So

My mom is going into hospice, probably at the nursing home she's been in on and off between hospital visits. :( The doctor said that short of a liver transplant, which isn't going to happen due to her other health issues, she might have six months, tops, to live. I'm going to go visit this weekend. I've known this was coming, but it doesn't make it easier, and it must be far worse for her. But part of the whole point of hospice care is to prepare the patient and family for what's to come. So that's good. I know my stepfather (who is a very good husband) has done everything he could to try to avoid this. But it's a natural part of life. I've mostly accepted it, but at the same time, I have a lot of mixed emotions. We'll see how things go. I just hope they can keep her comfortable and allow her to make the most of life that remains.

Sigh. I guess because of the news last night about the prognosis, I had a hard time falling asleep. After an hour of tossing and turning, I finally broke out the sleeping pills my doctor prescribed, the trazodone. I took 1/2 a pill, since I didn't know how I'd react. I slept really well from 11 pm till about 4:30 am, and then I was just awake, not groggy, just awake. (I have the same reaction to the muscle relaxant tizanidine). No grogginess or anything, just suddenly up and going. I got up, took a relaxing bath with lavender oil, a candle, and some lavender incense, and then put my headphones on, turned on OneRepublic's Native album, and tackled the kitchen, doing not only the dishwasher dishes, but the plastic ones that had been languishing. I cleaned the whole kitchen, except for mopping, and took quite a bit of trash out. It looks great.

After that I went on into work and continued my productivity. I boxed up five boxes of books that are going to the new facility, separated three departements' worth of books and labelled them, helped someone order a book through our vendor, and talked our buyer through the website (and helped him with a personal request that was book-related). I forget that many people consider the ISBN a totally foreign concept. But it was nice to do a lot of library-related stuff today. I've already gotten some books to departments, and I'll try to get the rest out soon.

In the afternoon I did my charge entry and OR reconciliation. Then I left work a little late and went home for a bit before my appointment with my counselor. We had a good session. I showed him the before and after photos of the kitchen, and I had filled out a worksheet on trying not to acquire new things. I see him again in three weeks, and in the meantime I'm going to work on the books on the entertainment centre and the bookshelf behind the front door so that I can hopefully open up the entryway a bit.

Now I'm home, trying something I haven't done--cranberry bread. It uses the raisin bake setting, and you're supposed to add the fruit at the beep. But unlike the quick setting, where you get bread in 1 hour 55 minutes, this takes four hours. So the beep hasn't happened yet. I am listening to music softly, Passenger's All the Little Lights. I need to do some reading to round out my to-do list for the day.

In fact, I think I'll read the orchid book I have to see if I can learn something about them. I have one blooming and another has a stem that's halfway up. I do love them, and I'm so glad they're doing well. I finally watered the plants at the house. I also found the tulips budding the other day and put water in the vase for them to grow. :)

Okay, good night for now.

At least

I finally slept well last night. I was asleep by about 12:30 I think, but then I didn't wake up till 5:30, did my monthly libation, and then went back to sleep till 8:30. The first thing I did was clean the tub/shower, as I'm going to take a bath in a little while. Then I gave myself my Byetta, which you have to delay eating a bit after, picked up around the house, and put my meds into my pillbox for the trip. Now I'm going to get some water, check my blood sugar, and eat something. The last few days I've done very poorly with my diabetes, haven't had any sleep hardly, ate emotionally, and was somewhat haphazard with my meds, and with the stress and everything my blood sugar reading in the morning yesterday was the highest I've ever had. So yesterday was all about getting back on track, taking my insulin correctly, and eating well. It's still a little high this morning but nothing near yesterday, so I think I'm doing better. As one of my co-workers said, the last thing anyone needs is for me to get sick on top of everything else.

So this morning I have to:

1. Take a bath
2. Try out the dress I bought last year in case of funerals to make sure it still fits fine
3. Dress in a black skirt and top for the visitation
4. Pack
5. Run the dishwasher
6. Take out the trash
7. Get gas

Okay, I've eaten, taken my meds, etc. Time to go take a bath and try to relax a bit.

