I've been playing a lot more than I realised. I'm someone that doesn't like to do daily quests, as I get bored, but I'm about to get the five-day daily achievement. I'll get it if I play today and do the dailies. And I probably will.

Methinks a break is needed.

Never say it's uneventful around the music offices.

The day had actually been pretty quiet for a first day back of the big choirs. Even with two new singers starting, it was quiet. Then at break, one of the professional singers said she was leaving before the end of the year. And not thirty minutes into the volunteer rehearsal, one of the two married couples who sings with that group came to the office to say they couldn't take the assistant conductor anymore and that they were leaving as well. From what they said, the husband lost his temper with the conductor and was told to leave rehearsal. So they both left.

Wow. What a way to end the evening.

Looks like one is going to cut out sooner than later and avoid any further drama.

I hate days like these. I have been here barely an hour and it feels like four. It's always days like these, too, that I have to stay later than usual, due to arriving late or leaving early on other days. Very frustrating. Trying to do busy work until lunch, however, so that should boss leave office or piano to check on things, I look somewhat productive. Problem is, most work for the remainder of the week has been done. Blargh.

Have something of a light weekend coming up:

Friday
--clean house
--Happy Hour at Ra Sushi downtown

Saturday
--cable guy for HD stuff
--breakfast in Skokie?
--random around the house stuff

Sunday
--Freedom! Horrible horrible freedom!

This is needed. I am greatly looking forward to it.

Methinks the room goal for this weekend will be the "guest bedroom". No reason to not. We can put some of Lowell's nerd stuff in there, get the walls painted (finally...), hang some curtains, clean out the closets and get better organised...hmm. Sounds good. As I am now Alex's honorary Commander Riker, this Number Two will make it so.

Someone congratulated me today, and then asked how many months along I was in my pregnancy.

I'm decidedly not pregnant. I'm on the third day of my period.

My water bottle is full. My food journal has been restarted. I will clear the floor and dance with those who dance with the stars. I will purchase a scale.

The next time someone congratulates me on my pregnancy, it will be because I am actually pregnant.

Well, not foiled really. Lazy. Did not do jack yesterday, and knowing me, probably will not today. I do have rehearsal this evening, which I must go to, but otherwise...who knows. I know I'll probably cave and do the dishes, which is stupid, but they're driving me crazy. This is something that needs to get sorted out. Lowell helps sort laundry on occasion, but that's about the extent that he does. Yet I do the dishes, when I swore I wouldn't. That's not going to work. I'm going to get resentful and mean, and it's unnecessary. Yet I know I will do it. So we need to sort this out in some other way.

I'm vaguely remembering that I had similar sleeping problems (waking every hour, tossing and turning, etc.) this time last year. I'm wondering if it's just a winter thing. Or just a thing. I go through these phases periodically. I resorted to Ny-Quil last night, but it didn't do a ton of good. I fell asleep faster, to be sure, but did not stay asleep. Falling asleep faster is good, though, because I get annoyed when I don't fall asleep quickly, and thus keep myself awake longer. I am a ball of irritated contradictions, it seems.

My stomach is rebelling again. I am now nervous about drinking my usual macchiato, lest it upset it further. But it's sitting there, looking at me, asking to be imbibed...blargh. I think Christian forgot to put the vanilla in it, though, 'cause it definitely tastes more like a regular latte than anything else. Oh, well.

My hair still has a bunch of red in it. I am taking small steps to get back to the natural, though. I could color zap it, like I did with the dark brown/black, but the last time I did that, it only sufficiently zapped the color on top of my head; the rest didn't really fade too much. This definitely gave me bad hair for a few months as I got back into the dark red game and got regular haircuts. The best solution is to go to a salon and get it taken care of, but as of right now, I know I don't have the money to do that. Guess we'll have to wait until after Easter for that. Le sigh.

The combination of shampoo, conditioner, and product that I'm using is making my hair super soft, though. Definitely loving it.

I will get to phone calls today. This I guarantee. I've steeled myself to it, and it will get done.

I've lived in what could be described as squalor before. For some reason, this irritates me much more now than it did then, probably because I was rarely home to experience it. Here are the "get our house cleaned the eff up" goals for the week:

TODAY
--continue on laundry
--change sheets on both beds
--clean bedroom
--wash dishes (These two? Not happening.)
--organise bathroom sink area

Other today goals:
--dye hair

TUESDAY
--continue on laundry
--clean kitchen
--move old computer to...somewhere. Taking up too much space right now as it is.
--clean off desk

WEDNESDAY
--clean out bookshelf; add books to lowest shelf
--clean living room

Other Wednesday goals:
--choir rehearsal

THURSDAY
--clean front porch
--misc. work

FRIDAY (non-house goals)
--go to SSA office and get new SS card, damn it.

I think I can last the full six hours today. Lord knows I won't be productive for all of it, though. That much I can guarantee.

Must make sure we have the Extended Edition of Fellowship of the Ring for this Saturday. I'm fairly certain we do, but don't want to have to scramble on Saturday morning.

I have the main theme from Sherlock Holmes as my ringtone. Booyah.

