Brace for impact

I am sans bosses for the remainder of the week. Which is cool. But also...less than motivating, for some reason. Plus, my office is cold, and that always puts a damper on my work ethic. Being cold makes me want to curl up under my desk and take a nap, but I have to be here to put out the inevitable fires (including the ones I start myself...). We had training sessions all day yesterday, and one of the upstairs managers came down earlier to ask our opinion of the training - if it was helpful or not, and I had to say it was. What I don't understand is that when we get to the subject of recordkeeping, people who have been here longer than me act all flustered and frustrated, like they have no clue how to make it work and react as if we haven't been having these conversations about improving the systems for over a year now. There's a rumor making the rounds that some of us may see merit increases at some point later in the year. Whether this scuttlebutt is true and even if I'd see an extra penny remains to be seen.

I just spent the better part of the late morning dealing with a state inspector, a state-employed customer service rep who made me want to reach through the phone and commit a violent act, and some of my coworkers who just spent an inordinant amount of time pointing fingers at one another and lieing through their teeth. I even had to call people at home on their vacation! Your tax dollars at work.

The vacation countdown has begun. Currently at 16 days and holding - it can't come soon enough (fall foliage here we come).

I have my CDP mix-tape trade project to finish Friday night. I was excited by the prospects of the theme I was given ('I used to love you, baby, but you got real ugly'), since I immediately hit on the exact tone and vibe I wanted for the collection of songs, and the story I wanted to tell. I'm running behind (as usual - when am I on time for anything, ever?), but the objective is to actually get the CD in the mail - by Monday afternoon, no later. Just mailing the thing out will be, in my mind, quite the accomplishment, since I failed in the very first trade to meet my obligation and screwed someone out of a CD of righteous tunage.

I got an e-mail for participating in the local Race for the Cure event this past weekend. Ummm...

Yeah. We were there, right M? ;)

Oh, and the *ecomony* is still staying afloat, somehow. It's muscles are seizing and it's barely treading water, but it hasn't gone under for good yet.

(The US economy - setting records and breaking clocks, daily!)

So, in case there are tough times ahead...My husband taught himself to make home made mayonnaise and I'm baking our bread, and the garden for next spring is already being plotted since we were given some carrot and squash seeds recently. I'm teaching myself to sew, and knitting may come next. I was playing some post-war jazz on Pandora last night, and my husband said he felt like we're going back in time. I told him to STFU and go play Zelda on his brand new Wii while contemplating the Mac he wants to get next year.