No time for screwing around today. I've put myself on a blog time limit: one hour to write, edit and publish. May be broken into smaller 15 minute chunks. May get time extension if I finish EVERYTHING on my list for today. Please forgive the possibly stream-of-consciousness nature of this post.
1:03pm
Tabitha is feeling much better. Thanks for all your well wishes. As you might imagine, she looooves the baby food. But it's back to normal tonight, though I think she will get a mostly wet-food diet while I'm away.
And, yes, some very nice folks volunteered to board Miss T. Friends of Damian. An extremely smart, friendly and interesting couple who I've met a few times. Mr. C writes here. Mrs. C doesn't have a blog (that I know of), but I'm sure it would be interesting if she did.
Yesterday I was in Chicago. For ONE day. And, yes, it thoroughly sucked. You may recall that I don't like to fly. I had a bad experience and since then I've been building back my confidence. Today I can fly almost fear-free. That is, unless we are battered around like a toy boat on the high seas. The landing in Chicago was so hair-raising that I almost got sick. The whole plane was white-knuckling it. When I staggered off, I could only walk very slowly. I tried to get some saltines, but was instead ridiculed by the lady selling soup, "I could tell you were going to ask for crackers! You need to bring those from home!" she cackled. I settled for a diet coke and some chewing gum, but it took hours before I felt normal and could walk at my regular brisk pace.
I could have avoided the problem if I'd simply followed my usual practice of taking a Dramamine before the flight. I didn't take one this time because I wanted to be clear headed for my meeting. I mean, if you fly all the way to Chicago for a stupid meeting, you want to at least be alert for it. I've learned my lesson. ALWAYS take the Dramamine. Worst case, I'll be a little groggy. A good dosing with caffeine would resolve that.
1: 18pm
That's the first 15 minutes. I have to go run around the building for a while now.
3:57pm
Since I last wrote I have:
• Picked up my transit subsidy for the next three months.• Gone to the bank. • Talked to someone about something (in person was necessary because she did not respond to my email or phone message). • Sent and receive a variety of work and non-work emails. • Prepared form letters for signature. • Prepare envelopes for form letters. • Sent two faxes. • Talked to my boss. • Eaten yogurt. • Drunk water. • Called a guy about using his office's scanner and had perplexing conversation of many pauses with a woman until I'm informed that I'm speaking to a sign language interpreter. No scanning until tomorrow. • Read some blogs, left one or two comments.
What's left for today:
• Prepare expense report for Chicago trip.• Read and comment on a final report (boring!).• Call the contractor who makes me want to cry tears of frustration.• Write more in blog!!• Gym.
For tomorrow:
• Clear out email inbox.• File the piles of folders that have grown around my desk.• Gym.
4:04pm
Boy, I'm tired. Stupid one-day Chicago trip.
When I get home, which won't be until after 10pm, I have to:• Make sure Tabby is ok.• Do laundry.• Clean up the kitchen a little.
4:05pm
I'm calling the contractor now.
4:13pm
That was painless! He's taking my absence as an excuse not to do anything for the next two weeks. That's fine, actually. They are working (they will do something), we are moving forward on the project and I'm content. He did manage to irritate me with his condescending tone, but I took a deep breath and didn't react. Good Jamy!
All I have left is to proof that stupid report that's been hanging around my desk for weeks. Sigh. Oh, and the expense thing. I'll do that first....
4:17pm
5:21pm
Expenses done! Much blog reading done!
No progress made on reading that damn report. Too boring.
What else did I want to tell you?
On Sunday, I did everything on my list. I went to book group, even though I hadn't read the book. (I read it, years ago. What I didn't do was re-read it). We picked a book for next month that I read when I was a teenager (yes, another one! I have read a lot of books), The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford. I loved it then and I hope I love it now. I own a copy and it will go with me to Israel.
After book group, I biked home, fed Tabby more baby food and fed myself lunch. Then I biked to my first Ultimate Frisbee game. Guess who my captain was? None other than fellow blogger Travis! I had an inkling it was him—and I was right. What a pleasant surprise. I had to explain to him that I was on his team since I didn't use the name "Jamy" in our correspondence. He was puzzled at first, but seemed happy to see me. He said, "I didn't get the memo on this whole fake names thing." He is a good (co) captain and this team is going to be a lot of fun. The game kicked my ass—it's very physical and tiring—but that's exactly what I need. I'm going to have to pick up the pace at the gym so I can keep up on the field. I was exhausted after the game, but biked home (2 miles?) without incident. I think I can handle it.
Oh, and a woman from my Spanish class last year was also on the team AND a good friend of Travis' AND she recognized me. She was even friendly! It really is a good group.
Our team was a mix of complete novices and experienced players, but most of the experienced folks were helpful and not annoyed with the novices. There was this one guy who kept coaching the other men in a really irritating way, but he left me alone. Hmm…maybe he didn't think it was worth bothering with the women at all. But every one of the other experienced players found a kind and encouraging word to say to me, even though I didn't play very well. My only real snafu was that the woman I was covering caught a scoring pass. She was completely open because I could not run as fast as she did. There's nothing to be done about that. I am a quick study, though, and I have the rules down and I'm starting to learn the strategy.
Unfortunately, I will miss the next two games due to the Israel trip. But I'll rejoin the team for week four. When, apparently, everything changes. We go to zone defense instead of man-to-man. That will be better for not-exactly-speedy me, actually, so I'll just say my timing is perfect.
Oh, and you know what else I will miss because of my trip? The ENTIRE NCAA tournament. I'm trying not be bitter about that.
I will wrap this up now and go to the gym.
I promise to read that darn report tomorrow.
5:34pm
Oh, I forgot. I got three great "Dear Jamy" questions in the last week. I will try and answer them tomorrow. Yes, I can do it all!
Grateful for: a productive day.
Drop me a line.