fox

So I left work around 3:30 because my back was hurting enough that I couldn't really focus; cashed a couple of leave hours and I'll be much better for it tomorrow. I was on my way to wordplay's to pick up a couple of books she's lending me (and some Merlin she's giving me, yay!), when the phone rang: Costco, telling me my contacts are in.

I should pause here to note that I had the optometrist fax the prescription to Costco on Saturday morning right after my appointment, having just called the Costco people to get the fax number, so they knew it was coming right away because they heard me reading the numbers off to the optometrist people. They don't keep my brand in stock, so they always have to be ordered; I knew it would be a couple of days. But yesterday was Wednesday and I still hadn't heard that the order had come in, so I called them -- and they reminded me that orders have to be prepaid, and they don't keep credit card information in their file, so although they had my prescription, I hadn't actually ordered any contacts. Ack! My own fault, I admit, so I had them order it right away, and the ETA was Friday or Monday at the latest ... and I had five pairs of contacts left, which would get me to Monday exactly, assuming I could get to the Costco on the way back into town on Monday, which was by no means a sure thing. So I was really hoping for Friday -- and then they came in today. Well done Costco!

But I was already on the Beltway, and the traffic was SUCKING, because it's Thursday before a three-day weekend, so everyone was getting out of town now to make it a four-day weekend, UGH. But I couldn't face getting all the way home and then going back out again to get all the way back there ... so I got off at the next exit and doubled back, calling wordplay to consult about the best cross street on the way. Went to Costco, got my contacts and some cereal and mangos, and fought my way back to her place without going anywhere near the Beltway, because there was no way I was doing the same stretch of it again. Ugh.

And just as I pulled up to the house, my phone rang. It was my father's eldest cousin, a lovely woman who lives in Baltimore and has officially and well and truly got her yenta on, as she was calling to ask me if I'd like to hear from a nice young man whose mother she knows. She can't remember the guy's name, or whether he lives in Washington or New York, but the mother says the son is single and wouldn't it be nice if he met someone and she immediately thought of me, and I'll tell you what, there is not a single stereotype anywhere that got to be that way without at least once being actually observed, amiright? [sigh]

So then I had a lovely visit with wordplay and chromodynamics and even saw the kids a bit, and finally managed to drag myself away from their comfy sofa and drag myself home. I am going to think about dinner, and I might even eat some, and then put some heat on the back of my neck and stare at the television for a bit. My afternoon of relaxing to make my back stop hurting hasn't gone quite as I'd planned, but like I said the other day, things that start rough and end better are vastly preferable to the other kind. :-)

So I'm updating my resume over at USAJobs.com (long overdue, it turns out - the one in there was up to date w/r/t references and employment history when I ultimately took this job, but do note that I've been in this job close to two and a half years, and also?, I don't live at that address anymore), and deciding which bits of professional experience to consider irrelevant is a piece of cake -- but it occurs to me later on in the thing, as I'm plugging in more recent references but not necessarily excising the old ones, that I've got professional references coming out of my ears ... but no personal references, really. (I am considering professors to be professional references -- that's right, isn't it?) Anyone think a 100%-0% professional-personal balance in my references is going to hurt me? And if so, any of you think you could be useful to me as a personal reference? ;-)

So I did the interview, and it was as excruciating as we've come to expect (this was the seventeenth of a currently-scheduled twenty-one of these things, so, you know, I know), but before I can go home today, I have to stop in another office and teach a colleague how to reserve a conference room in Outlook if you require it to be available to You And Nobody Else -- because I? had done this, which is why I was in there from 2:00-3:30 like I'd said I was going to be, and why my reaction to his having noted on the Research calendar (FYI only) that he wished to run subjects in there at 3pm was (and any other person's reaction would have been) "That's nice."

Got an A on Yiddish midterm. \o/

Cast on last cupcake while in waiting room for allergy shot. Will absolutely finish in time to give pre-determined number of cupcakes to small children; this may be the first time I've ever finished a knitted gift on time. Let's all try to contain our amazement.

Got folder with red-tab notes of stuff that needs fixing from colleague who is busy with other project this a.m. I swear every time we look at the document we see more typos and logical inconsistencies. Just hand it in already and then it won't be our problem anymore.

