.

Does he not know that this means he lost, according to the commonly-accepted application of Godwin's Law?

For the past few days, I've had this random abdominal pain. It comes and goes. I don't know why. It might be appendicitis, held at bay by the antibiotic I was on for another problem. It might be nothing very much at all, like just a side-effect from the medication. I don't want to waste more time out of the office if it's nothing, but I don't want to do something stupid like let an appendix rupture happen. But I don't know if it's that, or if it's just me being paranoid, or what. Yesterday was the last of the antibiotic, so I guess today I'll know if there are nefarious forces at work, or if I'm just being a paranoid hypochondriac like usual. (There's no fever, or only a mild one, as usual, but again, antibiotic.)

I really do hope it's nothing serious. I have too much to do to be sick/need surgery/die.

Sadness is realizing that you're the only one left in the office but the janitors.

Trying to get out the door on my road trip to Boston, but I seem to keep forgetting things. Hopefully I'll make it soon. Wish me luck. :)

( Cut not really for spoilers, just 'cause I'm long-winded )

Okay, so, that wasn't really quick, and it wasn't really a review, just musings on a trilogy and how it seems to have to work.

Speaking of work, I better head out.

I seem to be waking up earlier and earlier these days. Frustrating, because I could have slept for at least another hour and a half. Le sigh.

Bit of a strange weekend. The other basement-dwelling roommate up and moved out. I am so taking over one of the coat closets she had used, though. I need more storage space. Pathetic? Maybe. Gonna do it? Oh yeah. I just have to actually, you know, do it. I'm taking the one that also has the crawl-space under the stairs, because that way, I can always adopt Harry Potter if I need to. ;)

I have apparently started sleeping in very strange positions, because my neck and shoulder and down my back are all just hot-throbbing with pain. Rude, imo.

Tonight I need to tidy up my room a tick and pack up some clothes to head to Boston. My mom's graduation from Harvard with a Masters in computer something-or-other is the 4th. I'm all excited. And impressed. My mom pretty much rocks.

And on that note, I think I'll swap my laundry (this is the dead time in the morning when nobody is showering), then get dressed and head into the office early. I have to catch up from missing Friday and prepare Mark for taking charge while I'm gone. Busy day ahead. I have a feeling I won't just be taking the laptop with me to write with. If nothing else, maybe being out of the office will help me focus on the performance assessments.

Either that, or I'll go back to bed. ;)

Most bizarre and complicated dream I've had in a while. Started out with trying to get to my wedding. I hadn't tried on the dress (which is a problem, since apparently my sister had heels for me to wear). I didn't know the schedule. Lots of people around. Very strange. Get to the temple, only to find out the groom is running late.

Wherein suddenly it's from the groom's POV, and he is Christian Bale/Batman, with a laid-back clone and an evil twin. The evil twin was trying to get him out of the way and ruin the marriage. There was an island (perhaps of Koreans or Vietnamese) that the real guy ended up on that apparently was a day behind, so it was possible if he could get back to the mainland, he might still somehow not be late.

So bizarre. I used to be able to tell where the odd bits in my dreams come from. Not this one!

If I tap on my lower left sinus, it kind of hurts. I wonder if that's just because it's got a bunch of steroids (medicinal!) and antihistamines shoved up in there, or if it's because I actually do have a sinus infection. Only time will tell!

I get to wear my new jeans to work, because it's Friday, and Friday is casual day. I just don't know which shirt to wear. Really should decide. Gotta go. Aaaaaa!

So the doctor said on Monday it's just allergies, and she upped a bunch of my meds and gave me another one. It's helping, to a point, but I'm still coughing a lot, and there's at least a small chance it's turned septic. (insert proper medical term there if you feel the need) Stupid allergies. Stupid lungs. Stupid ... uh ... stupid.

Can't delay leaving much longer, but so tired. I would blame the fish, but he's just being cute, and I would feel guilty, as I need to change his water pretty badly. This weekend, I swear. It's gonna be a nice, long one! Yay!

I once had a digital thermometer. It died. I'm cheap, so now I have the regular hold-it-in-your-mouth-forever kind. Except I don't actually like it at all. The way you have to hold it makes my jaw hurt, and I'm annoyed. All I want to know is it it's just allergies! Wah.

*sigh* Three minutes later, and it appears it is just allergies. No staying home for me, especially since I found my meds.