To Do:

file photo

Sunday: Sleep, work, work, work.
Monday: Work work, sleep, work.
Tuesday: Work, sleep, pack, sleep.
Wednesday: Work, shower, fly.
Thursday - Wednesday: Sight-see, drive, rinse, repeat.
Thursday: Fly, sleep.
Friday: Work.
Saturday: Birthday.

Then it's all back to normal.

. . .

I don't really feel like I've had a whole year between my last birthday and this upcoming one, which is weird, because if you look back on the last year, there were about a zillion things that happened — way more than the usual year.

• I went on six trips that I can recall off the top of my head and will have a seventh one under my belt by the sunrise of my natal day.

• I changed positions/workplaces three times.

• I met about a zillion new people

• My wardrobe underwent a significant shift from just t-shirts and jeans to having a bunch of dresses and skirts.

• Moved. Again. (but that's not weird, really)

• Acquired another cat.

• Transacted real estate.

All in all, I think it adds up to a pretty full year. It doesn't really feel like it though, and I'm not sure why. It just seems to have flowed out in the river of time and passed me by daydreaming.

To do in my 28th year: Pay more attention. You only get one go, you know.

Here we go again.

Just another day

The past work week was long, hard, and exhausting. Exhausting, mostly. I got a back twitch (gone now, thankfully), and a knot in my shoulders (still there, unfortunately), and just plain pooped out.

Hence, yesterday was a day I laid aside for specifically doing nothing in particular whatsoever. I liked it a lot.

There was sitting around and drinking tea, followed by catching up on t.v. (saw most of the first season of Weeds, which was excellent), followed by more drinking tea and sitting around, mushroom fried rice (tasty!), and drinking tea, sitting around, and going to bed.

I haven't been so pleased to do absolutely nothing for a long time. It was refreshing.

Today was going to be laid aside for more of the same, but Dragons have plans that we must accomplish, including going to the aquarium and wandering around the waterfront, perhaps stopping in at the pirate store for the requisite shits and giggles.

I'm down with it, as I think I'm pretty well rested at this point and some minor recreation will probably do me some good. If I sit around again all day today, I just know there's no way I'm going to want to move on Monday morning, so.

Work is work is work.

There's the usual stress of the busyness of the season, and stacked on top of that is the stress that comes (purportedly) twice a year from inventory. Of course, since I keep switching stores, this will be the third I've attended in the last six months, and the second I'm in charge of pulling off in just over two months.

Ah.

I can't wait for October 2nd. Well, scratch that. I can't wait for October 4th, when I can finally throw down my chains of tiredness and stress and get my results and get out of town.

Ahhhhhhh.

Then I'll be homefree!

Until next spring, anyway. Or until I get back and we're back in the ramping-up-to-Christmas mode.

I'll take what I can get.

I thought it was just the flu

Dear mid-back,

Please stop twitching. It really hurts. That, and, I don't have time to lie down all day and make you feel better. I just can't.

Look, I know that's what you want, but we can't always get what we want, now can we?

So can you . . . ?

I mean, I didn't do anything to you. I always use proper lift technique and I certainly don't overreach or lift and carry off-balance. You know that.

So why are you punishing me?

Yes, we have been doing a lot of work lately. And yes, moving literal imperial tons ofstuff yesterday would make anybody unhappy and tired, but I didn't do anything to you.

Talk to my right elbow. He's a trooper.

Seriously. You are freaking me out.

Love,

The Brain and the rest of the body

F.B. and P.C.

Went down to Olympia with a few friends last night to catch a small Frank Black show at the China Clipper. It was even smaller than I expected — 200 people total, I have been told — and it was just the man and his guitar and his squealy screechy voice.

I'm not a big Frank Black or Pixies fan, but I know quite a few, so thought I'd take a gander at this tiny show. It was quite enjoyable, and honestly, I liked the raw melodies and voice a lot more than I have liked the recorded albums.

I'm quite pleased to have found out about it and it was a good night out with friends.

(insert further platitudes here)

---



It has been brought to my attention that I'm not giving the world at large enough coverage of a man who makes all our lives a little bit brighter — Pat Castaldo.

Pat is awesome and fun and has a zillion stories to tell, small and large. He's a good deal of fun and also a good person and I've never said "Ugh, not him again" when I see him.

So yay for Pat Castaldo!

For all you Pat Castaldo fans and stalkers out there, from now on I'll be collecting all my paparazzi shots of the man, the myth, and the legend here.

---

Like so many things, that made more sense in my head before I started writing it.

It's a boy!

Congratulations Tyler and Angie for your bopping bundle o'joy!

So when do we get to meet Zachary Charles Frederickson and find out if he's as big as his name?

If there's no one in control, we're the ones who draw the line.

A perpetual motion machine? Violating the laws of thermodynamics?

What was that again about the Seven Warning Signs of Bogus Science? See #1, #2, and #7.

If true, awesome. But me, skeptical? Hell, yes.

Alive and Rockin'

I'm not dead yet.