1. On vacation, so I spent some time going through the books I picked up cheap at two estate auctions this past Sunday, looking them up online to see if they have any value. I was surprised that one children's book is actually fairly rare and was bringing decent amounts. Now to figure out the best way to sell these books, as I am not a bookseller nor am I computer savvy.

2. Related to the above, estate sales are a bit depressing. It's sad watching pieces of someone's life going off to the highest bidder. However, I was a bit angry at the family of one of the houses: it had been in the family for generations; it was a uniquely styled old home, with grand windows and working shutters, beautiful architectural lines. But they let it rot, literally, even though one of the "children" who grew up there was living in it until Sunday. It was never abandoned, but it sure looked like it had been. It was slated to be torn down, because it just was too far gone to save. I wish I'd taken photos to share with you here, because it had such character and lovely old lines.

3. Rainy today, so I'm off to do grocery shopping - and to get a new slow cooker as mine decided to die. I am lost without my slow cooker!

1. I have been exceptionally grarry for the past two weeks, but this past week especially. I feel magically better today. Hoping to cook a bunch of food tonight, and go for a run; I hope that those two items will cement this upward swing.

I feel very isolated right now; school + work is too busy, and my classmates are pretty douchey. So, now I'm lonely and surrounded by assholes, and I don't have time to see people I actually like. Fantastic. My brother happened to ride my bus yesterday and those twenty minutes were the only pleasant thing that's happened to me in a while. I'm really unhappy with my life right now.

2. I hate how incompetent and work-avoiding other people are. Do your work. Do it well. It's not hard. I'm tired of picking up other people's slack.

3. I'm out of books but drowning in movies. Must reverse those as soon as possible.

1. Moving on Saturday. A friend came over to help me pack last night and now lots more things are in boxes! Unfortunately some things I actually need are now in boxes. Whoops.

2. I intended to buy a new tv stand before this move (mine is 10+ years old, crappy plywood, and my tv doesn't fit in it) but somehow haven't done it yet. I probably will go to Target after work but then I have to figure out assembly, whcih is a problem b/c my tools were packed (see above). I did find a local company that will go to the nearest Ikea (2.5 hours away), pick up stuff, and then assemble it for you, but I'm not sure how legit it is. Where else can I get a tv stand? I looked on Craigslist too but I'm not sure any of the ones I like would fit in my car.

3. Treating myself to lunch out, since I have to go get the water turned on in my new place and the building where I do that is right by one of my favorite places.

1. So happy that it's fall. Loving this cool, crisp weather.
2. Council meeting tonight, maybe- a lot of people can't make it, so we may not have a quorum. It's coming down to our two most flaky members (a couple). They told pastor yesterday they were coming, and I'm calling them again this morning to check. If they say they're coming and then don't, the meeting won't happen and I will have traveled to Queens for nothing. Here's hoping they do what they say they will.
3. Stynxno got an e-mail this morning- the Godspell revival on Broadway is offering all students a pair of tickets! Looks like we'll be going on Sunday. Clever marketing.

1. I have become addicted to little cups of strawberry-flavored greek yogurt. At 89 cents a pop this might not be a good thing; I might have to figure out how to roll my own.

2. Something I dislike about this time of year is that it is starting to get colder and my body is struggling to adjust to it. I actually do better in super-cold January and February, because by then I'm used to it, but getting there is tough. I have to be careful with my hands, otherwise this happens (but not as bad as in the photos).

3. Life really cannot get any quieter. It's starting to feel like I live on a desert island. (A desert island with a grocery store that sells little cups of strawberry greek yogurt.) Even at work today, the two people who sit at the back of the room with me are out, so I'm almost alone in here, which is bizarre.

Barn roof is almost finished! Insulating under Mom's house is almost finished! Now I will have time to do furniture refinishing and adding insulation under my place....

Putting up with minor migraine today. Thank Og it's not the all day barffest and skull explosion. This is do-able.

Unpacked a few boxes last night that had some of Tom's memories. Very SAD, but still so impressed by him.

1. The new person started yesterday so I get to start transitioning stuff to her. [insert Dance of Joy]

2. The recruiter I'm dealing with for a position I applied to is plucking my last nerve. How difficult is it to send a quick email to an applicant when something like an interview date and time has been decided?!?! Grrrr. It's a wonder I haven't heard from my former manager who wanted me to apply to it. I should email her.

3. The pups have chewed up the fleece tug toy the pet sitter's been using with them. And of course the local PetSmart no longer carries it. So I did a JoAnn's run for fleece (which was annoying as I forgot my coupons at home) and came up with a 3-armed braided something. Based on their reactions last night, the doggies approved. I have to remember to pick up more fleece this weekend to make a spare.

