Today could have been terrible, but it all worked out in the end.

Most of the night was spent working into the wee hours on classwork, but it finished off with a good/happy conversation so now I don't mind that I got barely any sleep.

I woke up way late and slept through my Italian class, but it's ok because I didn't miss anything important according to classmates.

Friends started texting me after I woke up late saying my little sister passed out in class (for the second time this year), but she's at the hospital and fine now because she was just dehydrated.

I was probably going to be late for my internship, but after I told them about my sister and that I needed to find out what was going on and where she was and if I needed to go down to the hospital, they ended up telling me not to worry about it and just take the day off and come in on Friday instead, rather than driving from school to hospital to the internship.

The project I was working on for most of the night is due tomorrow, but now with the internship out of the picture and remembering my second class of the day got canceled, I've got plenty of time to work on it!

We put down my partner's dog on Saturday. It was very sad. But we took a lot of pictures and got to spend time with him for a little while, which we hadn't done because he was in another state with my partner's old roommate.

So the three of us took him in, and because we hadn't waited too long he was still able to get in the car and enjoy a final ride and hop up on the bench with us and be loved. Then we had a low-key, slightly upscale dinner out, and I was glad I could honor the roommate -- our very good friend -- for taking such good care of the little guy.

And then yesterday my partner replaced the stereo in my car, which I had installed myself (perfectly, I might add) but which was a stupid piece of shit that had caused us grief for a whole year because it didn't do what the stupid salesguy said it would. I could have done it myself again, and he knew how accomplished it made me feel to install it, but I felt really loved that he did it for me to spare me any more aggravation. I just sat inside and knitted.

He is my heart and my peace.

Three. Hour. Team. Building. Exercise.

Brain Dead.

More details later if I recover.

((Madamina))

I am cross because a coat I bought a couple of weeks ago has a faulty zip. I think I still have the receipt and so will take it back. It's from Costco, and their stuff is normally decent quality. But now I don't have a coat to wear tomorrow, except for a really lightweight one.

I have a busy two weeks ahead. The week leading up to Easter I intend to spend doing as little as possible, outside of work.

I'm ready for a holiday, but luckily have one booked to take next month. It'll be 7 months since my last holiday, which is probably why I'm feeling tired. I need some R&R.

Tonight - double bill of The Office : An American Workplace followed by ANTM (the short model cycle). My excuse is that I have to read lots of complicated and boring shit at work all day and like/need to veg out for a couple of hours.

Tonight's dinner is what I intended to have yesterday. But on Saturday I ate so much round at sueinnyc's that all I could eat yesterday was a bowl of cereal and a banana. So this evening I'm cooking cod loin with lots of veggies. Nom.

And now I'm wondering what part of the fish is its 'loin'. I didn't know cod had loins.

((((Madamina))))

1. Yesterday, we had a gig an hour away. So we had to meet at 8 a.m. And account for the time change. And drive an hour in a "25-year" rainstorm. Luckily, the gig was a great success and we've been invited back.

2. I hurt someone very badly 5 years ago. We have not spoken since, except for polite greetings. I thought that the polite greetings meant that it was ok to include her on my announcement list for a concert. The announcement began with "Dear friends..." and she fired back: "I am not, in any way, your friend. Remove me from your list." I feel very sad about this.

3. I don't like the way french fries are these days. I don't mind leaving the skins on, but the oils, seasonings and shapes they use are just wrong. I miss the pale-yellow crinkle cuts of 25 years ago.

I have with much trepidation started dating again.

{{{Madamina}} and best of luck, Janetland!

I get one more skiing trip out of this season, which means I get to see Guy again, soon.

My sister & baby are home this week!

I got *no* sleep last night and I still have to drive back to the city from the burbs.

stream-of-consciousness update:

Saturday our weather was 65° sunny and gorgeous, which was fantastic since my first bike race of the season was also on Saturday Bonus: it's one of my alltime favourite courses and organisations: the CU collegiate criterium at the CU Research Park; all of us "old folk" non-collegiate racers contribute to their bike racing fund with our entry fees. Those darn kids also play the best music and have the best emcees of any bike race promoters in the state, bar none.

Although, my race turned out to be unbelievably, ridiculously, stupidly hard, for no reason I could fathom. I fervently hope this isn't a signifier for how the rest of the season's going to go. So ok, granted, it's an open all-categories field and the early season pros always come out to kick ass here, but usually it's a huge field of 50-60 girls of all sorts of varying skill levels who are content to just let the half dozen or so fire-breathers roll off the front while the rest of us ride "workout" fast but not "OMG-my-eyes-are-bleeding" fast. So very not so this go around.

Good news: I finished top 10.

Bad news: there were only 15 starters.

Better news (sorta): my coach is stoked because I set a new alltime personal best in the "5 minute max power" category.

