I am officially a chicken with its head cut off. Really.

I'm heading to Portland on Saturday -- leaving in the late afternoon from an airport in upstate South Carolina -- and my mom wants me to go to her place on Friday night "just in case." I'm partially packed but have to put the finishing touches on my efforts after work Friday. I have a meeting that afternoon until 3:00, and fortunately I was able to persuade my boss to let me leave after that, just as long as I made up the time during the rest of the week. So...I've been working 45 minutes over each day and trying to cram in my trip preparations each evening. On top of that, I had to be worked in with my dentist for what turned out to be a nothing, and the only available slot was first thing this morning, so I've been up since 5:00. Needless to say, I'm about to fall over right now, and I'll be heading to bed as soon as I dash off a couple of e-mails that need answering sooner rather than later.

I think I may be asleep before my head hits the pillow tonight.

Yikes -- I haven't posted since the weekend! I really am still alive, and I'm doing FINE, healthwise. Lungs have pretty much cleared, my ankle is only occasionally cranky, and I'm hardly using my cane at all. I am totally busting it at work because my department is VERY far behind and some of the docs are squawking about things that didn't get done, but a) sometimes it's hard to know which fire to put out first and b) if the department is unstaffed and The Powers That Be won't give us a part-timer to make sure that doesn't happen, it's not like we COULD have gotten those things done, right? I worked an hour over tonight, so I get to leave early tomorrow, and thank doG it'll be Friday at last.

This is an extra good thing because I have to go grocery shopping in a bad way (had originally planned to do so tonight, but oh well) and the stores will be jam packed tomorrow night because...we're expecting 2-4 inches of snow early Saturday. Yeah, all my Northern friends can laugh. That's actually a significant amount around here, and it'll be the first storm of the season so everyone is out of practice anyway.

Other than that? Well, I had to show off my newest icon. :::sigh::: I'm glad I'm posting this right before bed, the better to have sweet dreams. Yes, I am pathetic, but I don't care. Two years and counting...I don't think this obsession is going away anytime soon.

I'm getting all rambly here so will stop. Snuggly pillows await.

It's time for more HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes (what is it with these November babies, anyway?). This time around they go tojennyagain and boston_princess -- here's hoping that both of you have fabulous days filled with your hearts' desires!

As for me, I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night but, for the moment at least, lying down for 9-1/2 hours seems to have rejuvenated me and shooed away the weakness I was feeling yesterday. So...I'm hopeful that I'll make it through a full work day and do my desperately needed grocery shopping this evening. It's all about the pacing, I guess.

Time for a breathing treatment, then it's full speed ahead towards the ginormous pile of work that awaits me...

Greetings and salutations, y'all.  Sorry for my absence over the past week.  I recently said I was going to try to make my posts more positive (because really, who likes a constant complainer?), and I haven't felt terribly positive lately and didn't feel all that great either, so didn't bother to post.  Right now, however, I'm feeling okay because I had a big dish of pasta with shrimp for dinner and got some housecleaning done today so feel a little less stuck than I have this week.
 

Okay, I'll shut up now.  My next entry will be a gratuitous music post.  Thanks for reading my blathering.
 

Hey all, it's been a minute, I know.  I'm still treading water with my new and improved (?) schedule and simply haven't had time to post since the weekend.  Actually, I STILL don't have time but thought I'd drive by on my way to bed with an update.
 

Okay, that's enough blathering for now.  Time to go prop the stupid crankle.

I obviously fail at posting.  This week has been a whirlwind of craziness at work (computer system crash, trying to catch up afterwards) and trying to get the ball rolling on Christmas shopping, punctuated by frantic phone calls to my sister to get the family wish list, and an equally frantic phone call from one of my cousins, who is having a mental health crisis.  Whew.

Anyway...I'm not going to attempt any lengthy posts this evening.  I have lots of musical stuff up my sleeve when I find the time, and who knows what else my twisted brain may come up with?  I managed to catch up on comments within the last few minutes, and I owe PM replies to a couple of folks on my f-list (you know who you are), but those will have to wait another day or two because right now?  I'm going to spoon up some ice cream for a bedtime snack and then get this tired body to bed.

Sweet dreams to y'all...

Thanks to everyone who commented on yesterday's post to express concern about my asthma problems.  I took it VERY easy for the remainder of the day, as I mentioned earlier, and made sure to get a full 8 hours of sleep.  One of the great things about good sleep is that it relaxes me, which really helps keep the airways open.  Today I also made an effort to NOT cough if at all possible.  The more one coughs, the more inflamed the airways get, so NOT coughing allows the inflammation to calm down.  I didn't start coughing until I had been up for more than 3 hours, and have been very careful to only do so enough to clear the gunk (sorry, I know that's yucky).  As a result, I've had much fewer problems breathing today...mostly it's happened when I've exerted myself or gotten a little bit riled up.

Speaking of exertion, I finally got to the laundromat and did nearly a month's worth of laundry.  Yes, a month.  Anticipating the oh so joyful experience of spending time at my neighborhood laundromat (it's usually a total ordeal), I did something that I figured would help keep me calm.  I brought along a "introduction to Buddhism" book to peruse.  I've taken a handful of meditation classes, done a bit of mindfulness work in therapy, and am at least somewhat interested in Buddhism, so I figured browsing through the book was an excellent way to learn a little bit more about the subject while attempting to remain impervious to the craziness around me.  As it turned out, today was the easiest time I've had at the laundromat in months.  All was calm.  There was one family there, as well as a single woman with a little boy, and that was it until I was getting ready to leave, when a neighborhood "laundry pal" of several years acquaintance wandered in.  He's very odd and a bit of a pill, but we hadn't seen each other in months so it was nice to catch up a bit.

Now I'm home resting my back a bit and having a pre-dinner snack before putting the laundry away and eating my REAL dinner, then it's time to start answering e-mails and LJ replies.  All in all, I can't complain about the way today turned out.  I'm too worn out from laundry exertion to do more decluttering this evening, but I've already picked out my spots for the next round, which will hopefully take place tomorrow evening.