1. Wearing a teal sweater dress, tights and boots. Feeling very fall-y.

2. Looked up my Myers-Brigg type -- I'm an ENTP. Surprise surprise, I love jumping from one idea to another, really need people around me, and have trouble following through. Have decided that I have to just stick to the Pomodoro technique somehow, as timed work with definite small goals is the ONLY thing that works for me, however much it annoys me.

3. I'm going to get this proposal revision out before noon, I swear.

1. Daughter's school trip that I was supposed to go on was postponed. This means that I don't have much work to do today, because I was frantically trying to get it all done before now (my work week ends on Thursday morning).

2. Means I can unpack some more, do some laundry, and relax for the first time since we moved. I may even go for a run for the first time in about 3 weeks. I will not be able to run 8km like Senyar. If I dont' run 3X per week, my fitness plummets. I'll be aiming for 3 miles in 29 minutes, my standard everyday time.

3. Blinds were supposed to be installed today but they have pushed it back to the end of the week. Grar. Living in an apartment building with nothing over the windows is not so much fun.

1. I have one goal, and one goal only for today/this week: start and finish this research proposal that is due on Friday (which really means Thursday night for me because I go to NARA on Friday).

2. My body's response to stress is to go into extreme 'MUST SLEEP NAO' mode, which is slightly problematic, given #1. It doesn't help that today it is grey and dreary outside.

3. This month is crazy. I have things on every day of my gcal except for 7 days. Eek! I'm not used to being this busy. But I do have a massage booked at the beginning of November, so hopefully that will be enough of an incentive to keep me going. (Of course, I may cry through it like I did the only other massage I got, so I'm not sure how relaxing it will be.)

1. Seems like summer has just decided it's not done yet, and it's supposed to be 94 today and 98 tomorrow. I'm sitting on the patio enjoying the currently breezy (well, windy, really) 66 before shutting myself inside for the rest of the miserably hot day. (I like miserably hot weather, but not in October. I've been looking forward to foggy nights and cold mornings for a while now.)

2. I have been working three different jobs this week (my two regular therapy internships, plus filling in at ikkyu2's office while two of the staff members are on vacation) and I'm finding it a bit disorienting. But productive.

3. Wednesdays are my longest work days; looking forward to getting through today and sliding into the weekend.

1. Lacey, my 14-yo shepherd/lab mix is doing poorly. She's had crochety hips for about a year but last night she could not get up. I have had to help her up now and then but it's gotten worse and she bit my wife this morning when she was trying to help her up. I had run out of dog glucosamine and had not gotten any new, so maybe it's that and maybe her hips are just gone. We have a housecall vet with whom we have sort of a weird relationship with, but I need to call her today and get Lacey evaluated. She sort of holds her own except for on a smooth floor and then it's like she's on ice. Not fun and I am feeling very bad that she has to go through that.

2. Just getting over a very bad back, which I hurt again this morning lifting above dog up stairs from yard into house.

3. The first Science Pub of the year is tomorrow. Woot!

1. Have had trouble all week focusing on work. Current project is going okay, and I like it, I'm just restless and would rather not be at work. I hope it passes soon, since deadlines are looming a couple of weeks from now.

2. Got a lot of busy, fun things coming up in the next month or so, starting this weekend with our company having an outing at Six Flags on Friday night, and then the local Scottish Highland Games over the weekend. Looking forward to both, assuming the weather clears up like it's supposed to.

3. Bought a cheap little heating pad for our cat Kayla, who had a haircut RIGHT before the weather turned all chilly and wet. She loves it, and spends all night on it and a lot of the day, as well. When I get home from work and she runs up to meet me at the door, picking her up is like picking up a hot dinner roll. :D

1. Things are going really well at work (except that I often don't have enough to do). Old good boss is still really good. Bad boss left in March and was replaced in August by new good boss -- who's great. I'm working for two people who appreciate me and, even if I'm bored some of the time, that makes it all worth it for me.

But,

2. I hate how incompetent and work-avoiding other people are. Do your work. Do it well. It's not hard. I'm tired of picking up other people's slack.

I'm dealing with some of this right now too. Problem is, the person who's slacking is sort of a friend, but I'm having a really hard time with her right now. She's got a bunch of crappy stuff going on in her personal life, and I know it must be hard to focus, but she's also the only person at work who takes two 15 minute breaks a day and a 1-hour lunch and never seems to be in her office. She's never around when people need her. (I happen to know that she spends a lot of time walking to the Post Office every day to pick up letters from her boyfriend. She's recently divorced and doesn't want them going to the house. It's DRAMA.)

