Written yesterday at work:

Can anybody say excruciating????? I cannot, cannot, cannot concentrate on writing *work* stuff. I really and truly can’t.  # 1, there are two young chippies in the office next door to mine having a loud and raucous discussion about home buying; they really don’t have a clue what they’re talking about, but <shrug> I’m too lethargic and anxious to just get out of here today to want to join their rather juvenile discussion; #2, it’s 2:30-ish on Friday, I’m scheduled to leave at 3:30, and I finished up a major project right before lunch. Getting started on  a new one would be silly and non-productive. # 3 It’s 50 degrees outside, which to many of you may sound awfully nippy, but to me - me, who has endured the rigors of a particularly nasty New England winter and am virtually starved for a little warm sunshine, 50 is AWESOME and I want to get outside before the temperature drops again. Okay. I could’ve left after lunch and said I had to go to one of our other locations, but I didn’t want to go to another location, and the stress of saying I’m going to do something but in reality NOT doing it is just too much for me to handle. Comes from being raised by parents who always sided with the teacher whenever you had a little scuffle at school. “But that was eons ago!”, you might exclaim. Well, that’s true enough, but I still remember the horror of being disciplined for some rare outburst or some such thing at school and being stupid enough to go home and complain about the teacher to my mother. Have you ever heard the phrase “Wait ’til your FATHER gets home”? Scary, isn’t it? So when my father got home and he heard about my transgressions at school, I was the one who got punished even though I felt that the teacher was clearly in the wrong. That’s an example of how life can come up behind you with a swift kick in the butt, eh? So, that incident, I daresay, kicked off a life-long rebellion against authority while at the same time recognizing that they (the authorities) had the power, and it would be infinitely more to my advantage to follow, rather than rebel too ostentatiously against their rules. So here I sit, victim of my own misguided conceptions, unwilling to just thumb my nose at them and leave when I feel like, and all because of that seminal incident from my childhood when I took the heat for a teacher’s mistake. Sad. And, like Ruby J., I too am  a grown-up (certainly even more grown up than she is, if we count solely in years lived) and you’d think I could act like one, for pitys sake! But no. Here I sit, doing flat-out nothing. Well, I’m obviously doing something, aren’t I? Suffice it to say that since I started writing this and thinking about each of you, I’m not nearly so antsy about getting out of here anymore. Ooops. Phone. Ugh. BRB.

Saturday - well, the phone call kept me occupied untl it was time to leave. That was helpful. Today has flown by: grocery shopping with a little side trip over to Kohl’s this morning, and then drove down to Beverly, Mass - about an hour and a half from where I live - to pick up a dresser that I found on, believe it or not, Craigslist. My son turned me on to Craigslist a few years ago, and now when I’m thinking I need something or other (in this case, an extra dresser for the guest bedroom to handle my clothes overflow) I check there before buying new. Sometimes I find something and sometimes I don’t. This time I did. I have a Queen Anne highboy and matching chest in the guest room - both antiques, and they look nice in that room. But I need more drawer space and I priced a matching dresser at $900. Yikes! So I started poking about on Craigslist a couple of weeks back, and sure enough, the perfect match popped up for $100. Took a little driving to get it, but well worth it, I’d say. Lucky that DH still has his big GMC Safari - we’ve been talking about getting something smaller for him, but I was glad we didn’t when I saw how smoothly that dresser slid right into the back. Our son-in-law is coming by tomorrow to help get it into the house. I feel very smug about this; I just LOVE finding bargains for myself!

After we picked up the dresser, we stopped at my daughter’s house - my other daughter and son-in-law were there, and they were just starting to get the baby’s cribs put together, so DH pitched in and we ended up staying there until 7:00. They were ordering pizza, but I didn’t want to splurge after being so careful about eating all week long. So we headed home.

Oh, oh, oh……weighed myself when we got home, and I’m down 2.6 more pounds - so that’s 5.6 altogether. Yay. I’m feeling encouraged.  For supper tonight I thawed out a bag of jumbo shrimp, sauteed them in a little bit of Greek dressing, and made us a big Greek salad with feta cheese, black olives, avocados and the shrimp. Yum.

After supper we watched “The Shipping News” with Kevin Spacey. It was excellent. DH has gone to bed, and I’m just not sleepy yet, although I’d better GET that way soon if I know what’s good for me. Ooooooh. Just noticed that it’s 12:44. I do believe that I will say goodnight now.

Hugs,

Z