It's rumbling outside and very dark for a summer morning

as the rain comes down gently. We really needed the rain, and I wasn't really going anywhere, so I can't complain. The window boxes made it through the night without falling off the ledges (yes, if I were in a house, I'd have them on brackets, but I'm in an apartment, so it is what it is.) I slept over nine hours and it was lovely to sleep in on a Sunday for a change. I've taken all my medication (including the potassium, which dissolved in my mouth, but I drank so quickly it went down before I tasted it). I've had just a little hazelnut spread on bread and I'm full already. I'm switching to just plain acetaminophen today. I'm charging my glucometer. I've been up doing some things, but I'm already feeling sleepy again, which probably isn't surprising given how dark things are outside, even though I've been up for only about an hour. It looks like it's starting to lighten up out there, though. Maybe it's clearing off a bit. The birds are singing, anyway. Maybe I'll try some reading....

Up and moving today

I'm going over to A's about 2:30 to take him to the store, but in the meantime I'm up and washing dishes and straightening up the apartment. I've also changed two light bulbs, as the last one went out over the bed in a flash and I didn't want to wait until later because it's already gloomy and rainy outside, so it'll be worse when it's dark. I have a friend who is nervous about changing any light bulb. I don't have that trouble, but balancing on the bed while standing is not the easiest thing for me, and I'd rather not break something because I was trying to change a light bulb. So it's best to do while I'm refreshed and have as much light as possible. :)

And I am refreshed--I slept really well last night, and probably was asleep by 11 pm and woke up a little after 9 am and finally got out of bed about ten. Right after breakfast (the rest of my tuna sandwich from Subway yesterday) I loaded and started the dishwasher, did the handwash dishes (there weren't many, unlike last time), straightened up in the living room, kitchen, and bathroom, got the stuff that came out of the car (the backup CPAP, the reusable tote bags, and the air mattress) put up. Next is to sort through and put away laundry, but my back was hurting, so I thought I'd take a break. So I'm listening to the Rick Dees weekly top 40 countdown and checking on some things online. A should be in a good mood today--his Wildcats won against the Cardinals last night and will be progressing in the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Okay, I've heard the top song for the week. It's Lorde's 'Team', which is the second #1 off her debut album, which doesn't happen often. And she's not even eighteen yet! Okay, time to get up and do some things.

Bleh. I'm awake.

I was helping a friend look some things up on the Internet last night and got to a point where sitting in the chair really hurt, and we were basically finished and I went on home, took some ibuprofen and a small bit of muscle relaxant, and I was out for the night. I didn't manage to get up early and work on the notes (and we are playing). But I got up early enough to have some veggie sausage, some Greek yoghurt, and an apple (a big breakfast for me, especially on a weekend). I have a lot to do with my friends today, so I thought I should power up. :) I also have a lot of laundry to do over there, so I'm going to go get ready and put that in the car. Hope you have a good weekend!

Wow...

One of the things I did before bed last night was disarm the five alarms I use to wake up in the morning. I rarely just sleep in to when I want these days, and I decided I was going to do it. That was about 11:30 or so last night. I woke up about 10 am and got out of bed at 10:22. I slept well and long. So I'm up, it's cycling between sunny and cloudy outside, and the cicadas are so loud I can hear them from inside.

Things I'd like to do today:
1. Do some reading. I'm working on Charlaine Harris' Dead and Gone, the last Sookie Stackhouse novel.
2. Watch some videos. I have one of the 'Sherlock's to catch up on, some 'Downton Abbey', etc.
3. Go to either the pool or the YMCA, or both.
4. Work on the window boxes (they were tossed around by the storms this weekend, and some of the plants need some attention, plus the strawberries are sad and almost dried out in places.
5. Get some pots and re-pot some of the indoor plants like the hoya and the prayer plant.

I don't think I can do anything about my dark aquarium. The folks who told me about the electronic ignition assembly (I can't remember what it's actually called) are usually closed on Labor Day, as it is a family-run business. I'm not sure Incredipet or PetSmart would be helpful. I don't have to replace the whole hood, just that assembly, but I don't remember how to, to be honest. That may be something for later in the week.

