1. Writing. Lots of it. Took a break on my journo final to write/finish two assignments I needed to turn in/redo.
2. I'm 800 words into my final paper, but only 1/5 of the way through its series of events. It's due tomorrow.
3. Still need to write a 500 word paper for tomorrow. I'm wondering when to call it quits for the night and just do it tomorrow?

1,2, & 3. Big big changes happening in my life. I will update you guys once they actually happen.

1. My final in flash is tommorow, I have been dicking around on the internet all day. THis is bad news.

2. I discovered a secret someone had placed in a PostSecret book at boarders. It read: "I gave up my happiness for my mother"

3. I need to get to work

(Good luck CitrusFreak, if you need to get away from the internet to write, I suggest physically unplugging the internet cable. Do not, however, reconnect when attempting to submit it online 4 minutes before the due date, as it will inevitably fail)

1. The second employee in three weeks left us on Saturday night without so much as a phone call to the boss; she simply packed up and moved out while her housemate and I and some friends were out on the town. We'll be scrambling to cover her work until the Christmas break at least. Ugh - why can't people just say "hey, this job isn't working out for me?"

2. Aforementioned friends came down for Saturday and we had a rollicking good time. Going to hang out more at Christmas break for sure.

3. Cleaned my whole desk/shelf/bookcase arrangement at work on Friday - looking forward to some sanity once I go in this morning to write my half-term reports!

1. Up at 3AM (diet and caffeine induced).
2. Stoking the wood stove.
3. Changing burned out light bulbs.

1. Spent Sunday night planning meals for the gathering over New Year's and I feel MUCH better about the whole affair. It's been hanging over me in a horrible manner.

2. One more paper to finish writing, due on Wednesday. Need to pad my wordcount.

3. Drowning in work and stressed about upcoming travel. And the work server is finally, partially online. *hates*

1. Got pictures on the wall at the art show today.

2. My son starts basketball practices this Tuesday. His practices are at 8pm, and my son tends to put himself to bed at or before 10pm, so this is going to be a challenge. On the plus side, it's a church-sponsored basketball league that emphasizes skills, good sportsmanship and team play.

3. My week-long horror:

3a. Finals start on Thursday. My husband and I both work at the local university. Husband is in charge of getting grades posted for his department. I deal with stressed out kids in a computer lab.

3b. Annual X-mas party at my husband's grandparent's house Saturday night. We're driving the 1.5 hours on Friday, and I like the quiet out there. Also, since we just got married this year, my husband's mom wants to meet with us about tax stuff as she's been handling his tax stuff for a couple of decades.

3c. My art show reception Sunday 4-6pm, and I have to be all prettied up and conversational. After driving back that day right after breakfast. I'm afraid I'm going to look and act like warmed-over hell. But with makeup and wine (holy crap, I have to bring the wine!)!

3d. My apartment is scheduled for a semi-annual inspection on the 17th. Our place in currently in what I consider shambles.

3e. We have to get the damn tree up soon.

Sorry for going on and on, but it does help me plan ahead as much as I can. At least the visit time with the kids and their dad has been decided and I've informed my mom.

1. Has come to the conclusion that the David Byrne show was over rated.

2. I have a mess of work to do this week, and terribly little motivation.

3. Hopefully I'll get my car back from the shop this week.

1. I just spent way way more than I wanted to on postage to send a christmas package from Germany to Austin.

2. Last week I received a list of things I need to bring to the Ausländerbehörde in order to renew my work/immigration permit. This morning at the Ausländerbehörde I was asked for my last 3 pay stubs to prove I was still employed. I didn't have them with me, BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT ON THE LIST!! Now I have to find them and get up tomorrow at the butt crack of dawn and wait in line again just to get a piece of paper stamped. Thank you German bureaucrat. I know I can always count on you to do a half-assed job!

3. The kid-sized drumset I ordered last week has arrived. I will not play extremely loud until my immigration paperwork is stamped and squared away. But once it is, look out! Störung der Nachtruhe!!

1. We got our Christmas tree yesterday. I loved getting up this morning to the smell of pine.

2. I'm REALLY FUCKING COLD.

3. Might leave work early today. Nothing to do in the lab so I'll go home to write and pick up the baby early from daycare.