Anyway, she's been snotty and superior this week and I'm about to blow because she's the one making all the mistakes and she has a really poor reputation among faculty and staff right now and it's stressing me out. Blah.

3. Am enjoying fall. We're going up to a lake in the mountains next weekend and staying in a cabin for a few days, and I'm oh so ready.

I'm of the opinion that the thoughts of anyone who would rush to a negative judgement of you rather than providing the benefit of the doubt are not worth considering.

1. It's in the past, but I really enjoyed walking Broadway on Saturday. And not just because of the company. In fact, I sat and watched the sunset at the Battery by my own damn self. Because it was fucking beautiful, and soul-cleansing. And I don't even believe in a "soul." As someone said of me then, I'm just a big ol' romantic. (I did, however, get a date out of the whole thing. Sorta? Romance!)

2. I started composing this comment after JanetLand's (and I've been doing my best to ruin her #3 =P), but got distracted looking at the photos from the walk. Oops.

3. MY IMPROV SHOW IS THIS WEEKEND YAY! (And it's FREE, if you're in or near NYC.)

1. Made myself get out of bed for my cardio, and while it felt good and I'm no longer in pain from whatever is going on with my back, I still feel like crap.

2. My son's behavior at school has had the teachers calling me every single day for a week. Every day it's something different. Deep breath in, let it out.

3. Finally submitted a piece for the Mefi Mag. If I can find some notes from 15 years ago, I might make another.

danf here's hoping Lacey gets better quickly! Hugs to you both. And hugs to all the moving and just post moving bunnies. Moving is the pits.

1. Yesterday I worked, went to the bank for an hour to discuss the fraud stuff and then had an hour long physical, where I felt like the doctor totally dismissed all my concerns. That's what you get when you go to the poor people clinic. I am grateful that there is a poor people clinic to go to, since I hadn't been to the doctor for almost two years since I lost my insurance, but still.

2. So today which I have off I was going to sit around and play Minecraft but noooo, I have to go file a police report (which triggers a lot of freaked out stuff that sends me into high test anxiety mode - and btw the poor people clinic will not prescribe a)painkillers; b)antidepressants; and c)anti anxiety meds, period, full stop, because poor people don't deserve that stuff) and bring it to the bank and have another hour long meeting about the fraud thing. They are saying stuff like, well, we're just going to address the OBVIOUS fraud as if, sure, yeah, some of it isn't fraud? This is insane.

3. Old friend of mine called to invite me to Charleston in 2 weeks to see James McMurtry and Jason Isbell, which is pretty much my dream gig and I really want to go but am thinking I probably cannot due to all this financial shit and car issues and work, etc. BOOOO!!!

1. The mister went into afib yesterday and spent about eight hours in the ER. The last time it happened was in April, so we had a nice long break, but even so, the anxiety for each of us each time this happens is horrible. He's having an ablation done in November and I hope that will be the end of it.

2. My sinuses haven't cleared up even though my cold has been gone for a few days. Blergh.

2. Rain. Rain rain rain. And some more rain.

Quick update: I've got 18 out of 21 sections done for the proposal! Hooray!

Sperose, from what you post here it's always struck me that you totally rock at your job. Go sperose!

1. Re-reading some Jane Austen and reflecting that "excessively" was over-used then just as "incredibly" is now.

2. Have ditched a few responsibilities lately, and damn it feels good.

3. Need Moar Social Life. Thankfully this is achievable, with a little effort.

1. I don't usually remember my dreams for more than two minutes after waking up, but Monday night's is still with me. I had been involuntarily put into a 'Life-or-Death' Reality TV Show where you were killed if you didn't get enough viewer votes, but I didn't play along. I just did all my normal activities (and in my dreams, I'm usually more active than in real life), and when they put a camera in my face to make an 'impassioned appeal', I was all "Meh". The show even sent a 'spiritual advisor' to meet with me... Father Mulcahy from MASH. I LOLed and woke up. Never found out how it ended. Been asking myself "Would I REALLY act that way?" and answering "Maybe".