Lovely day

I woke up at eight this morning, after sleeping a total of 12 hours, just waking up once about 1:30 but going straight back to bed. I somehow managed to get to work on time (I have to be there at 8:30), despite the fact that my ear did not cooperate when I tried to put an earring in it after nothing in them for just two or three days. (Which is why I'm sleeping in post earrings tonight.) I got a lot accomplished at work, especially with the referrals, and I'm generally happy about how my Monday went. Plus, one of my co-workers who had been ill is back to work, and it was nice to see her today.

After work I picked up a friend and took him home, then visited with his spouse while he went off to a meeting. I called Time Warner Cable for him, as the home page that had been set up for him just went away completely and would not load. Turns out the www.twccentral.com webpage is just a temporary thing, and the real home page is www.rr.com. Not that they tell you anywhere in the migration process that this will happen, mind you. So, just in case you have the same trouble, there you go. We also watched several episodes of a delightful show called 'Better Off Ted', set in a Monsanto-like company and which has Portia De Rossi as the wonderfully efficient (as in shouldn't be allowed to oversee gas chambers) boss, Veronica. It's really fun, and I can't believe I missed it when it was on, and it's a shame it never really 'made it', but I'm glad it's on Netflix. If you have it, or some other way to see it, you should check it out. And then, in order to firmly cement its theme song into my mind, we watched a couple of episodes of 'H2O: Just Add Water'. :)

As I drove home, it occurred to me that it was now July, meaning I've had car insurance for six months, and that probably meant that in the stack of unopened mail at home I had new insurance cards. I prayed that I'd get home without doing something stupid to get a citation, when they could be expired. So I got home, called my friend to let him know I got home okay (I always do that when it's dark; you never know.) I went through my mail, found the cards--which thankfully start on the day my insurance is due, a few days away, put them next to my purse so I'd have them tomorrow morning, and then got out the Time Warner Cable bill to see when it was due. I figured it was today, but it's actually a few days away. But I followed the instructions for getting a TWC ID so I could pay online, and it glitched, but the registration went through. I paid my bill and did a few more housekeeping sorts of things, then texted with Brandon, who was checking on me tonight. Now it's almost 12:30 and I am definitely up past my bedtime. :)

So it's been a pretty busy day. Tomorrow we'll have a bigger clinic, so there will be a lot of data entry for me to do. I'm going to start cataloguing some new books, as well, I think, and generally spruce up the library. And with it being the first of the month, I have some major filing to do that should take up the remainder of my day.

I still haven't done those hand-washables. And my payment for the YMCA went through today. Still haven't been, except for the once, when I signed up. I have some things to do for a friend tomorrow, but I really want to go sometime this week. I'm assuming they're closed the Fourth, but maybe Friday is an option. They don't have the open swim on Wednesday nights, unfortunately. The diuretic seems to be helping with the swelling of my ankles. It's still happening, but it's not quite as bad. I need to start wearing the pressure hose every day; if I do that, then I should be able to fit into my athletic shoes in the evening to work out, or at least that's what I hope.

Okay, I'm definitely getting sleepy. Good night. Hope your week goes well.

By the way

I actually slept almost nine hours last night, only briefly waking up twice. Yay!

Today's plan is to sit up and read in the bed as there's nothing on TV and I was uncomfortable sitting up in the chair. But I'll try to stay awake.

Wow

I almost never get to sleep in. Either I'm at work, or on someone's schedule, or have my own things to do. Last night I turned all the alarms off. I woke up at 8:30 to go to the bathroom, and I took my long-acting insulin. Then I went back to bed. I was having an annoying dream where I was having to fight a non-existent library branch for a snack they offered but didn't actually know how to sell, and had finally resolved that when I woke up at 11:45. I guess I was dreaming about food because it had been over 12 hours since I'd eaten. My blood sugar was good despite lots of treats yesterday (as in fresh fruit and cheese, plus a wonderful meal of kugel, zucchini soup, and purple coleslaw). And while I did sleep nearly 12 hours, consider that I'd been up early yesterday and had a full day. On a normal week I would have gone into work somewhat zombified, been productive regardless (I am often most productive on those days), and then slipped home and crashed for 12 hours anyway. This time I got to avoid the delay. :)