Soon enough it won't be my problem anyway, b/c I am off 6ish this evening to head to the airport and then head south (five-day forecast calls for high 70's, can't wait) and see my girls! (two of them, anyway) and their babies!

Miss me!

I was going to leave at 4:30. It's Friday afternoon, right, and everybody I work for is gone (not that they care anyway), and there's work I'm going to do over the weekend at home, so a half-hour off the corner won't even be dishonest, much less hurt anyone.

But I didn't. I dawdled and played a little minesweeper, and at 4:45 my phone rang -- and it was a potential interview subject returning my call, and she's going away for a month and will be back for two days before leaving again, so I scheduled her for the second of those days, which is right at the end of our data-gathering period anyway, SO if I hadn't been here we wouldn't have gotten that interview.

In short: my staying until 5pm on a Friday has materially benefited my project. Who knew?

Don't even have to go in for this afternoon's conference call. Admittedly, that's because they're dialing me in so I can take notes -- but if it keeps me on my couch, I'll take it.

:-)

[update: Super-short! Best conference call ever.]

I got an early start today, thanks at least in part to the weekend's aggressive napping schedule. I do not especially care for the fact that a fifteen-minute difference in when I leave the house results, on days when I drive, in a thirty-minute difference in when I arrive at work -- so I can arrive at 8:45 or 9:15, but never jam today 9:00 -- but today, the early arrival was a good thing, because it turned out today was the day I had an interview scheduled for 9am! Unfortunately, IT was in no way ready for this (new guy had forgotten his keys and didn't know he could ask security to let him into his office, and then when they did, he didn't know where to find the gizmos I needed), but that's okay, because there were other non-technical difficulties resulting in the whole thing being postponed.

So now I just have interviews at 11:00 and 3:00. The 3pm one should be fine; here's hoping 11am doesn't have the same Difficulties as 9am had.

Thinking of doing a half-day at work today and then a half-day working at home amid other things, because am in no way prepared for Green Bay. Aie. Someone remind me, around 1pm, to get out of there, mmkay?

I have just learned that a thing I've been trying to do -- all morning and a fair amount of yesterday afternoon -- cannot be done with the resources available to me, which is why I've been failing to do it. The person I begged for help right after she'd left yesterday, who is miraculously in today, told me to stop trying and let her do it.

I do enjoy vindication.

I have just been informed that the Boss says it would be good for morale for everyone to work from home for the rest of the day, which, translated, means Get out of here. So off I go to do my couple of errands and then head to my parents' house.

My package-tracking efforts have failed, because I didn't read Lands End's fine print and UPS are a bunch of meanies (did you know that "arrival scan" does not necessarily mean that anything was scanned on arrival anywhere? this is what they call a "logical scan" rather than a "physical scan". the fact that this name is completely illogical did not register with them when i pointed it out). Ah, well.

Happy Thanksgiving. I'm off to Cleveland. Drive safe, everyone.

I have a meeting on campus today and also an appointment to be stuck with needles.  But when those are done, I think I may see how my colleagues feel about my taking a half day and working from home for the afternoon ... once I have accomplished some errands, because I've been away from Household Stuff for a while now, and I'm running out of -- well, everything, really.  I need to make a shopping list and then find some time before this weekend (ha!) to take out the trash (actually I can do that relatively painlessly [g]) and do laundry and see about this coat I'm thinking of buying.  And, god, unpack my suitcase from last week, and sweep and vacuum, because this weekend I'm away and next weekend is Thanksgiving and the weekend after that I'm playing in a spiel on the eastern shore and GAH, you see what I mean.

I'm on skip=375 and I've got 26 minutes to catch up, on account of I'll be in a meeting when LJ goes down for The Move. Aie!

I am working from home today, in the hope that I will be able to get rid of the lingering remnants of the head cold my office mate and I are both struggling with.  I feel more okay than not, but in my weakened and sometimes coughing and always pressure-in-the-ears state, I don't want to take a nose dive in a week that's slated to end with the Brahms Requiem.

To that end, I intend to do some work work, spend some time studying the Requiem (i.e. listening to it with my score open in front of me, which for me is a very effective way to learn the tricky bits), make progress on the knitting, and finish the first beta of ellen_fremedon's Fic of Dooom.  It will, in other words, be just like a weekend day, only with work in it.  I may also do a load of laundry, as I appear to be alarmingly close to running out of socks.

Onward!