I've not been home before...*thinks*...9:00 PM pretty much any night this week. Had to work late Monday, went to help Mom, Sally, and James in Evanston on Tuesday, and was out for the birthday dinner last night. Tonight I hope to be home by 3:30, and I hope the weather cooperates. The city is digging in for some massive snowfall over the next day or two. I'm anticipating taking a snow day tomorrow, so I'm trying to cover all my bases as best I can during today's shift in case that happens. I can do some work from home, but I'd rather not. It just means I have to make up five hours next week, which shouldn't be too hard to do.

There are definitely some fun things coming up:

Friday (weather permitting): birthday drinks with Alex and Pat
Saturday (TBC): Lalo's for Sue's birthday!
Following three Saturdays: LOTR January!!

Whee!

Time to kick work into high gear. Really don't want to take any work home if it can be avoided.

The list for today is long enough to keep me busy through the split shift. This is goodly.

I am irritated with myself for forgetting my thank you cards. I have to sit downtown for about six hours, so this would have been the perfect time to get the vast majority of them done. Oh, well. The rest of this week should prove very quiet, especially since I was not asked to sort Advent/Christmas music as I have been in the past. I will have bits of every shift to take care of that.

We ordered two copies of our sealed marriage certificate last night. That means that, when they should arrive, I can head downtown and get the whole name change thing taken care of, finally. We also ordered the photo thank yous, so there's another thing to check off the list.

The long weekend was overall good. I did hole up in my room more often than not. I watched up to the last two episodes of Cowboy Bebop. I played World of Warcraft, though not as much as I'd intended. I tried to download Civ 4 on my new computer, but apparently there are compatibility issues with Windows 7 and Civ 4. Boo. I wouldn't have played in the epic game that went on for much of Friday and Saturday, but I would have liked to play in general. I hugged a lot of people. I drank a lot on Thursday. Not enough to be sick the next day, but definitely enough to be a little more forward than I should have been. The bedroom was cold enough to give me the sniffles, and my fingers may never be the same. But I had one of the best sleeps I've had in months from Friday to Saturday night. I need a few more of those to even remotely make up for December as a whole. I also need to take more pain meds, as I pulled a muscle in my back on Saturday night while undressing for bed. Blargh. All in all, good times seemed to be had by all. Huzzah.

The highlight of the weekend for me might actually have been New Years Eve proper, before the drinking commenced. Work was busy but not horrible, spent some time chatting with people at work, and saw Sherlock Holmes. I haven't squeed about a movie in some time, but I am squeeing about this one. Even the extra additions of Irene Adler did not ruin anything. So much fun, and such a good time with great people. I need to go back and see this movie again. And perhaps again.

Day One of No Organist Week is off to a fantastic start. It's quiet, and it will be for the remainder of the week. Booyah.

Sleepy sleepy sleepy.

Aldwin and I agreed on it, and I've been hearing much of the same all week. This year FLEW by. And I will say right now that this was easily one of the best and worst years of my life. Well, maybe that's overquantifying. I may have just made a word up there. At any rate. The high moments were high, and the low moments were low. There were not a lot of plateaus, from what I can remember.

I intend to post a highlights and lowlights list one of the days this weekend. Today, however, I must needs continue sorting music. Lots of stuff to make today go quickly.

Very excited for Sherlock Holmes and the start of Strange Days. :)

I do not think I can be here my entire shift today. I feel lazy for saying it, but it's not laziness. It's pure and utter exhaustion. Sleep has been sporadic if present at all, and the one night I got more than three hours of sleep, it was a horrid one. Fall asleep, then wake up feeling like you haven't slept at all. It's just not kosher. And it's not like I could nap when I got home, if I indeed did leave work as early as humanly possible. There's too much to do.

List time!

Today:
--call Chi Tung; think Driver's License was left there on Sunday.
--make grocery list.
--clean kitchen.
--go to Best Buy.
--go to Jewel.
--go to Chi Tung if ID is indeed there.
--do at least one load of laundry.

Tomorrow:
--work 9-3 or 9-4, depending on leaving time today.
--clean living room.
--reorganise furniture in living room for Strange Days.
--do at least one load of laundry.

Wednesday:
--work 9-3 or 9-4.
--clean nerd room.
--clean bedroom.
--clean guest room.
--test either A) connectability of wifi from bedroom or B) length of ethernet cable from bedroom to nerd room.
--do at least two loads of laundry.

Thursday:
--work 9-3.
--Sherlock Holmes at 7:15.
--Strange Days!


Reason of there being a connectivity test is that I might be getting a new computer. My current machine does not have wireless. It also needs a new graphics card or something. I cannot go to Dalaran in World of Warcraft without my computer hating me. Lowell and I have also been discussing the feasibility of moving my computer and being connected to the internet from our bedroom for the New Year's festivities. It's not that I don't like the guys. I do like the guys. I like them a lot. I also like my privacy. If I am able to sit in my room and occasionally be visited by the guys, it's great. If I am stuck in the middle of everything all the time, it is not.

I was also very insistent upon having the internet should I get that privacy. The past few years, I have been net-less at Strange Days, and I am not a fan. This year, it will not be an issue, if I get my way. So Lowell actually suggested we go look at computers to see if there is anything affordable with wireless to get me. We'll see what comes of it.

Hour and a half down. Still catching up from the weekend. Not surprised by this. Maybe a long lunch in place of leaving early might be a better idea...hmm.