It's gloomy outside but not raining. We did get some yesterday, but I don't know if it was a good soaking rain or not, since we were playing and it was dark already when the real rain came, and I sit with my back to the window anyway. But I did hear it a couple of times, which is a good sign, as the windows were closed. Even my pepper, which sits deep inside a porch, had some. I'll check later today to see if I need to water it more, though.

I have no plans for today. I don't plan on going out unless there's a good reason. The buses only run till 8:20 anyway. I'll try to take my aquarium hood assembly in tomorrow. So today it's read, straighten up a bit, watch some DVDs, laze around a bit, and generally entertain myself, something I used to be quite good at doing but have lately started failing at miserably, hence the getting bored and going on to bed. They say as you get older you get more 'opposite' than you were on the Myers-Briggs test. I used to be a very strong introvert, then was more in the middle. Now I'm beginning to wonder if I'm losing the introvert's ability to amuse themselves without stimulation. Could I be becoming (oh, no) an extrovert? I have become very people-oriented over time, rather than living as much in my own head. It does make you wonder. :)

On that note, I think I'll go read. Hope you have a lovely day off, if you have one.

Up a little early with 15 minutes or so to go before I head out to the bus

I must remember to ask for a transfer, as I have an actual dollar with me rather than a valid bus pass. I also have the Bulgarian woman's bag in my backpack, although I doubt she'll be heading to work this early in the morning.

I got a good night's sleep, which is rarely the case before the game, waking up at 5:30 without hitting snooze once. I also got plenty of rest Friday night, so this is almost unheard of, short of an actual holiday, and even those tend to be busy. So the trip to Danville was good as far as getting rest as well. I remembered to take my Lantus, since I wasn't rushed, as well.

Okay, I need to go check a couple of things on the computer and then I'm on my way. Have a nice Sunday.

It took nearly an hour and three alarms

(Listening to Natalie Merchant's 'The Living')

to get me up from an almost 12-hour sleep. I was up briefly at 2, and took my Neurontin (I'd taken my insulin before I'd gone to bed, it just was too early for the other). And somewhere around 10 there was a phone call. But otherwise I slept. The Neurontin is working wonders with the foot pain, and I got some distilled water so my humidifier on my CPAP could run, so I was set and comfy. I realise now that when I was sleeping so much in the past, I wasn't really sleeping that much in all that time, because of the pain. It was keeping me in this light, dreamless sleep where I woke up all the time. Now I'm sleeping much better, dreaming again, and although I'm not quite sure where the need for the long sleep came from, it was nice to get. I'm not groggy like I used to be upon waking, either, although I'm a little congested and coughing. I've noticed I've been having some trouble breathing very deeply lately, so I'm going to ask them to check me out at my appointment Tuesday. I haven't felt sick or anything, nothing beyond the ubiquitous allergies. But it may be my asthma kicking in. I had an actual episode during the dog attack where I needed my inhaler, and that happens something like three or four times a year, my asthma is so mild. I really have trouble breathing if I bend over, but I think that's just because I'm fat.

I am not up early enough to do any laundry, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. Fortunately it is jeans day and I have just enough clean clothes to manage that. As far as tomorrow goes, we're going to try to iron out the problem with my pharmacy and flexible spending card not meshing, and the guy I know who works there is actually going to come pick me up and take me across town to the pharmacy so we can talk to the company together and then bring me back, saving me maybe three or four hours on the buses, which I really appreciate. At some point tomorrow, I'm also going to go by the grocery and get, if I can find it, vegetarian oyster sauce for a friend, as well as some groceries for me. I also need to stop by the library briefly.