1. I woke up with my left eye swollen and teary. It feels like there's an eyelash embedded in it somewhere. Hoping a shower will rinse it out.
2. Staying over at a friend's house tonight because it got broken into last week and the alarm company can't make it over there until Friday.
3. Went to a party last night and had a great time. I'm a homebody, so it was neat to go out and meet people. Really felt like I clicked with most of them, too.

1. Still no actual job offers but a bunch of activity in the job front. I'm actually enjoying my layabout status but we'll run out of money eventually.

2. The big neighborhood xmas house tour is this Friday and Saturday. My wife is running the ticket sales and I'm scheduled to lead two tours, one each day. Being a tour guide means leading ~20 people from the big gothic church where we start out through six restored 19th century houses. The tours take 2.5 hours and run every 12 minutes on Friday evening and all day Saturday. We get something like 10,000 people through in two days.

3. I've bought no xmas presents so far.

1. Back to Canada Weds.

2. Too much to do too much to do too much to do. (Especially trying to finish an afghan I'm making for BOP's mum. Therefore the biggest thing I must accomplish involves sitting for extended periods of time. It's oddly frustrating. My shoulders ache.)

3. Gotta go. *waves at bunnies as she runs by*

1. I'm getting very worried about my application to UMD. I've only got 2 out of 3 recommenders (#3 hasn't returned my emails and I was bitchslapped denied by my backup recommender). If I don't get in...it won't be pretty.

2. I'm so nervous about my performance appraisal because I am no good about doing that whole 'plz give me more money' thing.

3. I'm glad that I've got a 1/2 day of "holiday prep" (srsly, they give us a half day for that to take whenever in December, not including the 1/2 day on Christmas Eve and 1/2 day on New Years Eve) because I am really ready to just curl up and die. Especially after coming back from housesitting all by myself and realizing that next month is going to suck royally.

1. Brian Hensen invited me, personally, to an after show party. It was pretty awesome.

2. The Whitestone (i think that's what it is called) is a rather pretty bridge and a really easy way to get from CT to Queens.

3. So tired and so cold.

1. Mr. Blandings gets home this week.
2. I think I have everything together for skiing at the end of the month.
3. I have a plan of attack for the Christmas baking, but my heavens, walnuts and pecans are seriously expensive this year. And where are the hazelnuts? Is there a hazelnut shortage?

1.

Writing. Lots of it.

This. Today is actually midweek for me, sort of. Turning in one project today, which I finished and proofed at 10:30 Sunday night. Phew.

2. Another project is due Wednesday. Eek. Then I can take a day or two to breathe, cook dinners, grocery shop, get a haircut, etc., before immersing myself once again for next week, which brings the end of an enormous paper, then prepping for exams.

3. I am earnestly sick of this.

1. I'm still high from yesterday's "Messiah" concert by the Handel & Haydn society at Symphony Hall. That was the hottest tenor EVER.

2. I bought a flute for $10 at a flea market last Sat. for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I might even try to play it.

3. A Charlie Brown Christmas is on TV tonight!! Yippee! Yahoo!

1. Loaded, unloaded, loaded, unloaded about 800lbs of IKEA goodies for people since Friday.
2. Have 73 boxes in the living room that is someone else's entire kitchen. Must load that today at 3:00pm
3. Assembled 5 cabinets & hung 4. Discovered they gave us the wrong doors. Must make trip again tomorrow.
4. Very, very tired & sore.

1. It's cold outside; work is overheated and gross.

2. The quilt for the unrequited love is almost -- almost!!! -- finished. I thought I was done two weeks ago, but realized I had to fill and back it because otherwise it would probably fall apart quickly. The ordeal of the batting and the backing was a pain, but now I've got 3 edges sewn and just have to figure out if I'll hand-sew or machine-sew the bottom edge. Apart from that, I just want to reinforce some seams and it's basically done!

Then, I have to deal with actually gifting it. Which is harder than it sounds.

3. I've got major money troubles. Major.

1. Eating oatmeal with walnuts & brown sugar, drinking coffee.

2. About to walk the dog.

3. Trying to figure out if I'm really going online to buy and ship Xmess presents to New Hampshire. I'm uninspired and I'm kinda broke.