Worse news: it was windy as hell which meant the field (small and competitive as it turned out to be) shredded into pairs and clumps, which is NO FUN AT ALL and hellishly hard work, actually.

o_O news: I spent half the race chasing the lead group (only six girls finished on the lead lap) with a 13 year old junior who is every bit as strong as I am. Statistically, I'm old enough to be her grandmother. Rock on, fast kids! I sorta hope she's not kicking my ass in six months, but seeing as she's already on a "pro" junior team (Garmin, yes, THAT Garmin... yep, the same pro team that does the TDF) she very likely will be.

Sunday the weather was absolute ass and I did not get the 3 hour mountain bike ride in that the mister and I had planned for, like, a whole week, because it rained and sleeted and snowed and hailed and lightninged and blew, and in general acted like typical Boulder March weather :P

However, he and I did spend the entire morning/early afternoon drinking hot chocolate and processing a photo shoot project for a friend's website at our favourite local coffeehouse, so there is that.

And!! we're having a combo Top Gear / Ren and Stimpy night with our cronies on Thursday that is promising to be terrific!

Also: kale. Kale, kale, kale, kale, kale. We joined a co-op and we now have kale coming out every orifice.

I say again: o_O

1. This morning was crazy busy at work. However, I'm pleased about this since it meant I didn't have to talk to my boss about a fuckup I'd made last week (although since he didn't bring it up, I have no idea if he even knows about it, but I've already sent the mea culpa emails so I officially consider the matter done with).

2. My motivation needs to return from wherever it is hiding. I need to pull my shit together so I can do a screencast for my group InfoTech project (which is going to suck because my computer is creaky when running it but at least it will take the full 4 minutes) and attempt to make myself look 'professional' so I can take a picture for my bullshit eportfolio. I also need to call/chat with my internet company so I can get the free router from my brother hooked up and quit paying Comcast an extra $5/month for my rental.

3. The pissy emails on the WSU listserv are hilarious. (The on-campus students are bickering about having too many courses being only offered online and the school says that there's not enough enrollment to offer them in-person.) I'm still bitter about not being able to do Archives so I'm not going to jump into that whole mess because I'm sure it'll be nothing more than WHARBLGARBLE.

4. I am wondering when I'll know about which dance class I'm going to wind up in next session. I'd like to know so I can rearrange my schedule to accommodate potentially being out of the house Sunday evening because that is normally when I make food for the week. Also, it'll change up my Wednesday evening schedule and maybe I'll actually start getting to bed on time. (I don't get home until after 9 now, and I'm usually too wound up to go to bed at 930.)

5. I'm flirting with the idea of taking a few days off at the end of the semester in order to work on my final papers and whatnot. But it's kinda nice to see all my vacation days stacking up in payroll thingy. I'm also thinking about maybe seeing if I can pull an internship or something this summer (since LoC ones just went up today, according to an email that I may have read incorrectly) because if I stash enough days and rework my schedule (which my boss is totes okay with)--I may just make things work out and get official archive experience although they probably want people in an archives program.

6. My homie is on my ass about me coming to visit her. I love it when we hang out, but I spend too much money and I honestly can't afford to lose a weekend of schoolwork right now. (Due to the way my classes are scheduled this semester, most work is to be done on weekends.) I'll have to make plans for something this summer but I'm not sure when I'll have the cash since I've just about spent my tax refund (although I don't have it yet, I've got plans for where it's going to go [such as a county gym membership, SAA membership, paying off my credit card bill...]).

7. I'm excited for Equinox at the end of the week. I'm not excited for the birthday dinner in Ashton for my brother that is the same day.

8. I've been reading lots of self-helpy books lately but I feel like they're actually helping this time, which is a nice change.

9. Still struggling with non-pretty arms and hands in AS. Goddamn claw hands during floreos.

I had a customer send photo's of the tajine that she bought that had been completely mashed by Australia Post.

I went to see Tokyo Shock Boys on Saturday night and had a lovely evening out with hubby and the in-laws.

I dropped a chair on my foot on Sunday whilst virtuously vaccuuming and comprehensively mashed my second toe. Not broken, but bloody and bruised.

On Monday I came down with some sort of viral stomach thing (probably caught on Saturday night).

And today, my left eye swelled up and looks completely feral. I'm still off work with the stomach thing but I'm going to have to get myself to the doc somehow.

I'd whuffle you guys but I don't want to give you anything (like...ooooh...crazy bad luck vibes!!).

1. Work is annoying for so many reasons.

2. I liked the spa this weekend.

3. I feel a little lonely already with bf and many friends and sister being gone and not reachable.

4. I am going to return a bunch of things to Target today so I have more money for other things.

5. I should stop buying clothes.

6. Realized that a crazy day coming up at work when we move floors all around is also the first day of Passover and will be a even worse.