Today we're supposed to have clouds followed by a rain-snow mix later in the day that should cause things to be, well, miserable in terms of getting out and the commute home. I've got a ride, thankfully. My aim today is to catalogue as many books as possible. I did 45 the other day, and I've done 149 in the last few days. It's not full-blown cataloguing--I'm using LibraryThing, where you type in or scan the ISBN and it populates it from other sources. I then put in the tags and the National Library of Medicine classification number, for that is what we use on our shelves. So it's basically copy cataloguing with a little additional work.

It's been a long week, and I think people are ready for Friday. Our accrediting agency was at the hospital for three days doing a survey, and I gather it went well. They never came to the library, but I was ready with my codes and acronyms for dealing with crisis situations, as well as what we as the library could do in the case of computer or utility failure, so I felt fairly confident if they were to come in. In the fifteen years I've been there, I don't remember a surveyor asking about the library, but it could always happen.

Speaking of work, I should probably start getting ready. Hope you have a great end of the week.

Feeling much better

Apparently I really needed some rest. I slept from a little after 5 until 7:30, got up for awhile, went back to bed about 8:30 or 9, and slept till 8:30 this morning. In the midst of all that I remembered to take my Lantus, which was good, as I've had trouble remembering the last couple of days and my blood sugar has been high as a result. I think I'm going to have to institute a rule that as soon as I get home, I take the stuff. That's how I remember my oral meds--I take them as soon as I get to work. And of course, the Novolog is triggered whenever I am about to eat a meal. I will get the hang of this.

Oh, man

My plan yesterday was to come home, watch the Doctor Who I recorded over the weekend, and then catch up on some sleep. I came home, ate, went straight to bed (this would have been about 7 pm), and woke up this morning at 8 am. This is what happens when I build up a sleep deficit and don't get a chance to make it up Monday. As a consequence of sleeping the night away, I didn't renew some library books, either, so now I have a small amount of fines. :(

Monday and yesterday were long days. Monday I went to work, then over to a friend's to finish up Sunday housework and visit. I got home about 11. Then yesterday I started out by voting in our primary (with a very low turnout expected). The only offices on the Democrat ballot were agricultural commissioner, secretary of state, and state treasurer, you see. But I did vote, so I'm in the minority. Then I headed to an ophthalmology appointment where I had a field of vision test that I really had trouble with (I kept seeing false lights when I blinked, some sort of reflection or something) and my eye pressure measured, which was a little higher but still not enough for medicine. It's getting up there, though. They're reluctant to put me on them too early because, as Dr Kielar said, once we do, it's a long haul and I'll probably be on them for the rest of my life. So for now the diagnosis is ocular hypertension and not glaucoma.

I was a little bummed by all that. Work was long. I got a lot done. On Monday and Tuesday one of my co-workers found some books that were missing from our special collections in her office, which is great, because I've been looking for them for a year to no avail. The person who had them out had brought them back but I'd been out, so he'd left them with her, and she'd forgotten to give them to me. Also yesterday I realised I'd totally forgotten about my home phone bill, which comes out automatically from my account, and I got an e-mail yesterday that it had gone through. That's good news, but I'll probably get an overdraught fee, depending on how long it sits in pending before posting. That was just stupid--I just totally forgot about it coming up on the 17th. I get paid tonight, so it might work out.

Otherwise, I feel much better about today. I've had plenty of rest. It's still cold and rainy (we're having a blackberry winter), but tomorrow is supposed to be nicer.

Okay, I should go catch the bus. Hope you have a great day.

I had some good news over the weekend

Remember when I wrote that someone I loved didn't recognise me (or anyone else)? It turns out she was confused because of an increase in medication dosage, and once this was resolved, she was back to normal. So I got to talk with her on the phone Sunday and she was her old self again. It was so wonderful to actually talk with her, and have her recognise my voice.

Sorry I haven't posted. Sunday was very long with the house cleaning over at the game master's and the game itself. I got home a little after 10, after getting up about 5:30 am. I had a fun time, but was just really tired. Last night I came home from work about 7:15 and crashed by 8, sleeping 12 hours till this morning.

Yesterday I signed my new lease. I'm off on Thursday, and they've scheduled a carpet cleaning for that morning in appreciation of me staying here. So I need to straighten things up before they come.

