Now this is not fair

Ever since I went and took my nap, I've felt worse and worse.  My throat is starting to get stratchy, my head hurts, my nose and eyes have been drippy all day--I assumed that was allergies--and now I have that achy virusy feeling when everything down to your toe joints hurt.  So I think I may be coming down with a co-worker's cold, even though I've seen her very little except at lunch and sat across the table from her. :(  That would not be a good way to start the new year.

So I haen't done hardly anything since I got home, except feel bad.  I think I'm going to try to watch some TV, maybe a DVD, and see if I at least do something fun.

I feel free

I'm off work early and at home with no plans with anyone else until Saturday.  There's just me and the fish. :)  I would like to straighten up the bedroom and clean out the car, and of course there are the game notes, but otherwise I plan on having some fun and relaxing.  We'll see if that comes to pass.

I'm starting out my free time with a little cereal, and then a nap.  I'm waiting to see if something comes in the mail, which doesn't look like it's run yet.  I hope it does--it's the reimbursement for the trip, which I sent in the request for over a month ago. That would be a great help right now.

Okay, on to that nap.  Ill write later, though.

A long day

but a productive one.   Work was good, and I spent two hours in check-out and navigated some of the challenges there without too much trouble.  Afterwards, I did my data entry, and then after work a friend and I had appointments with our physical therapists.  Then we came home,  YKWIA treated us to Long John Silver's., and we watched 'Doctor Who' while we ate.  I cried over the death of a Dalek, in the first episode in which they appeared in the revived series.  YKWIA has been showing me them from the beginning, with Eccleston and Billie Piper.  It was a good episode, and I cried over a mutated Dalek, the supposed last of his kind, only he wasn't really just a Dalek any more, and for a Dalek, there is only one solution to that conundrum.  I cry at the drop of a hat with anything sad on shows.  Oddly enough, when it's something really sad in real life, I might cry at say, the death of someone, when I first get the news of their passing, but I'm very stoic in my grief in public at say, the funeral, afterwards.  That's just my way.

I took A to get his bus pass and some creamer (coffee being an important staple in that household, and creamer being just as important, as they go hand in hand, at least for YKWIA).  Now I'm home, watching the fish swim about the bubbling fishtank, the fairy lights on the tree and around the windows, with the star lights twinkling between the living and dining areas.  THe sound of the aquarium is mesmorising, as if it could lull me to sleep without any trouble.

I am tired. I should work on the book review that's due tomorrow, but I think I'll rest and try to finish it tomorrow morning.  My head hurts and I'm still a bit sore from PT, and it would be great to just stretch out for a bit.  Tomorrow I can get up early and work things out.  It's short, just about 300-500 words or so.  I hate to leave it to the last minute, but well, I guess that's par for the course.

I plan to finish the game notes on either Thursday night or Friday during the day, as I am off for New Year's, and my friends have plans to stay in with 'American Horror Story' and piza, so I probably won't see them until Saturday.  That gives me an evening and then a whole day to do whatever I want.  I'm not used to such freedom.  I would like to finish the house--namely the bedroom; everything else is fine.  But that leaves plenty of time for game notes, DVD--watching, and reading, among other things.

Okay, I think I'll lie down and stretch things out a bir, maybe do my PT exercises.  One involves a strap and a pillow.  The others are variations of a pelvic lift.  I could do them on the table at the library, as they would help a lot over the course of the day, but I'm afraid someone would come in and wonder what the crazy person is doing lying on a table making strange motions on it  No, better to do them at home.  While I'm off I'd also like to do some exercising at the complex gym, especially as my pain has calmed down.  Yesterday I spent most of the day very, very tender, partly due to the ordinary pain and partly, I suspect, due to the deep muscle work my therapist did on Monday night.  He did the same things today, but there was a certain gentleness in his movements, and he was careful not to exacerbate the problem areas with too much pressure.  I really appreciated that.  I've gone to different physical therapists, and these people are by far the best--Choice PT over on Duval Street past Man O'War off Tates Creek.  They are very hands-on, rather than just giving you some exercises to go through.  Oh, they do that, too, but they also work on the muscles and various issues you have with deep massage and maipulation, and both my friend and I like them a lot and are getting better results.

Okay, going now.  I'll write sometime soon.