7. Had some good emails with my favorite cousin which was nice.

8. Re-soling shoes is more expensive than I thought and not worth it. I've only re-heeled before.

It's so sunny and amazing out that I wanted to skip work all day and drive around with the windows open listening to Beach Boys-inspired garage punk rock. Instead, I went for lunch with that co-worker friend and had a million laughs, and THEN drove back to the office the long way. I feel like taking a LONG road trip. Driving out to the mountains or a desert or something. This won't happen any time soon.

I DID spend Saturday night in Toronto hanging with my brother and his friends, and also going to a sketchy BYOB punk house to see a show by friends of mine. It was a fun night, despite the CRAZY cold blowing rain.

Oh...found out today that I'll have to wait a bit to have my gall bladder out. Couple weeks at least. On the upside, as I've said elsewhere, I can now blame any bad behavior on the rotten gall bladder. Seems reasonable eh?

1. Thought my cold was gone.
2. It wasn't, or maybe it was and this is its furious Grendel style mother or perhaps a second cousin on steroids.
3. Therefore I left work early and just woke up from a long nap where I dreamed that my best friend was angry with me and inexplicably driving a blue pickup covered with little yellow flowers while an ex boyfriend materialized in an old ceramics studio and I had to get him somewhere safe to throw up before the bikers saw him. I also dreamed that I had left the box of chocolate truffles I bought yesterday in a mad attempt to make myself feel better in a park and squirrels had eaten them, which meant that when I went into the kitchen just now for some ginger ale I was pleased to see them still here.

I need to do better.

My poor dog perforated one of her paw pads this morning while running in the park and has been hobbling around ever since. I had to stop by the vet to get oral and topical antibiotics, I really hope she heals up.

Yesterday I made Gordon Ramsay scrambled eggs for the first time, and WHAT A FREAKING REVELATION. Dear lord almighty, so good. I also made my own creme fraiche to accompany it, and used the fresh chives that just came up in my garden. It was pretty much the highlight of the weekend. I wanted to high five myself for making such good food.

I spent time this afternoon with some friends that are leaving tomorrow for Australia to visit family. They will be gone six weeks and I will miss them :(

Friends from out-of-town want to party/crash (aweeeeeeeeeesome!), in-town friends fail to call entirely (laaaaame).

Going to bed earlier = WIIIIIIIN.

Multiple vowels are muuuuuuuultiiiiiiiiiipleeeeeeeee.

I caught some people stealing from our church and busted them and now they HATE MY GUTS and it's like, bitches, YOU'RE THE ONES WHO WERE STEALING. Brazen criminals are brazen!

We have a new pastor!! Elected him Sunday, but he doesn't start until May 9th. I want a new pastor noooooooow.

My pal Big Mike seems to be doing well on American Idol! I hope he wiiiiiiiiiiins!

Wedding soon. Weeeeeeee! Then honeymoon in Vegas! Yaaaaay! I need some sunshine and glitz and glamour.

1. Concert I was planning on going to with my new beau is postponed to June due to some damage from all the rains we've had here on the East Coast. Drat!

2. My sons and I have been invited to my beau's family lake house in upstate New York in July! I can't wait!!

3. My divorce from my cheating ex will be final in two weeks. Finally. The past three years (until I met BlueEyes) have been a special sort of hell. And yet, it's bittersweet. I tried so hard to "fix" our marriage, but I was the only one.

I think that I'm getting my old job back! The one that I got laid-off from a year and a half ago. I found out that they were looking for someone last week and sent an email to my old boss telling that I was interested. He called me back today and said, "When can you start?" He's sending an offer letter tomorrow! I have a lot of friends there and I loved the work so I'm pretty excited.

I got into a graduate program that will suck up all my disposable income and free time for a couple of years. I'm so ridiculously excited!

I started getting sick on Thursday, and it has flopped all over my weekend and into today. I have not been able to leave the house, which is good because I'm self-employed, and bad, because I'm self-employed and I have lost an entire rotation of productivity. I was also in the middle or reorganizing my office/studio and it's a mess.

I sleep a lot, and I'm cranky a lot, and I'm ready to be healthy again. I'm hoping this upward trajectory means I can leave the house tomorrow, not infect anyone, and get somethings done.

On the negative side, got a letter saying they're disallowing a credit on my 2006 taxes because I didn't file a return in another state (which I did), and that I'm going to owe them twice as much money as is currently in my checking account and which is earmarked for other folks.

1. Getting my hair cut tomorrow and am ridiculously nervous about it.

2. Also getting/starting a new insulin (Lantus) tomorrow because my HA1C was abominably high (11.3). Which, of course, is my fault since I've been lax about taking my regular insulin.

3 Mum's 70 b-day is the 18th and we're going to visit her this coming weekend. My grandmother (mum's mum) died when she was 70 1/2. Really mixed and confused feelings/thoughts about this birthday.