Tomorrow I see my doctor. My blood sugar has been up ever since he took me off the oral meds. I actually saw him Saturday at Kroger, and said hi, but was careful not to say, oh, this is how I'm doing. I'm sure he gets enough of, 'Doc, I have an ache right here.' I figure give the man some peace until I'm paying for his time. Anyway, we'll see tomorrow how that goes. I'll have to check the bus schedule to figure out when to leave work. The new schedule has so far worked pretty well, but I haven't tried transferring to another bus yet. But I'm getting home a little earlier, and that's nice. I've been waking up early enough that going in earlier hasn't been a problem.

It's bad when you fall asleep in the middle of a post

Yesterday evening I was writing and received a phone call, talked for a bit, and went to return and found that I was very sleepy and thought I might 'lie down for just an hour'. How many times have we heard that one? That was at 8 pm. I got up briefly at 2:30 am to take my insulin, but stayed asleep for the most part till 8 this morning. And I feel so much better, because I got real rest. So here's what I was writing....

I got home an hour early because of a snafu with the system I use for data entry. I waited around an hour to see if it would come back up and then a co-worker took me home through the wind and the snow (the ground's too warm for it to stick, but it's a little stinging on the face). I didn't manage to pay my rent this morning, so I dropped it off at the office, albeit after they closed. I'll check tomorrow to make sure they got it--there was a bit of a tailwind when I put it through the slot. But it's a cashier's cheque made specifically out to them by the bank, so if it's cashed I should have proof of payment. I got the cashier's cheque free instead of paying the $5 for a money order because the teller was visiting with her co-workers and was so mortified that I'd waited since she had not seen me. I was fine with everything, and didn't feel put out, but I'll gladly take the discount.

The shadow money is on its way out of my account; the reversal is pending. That leaves me enough for the IRS (I'm afraid to make the cheque out for the 25th but send it earlier without the money to cover it; I don't get paid until the 24th, so I'm making sure I have enough in the bank in case it goes through early--they want me to send it by the 15th so it gets there in time), and my phone bills. There's not enough to pay my cable bill until the 24th, and that may be iffy, but they won't cut it off entirely so I may just have restricted services for a few days. I'm on time with everything else.

Now that I know how much I'm making (roughly, as I get a shift differential, too) with the new raise, I'm working out a budget. It's a tight budget, leaving me with, well, about $30 a month discretionary income. I've been spending too much money on food at work and need to start bringing my lunch. The most other obvious cut would be my Vonage phone, but my cell phone can only handle so long of a conversation or so many calls before recharging and I also like having a phone for things like doctors' reminders so I don't get bothered when I'm out and about. Plus I can call anywhere at anytime and it's not extra and uses no minutes. The one drawback is that if my electricity or cable is out, so is my home phone. But Vonage has been very good to me; they once gave me a free month when I couldn't pay them a few years ago, rather than letting repeated attempts to debit from my account cause multiple overdraughts.

Now back to this morning. I checked, and everything's fine rent-wise. It's sunny and supposed to stay so today, although cool. When I went to the Weather Channel's site just now, I saw the story for the massive earthquake in Japan and the accompanying tsunami.

Here's what one seismologist said about the quake:

The magnitude 8.9 earthquake that struck Friday off the coast of Japan "is going to be among the top 10 earthquakes recorded since we have had seismographs," said seismologist Susan Hough of the US Geological Survey in Pasadena. "It's bigger than any known historic earthquake in Japan, and bigger than expectations for that area."

At least Japan is one of the most earthquake-prepared countries. I hope that minimises the impact and damage, although it looks like it's still just incredibly big and therefore destructive. Plus there are tsunami warnings all around the Pacific, so this has the potential to be quite deadly, and although the last figure I heard was 60 for deaths in Japan, that number is obviously going to go up as the damage is assessed and more buildings are searched. My thoughts go out to the people of Japan and those in the path of the tsunami.

So much better

Well, I have 7 1/2 hours of sleep under my belt and am up foraging for food since I never ate dinner. I'll go back to bed in a bit. It's 3:30 in the morning, after all, and I still need to catch up. But getting some sleep really has made a difference.