I currently do not have Internet access at home

and for whatever reason, when I tried to either use my phone as a hotspot or tether it through USB so I could get the laptop online, it wouldn't bring up Google Chrome, and when it finally did, it wouldn't connect to the Internet.  Phooey.  I suspect it was trying to download the waiting Windows update, and I only have 5 GB of hotspot/tethering data, so I didn't want that to happen, and it was acting stuck, as it won't download over a metered connexion (and I'm not sure that counts as one), but it's not a super-duper fast connexion as far as I know, something that could handle a Windows update.   So I decided I'd just have to blog on the phone, but of course, that's a problem for any long posts because after you swipe for awhile (although that's better than hunting and pecking on the pop-up keyboard), your hands start to cramp and tire.  But, then I remembered that back when I used my tablet more, I had gotten a little Bluetooth keyboard.  It never worked with my tablet particularly well, being very slow, but I think that was because the tablet was an entry-level old one, with an old form of Bluetooth, that just couldn't keep up.  So I decided to try the keyboard with my phone, and it works beautifully.  I am typing away right now.  The main thing is that is is smaller than a notebook keyboard, and the delete key is much bigger than the backspace, so it's easy to confuse them.  But it flows much easier.  And since I have unlimited data on my phone, I can type to my heart's content on Blogger, Facebook, e-mails, whatever. :)

Now you may ask, why didn't I just blog from the library, which has free Wi-Fi? Well, to be honest, I was a little tired, and didn't want to spend any more time in the chair pecking away at my computer.  I came home, ate something, got comfy, and then decided to go online, with mixed results.  So the keyboard does solve an issue.

Okay, now I have to work on a book review that's due Thursday.  I'd like to get it in tomorrow.  Good night (at least for now).

One of the problems

with being a librarian is, well, you tend to want to keep the books. We love books. And sometimes, yes, even librarians, keep the books a bit too long. So I racked up some fines at the public library, enough that I couldn't check out books, CDs, Kindle books, audiobooks, or download songs.  I'm a pretty decent library user--I do all those things.  Fortunately, they are doing something through December 31st that was really helpful to me: they're allowing people to 'read off their fines'.  Basically, for every hour you read, you can get up to $8 forgiven.  You must do it in the library.  Tonight was the only night I could do it, as Christmas weekend was a busy time of book moving and I have appointments two days this week in the evening.  I had an appointment today, actually, but I was out around 5 pm, so I went over to the library and registered, taking a book I have out from them, 'Pioneer Girl: An Annotated Autobiography' by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  And I read. And read. I started at 5:30 and went until 8 pm, and got everything forgiven. (I even read a little longer than I had to).  My legs fell asleep because I was reading at a table, sitting in a wooden chair, but no matter.  What does matter is that I have a clean slate, which is good, as I have no money at the moment to speak of, much less to spare for fines.  Thank you, Lexington Public Library!

Got a lot accomplished this weekend

I moved over 1,000 role-playing game books off their shelves and then rearranged and put them on different shelves this weekend. My game master is quite pleased.  Even then, it was probably a fifth to a fourth of the total in his book collection,  and about half to two-thirds of the gaming books.  I really needed to put this private library on my resume.  After all,  both he and I, separately,  each have more books than the library I work in,  if you don't include loose journals.

Yawn...

I had a great time with my friends today. But, my lack of sleep is catching up with me. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

PS Here's a close-up of my tree. I think the little penguin ornaments I got last year are adorable. :)

So, between all the activity yesterday and the caffeine I drank to get through it

I think I slept something like three hours tops last night. Now I'm up, I've just finished some Greek yoghurt and raspberries, and I've turned all the lights back on. It's gloomy outside and grey, raining, 57 degrees and thundering. What an odd Christmas!

When I was a kid, one of my friends, Jody Sauers, I believe, got to open presents on Christmas Eve, and when I found out I argued the case for doing so in our house, too. We compromised. I was allowed to open one present each year on Christmas Eve. It was always my paternal grandmother's, and it always had new pyjamas or gowns for me to wear that night. It became a tradition. We lived all over the country, and were rarely home in Kentucky on Christmas, but my grandmother's presents made me feel closer to family. My grandmother's been gone since 1993. I still miss her, and the others in my life who have passed. And every year, I think of her and our tradition.

Okay, time to get ready to go out into the gloom and dreary day. Merry Christmas.

Lights! Lights! Lights!

One last thing--my living room looks a bit like Snoopy's dog house, but I find it festive. The stars twinkle, so that's why the one is off. it's been very busy today, but oddly enough, enjoyable to putter around on my own today. Hope you had a good day yourself. Good night (for real).

Yay! I got the notes finished!

Which means I don't have to worry about getting them finished before Saturday evening. And, with that accomplished, along with everything else I did today, I am going to go on to bed. Good night, and Merry Christmas, to those who celebrate. And may your new year be bright and filled with love and laughter.

PS Grand total: 8,567 steps, 4.74 miles walked, 825 kcal burned. Whew! Not bad, considering most of it was in a 780-square-foot apartment!