1. Uninspired and broke also describes my xmas shopping situation. Need to get on that. Buying online makes much more sense since US Air would charge me for even considering checking a box of gifts.

2. I've had a migraine on and off since last week. My office chair is the culprit. I've got golfball-sized knots in my shoulders. Ben Gay helps, but is an unsuitable workplace fragrance, so I'm suffering its absence today.

3. Scheduling messes mean I'll only see the GF a few days between now and the end of the year. This is bad because once I set my headspace to 'alone,' it takes a while for it to settle in to 'not alone.' So the couple days we see each other are usually framed by my being unable to interact. Need to figure out how to change that.

4. Actually looking forward to going home for xmas. First time in a long time that I've been excited about it. Had a really good time with my folks when they were out here this summer; am looking forward to spending more time with them.

1. Loving the cold! I walked three miles this morning in 15 degrees F.

2. Scrambling to finish a big project before Christmas break.

3. Shopping tonight; I'm the "girlfriend proxy" for a guy friend who needs Christmas shopping advice.

1. I have 1.5 weeks to find a new living situation (either with just one roommate or on my own) before everyone scurries for the holidays. I can't go through Xmas and New Year's without knowing where I'm going to be living in February.

2. Because I'm doing an apartment search (both with and without a broker) I have no idea what I'm doing after work on a day to day basis. This kind of uncertainty is making me feel like Schroedinger's cat: irradiated and possibly dead.

3. Totally forgot that I made tentative plans to hang with a friend tomorrow night, so that limits my abilities to see more apartments. Seeing a friend I never see anymore because she lives in Alaska? Or do the selfish thing and go look at more apartments?

1. Emergency run to the vet yesterday afternoon for Mingo. Turns out it's FLUTD. Nice to have an explanation for the bloody urine. And thank dog for a vet with weekend hours. It was spendy but cheaper than if we had to go to an emergency vet.

2. Gonna have fun training the cats to eat in the evenings only after years of free-feed. Especially fun since Mingo has to eat different food, Hills S/D, for a while. Vet said to switch to C/D in two months, but we've done our research. Our cat food of choice, Natural Balance, has less of the bad things than C/D.

3. The mister has been in atrial fibrillation since last spring. In spite of that he has a strong heart and has a low risk for a heart attack. However, a stroke could easily happen if his blood clots. He's been through lots of different drugs (including rat poison - warfarin) and doctor appointments. He's having a cardioversion done tomorrow.

2008 has not been a good year. It's been really stressful health-wise for both the mister and myself and work-wise for the mister (big project). It also included two suicides in my family due to health reasons. I'm glad it's almost over.

1. Exhausted and covered in hives. Plus, my lower back feels really tender. I agreed to walking about town yesterday, and I believe I overdid it. The hives - must be something I ate.

2. Have shoes and the most awesome necklace evar for the Christmas party this Friday. Need to stay employed until then.

3. Dreamed very pleasant dreams of life in Antarctica all night. I want to go back to sleep.

1. We just got a thank-you card from Daughter's gf for Thanksgiving. It was VERY well written and heartfelt and OMG she's a keeper. Wife and I need to remember that she's Daughter's gf and these things change but if and when this reaches an end-point I know we'll be sad.

2. AutoCad sucks. I only need to go in and find certain files and print, but it's a whole other mindset.

3. Right ear is plugged. . has been for days. . .working on it.

1. Hubby bought the kids a Wii for Christmas. He bought the Wii Fit as well. Yeah!

2. Yesterday I bought some stuff called The Microdelivery Peel and a curling iron especially made to create spiral curls. I'm in a beautifying mood.

3. I worked today. I love my job. It rocks!

4. It's Christmastime at the LoriFLA household.

deborah, good luck with your husband's cardioversion. I'm sorry to hear you've been having such a tough year.

1. Finally made a work phone call I'd been dreading for no real reason.
2. Getting some stuff done but everything I cross off the list seems to add 3 more things to it.
3. Having girls dinner tonight which should be nice if I don't spoil it by eating too many cheez-its now.