Oh...

I just slept 13 hours. You heard that right. I came home in a lot of pain because of my foot that wasn't being touched by ibuprofen, decided to prop it up on the bed, and was gone. That was 7 pm. It's 8 am now.

I think it's because I haven't really napped or slept more than say 5-7 hours a day all week. I've been busy at work, but also have had several requests at home, often with phone calls interrupting my chance to rest, the first few days of the week.

Yesterday, I went to bed and that was it. It was bliss. I dreamt wild and complex dreams. I didn't care that I wasn't getting anything else accomplished. At 2 am I came out and turned off the aquarium light. I thought about getting up then, but decided to get up at 4 am instead. I never heard my alarm. Instead I woke up right before 8. Oh, well. Here's to catching up on things (including blogging) tonight.

Oh, man

I got home about 7:15 last night and took my contacts out, put on my jammies, ate a couple of tortillas, and went to bed, ostensibly for a couple of hours but I didn't set an alarm, because I'm not on a particular schedule today. I felt absolutely drained.

10 hours later, here I am.

I dreamt I heard the doorbell (it happens sometimes), so I got up and checked. Now I'm eating some vegetarian chili for breakfast, I was so hungry. I even found half a bottle of Diet Coke in the fridge. Blessed caffeine.

The only thing on the agenda today is to finish the game notes and take back the shoes I got last week, which need to be a little bigger. That means going back to the mall, but that's okay. I wasn't overwhelmed last week--it's not like post-Thanksgiving in terms of crowds, after all.

Today is a friend's birthday. He's finally caught up with me (we were born the same year). Happy Birthday!

Okay, I should probably go be productive, and try to resist going back to bed till it's light outside. I should also go charge my phone and turn off the aquarium light now that the fish have had a chance to feed.

I feel more awake than usual for a Monday

Mainly because I got so much rest on Saturday, and then when I came home from the game last night, I changed clothes, took my contacts out, set my alarm, and went straight to bed. As a result, I feel rather refreshed.

Today should be busy at work (most Mondays are). Then I have some more to do around the house, including laundry (yes, still working on it). I have some cardboard boxes that need to go out, too, that I've been hanging on to (one for good reason, as the thing it came in had a return for 14 days, and that just passed on Friday. But now there's no reason to keep them, and they're fairly awkward for packing, kind of flat and wide, although sturdy. Oh, well, someone can swipe them from the Rosie container if they really want to use them.

Okay, that's all for now. Time to go to work. Hope you had a good weekend, and have a good day. I can't believe it's already the end of August. It seems like just last week that I was complaining about sub-zero temperatures, and yesterday it was scorching ones. I think time speeds up the older you get. When I was a kid, summers were almost endless. Now they go in a blink of an eye. It really should be the other way around, because you appreciate time as you get older.

I came home and just crashed

I got home around 8 pm, put my purse down, and went straight to bed--do not pass Go, do not collect $200. The good news is the blower is out of the apartment. The bad news is that the smell of wet carpet and clothes still hits you the moment you walk through the door, despite an Airwick plug-in air freshener.

So this morning I went to the bank before work and picked up $30 in quarters for laundry, in case I can salvage anything in the closet. Only one box was soaked; the rest are dry but were in proximity in a closed space. So the idea was to wait until the laundry room was relatively deserted and do a lot at once. Hence the fact that I am now up. I took out the recyclables that were in the hamper that fits in my granny cart. Now I'm eating a couple of peanut butter and spreadable fruit sandwiches and drinking a Diet Coke to fuel my activity. I'm also about to work on game notes, since I'll be up for awhile. Wish me luck.

Tomorrow I'm actually off from the store, eating with friends at an Indian buffet. Of course, that means I can't wait until the last minute to do notes. So, here I am, awake, feeling a little overwhelmed by all I have to do.

Most importantly, I have to get the soaked clothes out of the house without having an asthma attack. I think a garbage bag and the granny cart are going to be pressed into service.

Okay, time to go get active.