2. Before it got hot (today's forecast was 95F, but it's only 89F), I was in the kitchen cooking. An experiment with adding brown sugar to Bisquick's "easy biscuits" did not wendell. Then, because I had gotten a lot of "probably not poisoned" ground beef on sale and some Jimmy Dean sausage (made from the best parts of Jimmy, right?), I made a Serious Meatloaf. The only usual ingredient not on hand was bread crumbs, so I checked my "why did I buy this $#!+ on sale" pantry and found Ritz Crackers. CRUSHING the crackers in my bare hands was even more fun than mixing up the loaf in my bare hands. I used the silicone 'rubber' loaf pans I had acquired for no good reason (I have equipment to do much more cooking than I ever actually do) and they were the Wonders of Modern Science they were supposed to be! I was even able to FLIP OVER the loafs for their last 10 minutes of cooking (because I am not a fan of thick crusts or thick 'protective' glazes on top, and I wanted to see if I could do it). It was a triumph. And delicious and moist. It made me GLaD. The Meat Loaf Is NOT A Lie. (And yes, Alton, I did Wash My Meat Loafy Hands)

3. Saw a sports story about American Football coaches Ara Parseghian and Bo Schembechler (and two others I never heard of because they'd never beaten USC or UCLA) being inducted into the "Cradle of Coaches Plaza" and it reminded me of a joke I wrote that I used to torture sports fans with long ago: "The University of Texas Longhorns have announced the hiring of Ara Parseghian and Bo Schembechler as co-coaches, having decided to replace the team's signature 'Shotgun Offense' with a Bo and Ara." I apologize to football lovers and pun haters everywhere.

Bunny mail! It made me smile. Which was nice as I was rather sad the shoes I brought online Saturday didn't show up today (I want my shoes dammit!). Thanks arse_hat!

And doggies are singing "Feed Me" as they pace.

1. I would rather be homeless in Seattle than see the sun rise in Fresno on four November.
2. Sookie hates Kiss. Too bad, because I am learning Alive to get my fingers back in shape.
3. After 2 careers just getting by on my smarts, I have finally decided to apply myself to something. I just don't know what yet.

Thanks altolinguistic! This proposal might turn into a research project for work (considering I have another goal for next year to publish another article, blech) but it's really for school. A Delphi study of university archive employees about challenges of dealing with electronic records.

1. Have been so miserable but it seemed better to stick it out and suffer rather than the possibility of giving up on things and still being miserable. Things seem to be easing up, or maybe I have gotten use to it some, or maybe things got so bad I hit a bottom and am bouncing back a little.

2. Am having an email conversation with a big weirdo who doesn't seem to know he is a big weirdo. I'm a total freak but I know it and rather revel in it when I have a chance. But what do you do with someone who seems to have no idea? Do you clue them in or will that just make their head explode?

3. Penn Jillette told the best story on the Nerdist last week about chimpanzees and little people. If it wasn't for podcasts and HBO GO, I don't know how I'd be making it by. I actually laughed out loud for the first time in ages last night listening to WTF. But it could have been the booze.

Update:

I got bunnymail too! Funny how something so simple puts such a huge smile on my face. Thanks, arse_hat!

Geez ethylene, you sound like me, seriously.

We need something to look forward to.
Or a profound and reliable distraction that is actually satisfying.
Damned if I can think of either, though, in the state I'm in.
Soldier on, sister.

ha ha ha, does that make me a big weirdo?

Update on #2: The council meeting happened! Hurray!

1. I've been sick with bad belly pain on and off for a few weeks now (I know, I should go to the doctor, but I dread the potential tests -- I'm hoping it'll resolve on its own) and wasn't feeling well and took last Friday off and got a "Counseling Memo" (nondisciplinary, but annoying) in my file at work for my trouble. "Warned" me about taking off Fridays (I've only taken one so far this year, mind you), which is bullshit since our contract gives us 10 "self-treated" or personal days per school year with absolutely no restrictions about when you can take them. If you need more than 10 and have days saved (I have a dozen), you just need a doctor's note to get paid for them. You can even borrow an additional 20 against future years if you're ill and need them; in fact, you're required to use them before short-term disability would kick in. But the fuckhead administrators at my school are always trying to rewrite our contract and use those so-called "Counseling Memos" to hassle people. So I took today off, too. Hey, it's a Wednesday, right? No "pattern" there.

2. I'm hoping my mom gets to go home soon. I was with her two days this weekend. My brother hired someone to look after my mom at her house. I met the young woman and she seems very nice. She stays at the house Monday through Friday and another lady stays on the weekend. It's all arranged through an agency my cousin uses. Apparently they have a very good reputation. My mom's not doing too well; she gets confused. The sooner we get her home where things are familiar and she'll hopefully eat and drink better the better. My brother's meeting with the people at the Rehab/Nursing Home tomorrow. I'm hoping she's home by Monday.

3. I've been so upset about my mom I started crying in class yesterday. All I had to do was mention that my mom's been sick and the tears came. It was my AP class, though, and those kids are very nice and were very sympathetic. I taught most of them last year, too. I had to get it together, though, and finish giving them their quiz on Cuckoo's Nest, of all things. I wish I could take the rest of the week. I'm so exhausted.

It's tooooooooooooooo hoooooooooooooooooot. And rape sucks. That is my conclusion from today.