keep me young forever

I have had an absolutely brutal few days at work, which has made blogging fall down to the bottom of my priority list. Even when I do blog, I tend to forget things -- like the fact that on Tuesday night I said that my day was quite boring, but I completely forgot that I had spent an hour talking to Heather (aka dear respected madam), which was a real bright spot and worth documenting.

sssanyway. Thursday was brutal, and I was completely brain-dead by the end of it, which means that I spent the evening eating leftovers and then attempting to recover with limited results. I was so brain-dead that I even picked up a book in an effort to relax, which is very unusual for me these days. I started reading "A Cautious Traveler's Guide To the Wastelands," which is a pretty entertaining version of a journey on the Trans-Siberian Railroad set in an alternative world where Siberia has been completely walled off by China and Russia due to an unknown (to me, at this point in the book) contagion of monsters or something. Hopefully I'll pick it up and finish it sometime soon, but in the meantime I've had to return to slogging.

So yesterday was more of the same, and I worked an absolutely insane number of hours, especially for a Friday. I was also the only person in my family who couldn't watch the Iowa State basketball game because I was stuck in meetings, although I'm glad that I didn't have to see video of Joshua Jefferson injuring his ankle. At the end of the day, I forced [censored] to go to town with me to eat Mexican at the restaurant rather than picking up takeout, as we usually do. Unfortunately, it was the slowest service that we've ever had there -- and so while the food was good, I feel like [censored] somehow claimed the moral high ground in terms of whether we would have saved time by picking up versus eating there.

Today was unfortunately even more of the same, made slightly more apocalyptic because it literally reached 90 degrees, which it should not do in March. I woke up this morning and spent a couple of hours doing my own things, but then I had to sit down and keep working on a project for work that we're trying to launch this weekend. I did most of that work while sitting outside on my balcony, which at least means that I got some fresh air and sunshine, but it wasn't quite the same as being able to putter around the yard and do my own thing at will.

Finally, at 4 p.m., I took a shower, and then, as I was finishing getting ready, [censored] showed up and told me about the fire that was burning in the field east of Mom's house. I ended up going out there with him so that we could drive around in the gator and inspect the property. We couldn't really see much since the fire had burned towards the east and north of us, which means that we weren't able to see the damage beyond the ridgeline of the back of the property. And luckily, it appears that the fire department was able to put it out, which I'm sure was a relief for them since there were multiple grass fires around, given the high temperatures and even higher winds. It was probably also a relief for them because they probably accidentally started it, since they had burned the field at Becky's a couple days ago and it's possible that they didn't get it entirely put out. But it was a nice day for riding around in the gator, so I was happy that we took the opportunity to go back and check things out.

After that, I finished getting ready, and then [censored] and I picked up Mom and went to Seymour for dinner. Mom and Dad's anniversary is tomorrow, and we celebrated their anniversary last year in Seymour, which was the last time he went out to eat before his final decline. So it was a little bittersweet, but it also didn't feel at all the same - I seem to remember that last year was pretty cold, but this year was super hot, and because they had just turned on the mini splits for the first time this season, the AC above our table seemed to be blowing some black crud on the table at regular intervals throughout the meal. I might have been disgusted at another time, but for some reason tonight I just found it on brand and oddly charming. And my ribeye and fries were excellent, so no complaints there.

Then we came home, I spent some time relaxing and reading reddit and watching basketball, and then I sadly did another ninety minutes of work. And now I must sleep - goodnight!

we gonna party like it's the end of the world

I have very little to report. Work has gotten quite busy over the past couple of days and so I feel like all I've really done is slogged, much to my chagrin.

Yesterday was quite boring despite my busy situation, and I ended the day by making spaghetti for me and [censored]. Today was even more brutal in terms of the amount of work done, especially since I thought I would have all morning to work and instead woke up to an invite for a 9:30 meeting that I didn't know was happening. Of course "invite" implies something you can turn down, which is not actually true in corporate life, so I forced myself to get ready in time to attend. 

But I survived the day, and then I took a break in the evening to run to the grocery store so that I could make chicken chile verde in the instant pot for dinner. [Censored] liked it more than expected, perhaps because I pandered to him and used chicken breasts instead of thighs. But it was quite tasty, and we ate while watching Scrubs, which was fun. 

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

it's gonna be a big night

I have done nothing of interest the post couple of days. Yesterday we had a but if a blizzard, and so I hunkered down, cleaned my office, and made tater tot casserole for dinner (which would have been better if my tater tots weren't suffering from freezer burn). Today, I unfortunately had to work - I did not feel in it to win it, but I accomplished just enough to not feel terrible, so I'll take it.

After work, I made a triple batch of Grandma Barb's spaghetti sauce - I do not have a Grandma Barb, but whoever did really was lucky to have that recipe. This resulted in six jars of sauce for future meals + sauce for dinner tomorrow night, which is great. And Ritu fortuitously called while I was cooking, so we talked for over an hour, which was fantastic and long overdue. 

And now I must sleep - goodnight!

you and i flying on an aeroplane tonight

I had a nice day despite getting up much earlier than I wanted to on a Saturday. I had a haircut booked in Des Moines at 10, and I left my house right on time... But I did not realize that the St Patty's Day marathon was being run on a course that directly impacted my salon downtown. Luckily this is Des Moines and not Boston, and so even though I was basically at the finish line, I was able to quickly detour and find parking within two blocks of the salon. So I ended up five minutes late, but they were understanding. 

As for the haircut, I was pretty happy with it - I'm cheating on my other salon and stylist bc she's out getting married, and also bc the salon moved into this new space that is both gorgeous and feels too much like an office park. Tbd on whether I fully switch, but today was a good test run (no marathon pun intended).

When I was done, I went to West Des Moines and met Drewbaby and Sammie for brunch at Homegrown. The wait was surprisingly quite long, but it was worth it - they had excellent gluten free pancakes, as well as a variety of other tasty things. The cousins were in fine form, and it was good to see them even if I did walk away with a box of old plat books that I had forgotten to expect. 

Then I stocked up on wine - I was down to the last dregs of my pre-Christmas stockup, which only lasted this long because we had one fewer day of festivities than I expected. I was going to go to whole foods after that, but I discovered that there's now a fareway west of Jordan Creek where there were empty fields a couple of years ago. It's quite nice, and I was able to get everything I needed (with the exception of chicken, because I don't like their chicken even though their beef is excellent).

So I came home with a couple of stops on Indianola to get gas and wash my car. When I got here, I unloaded, put things away, and made dinner for me and Mom and [censored]. I was too lazy to really cook, but I reverse seared some steaks and reheated some twice baked (now thrice baked) potatoes and made some green beans. Dinner was delayed by the end of the Arizona/Houston game, but it was pretty tasty overall. 

Then we said farewell to Mom, I cleaned the kitchen, and [censored] and I watched scrubs. And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

standing in line to see the show tonight, and there's a light on

Yesterday was quite a busy day, and I was wiped out by the end of it. I had a bunch of meetings, followed by a library board meeting, followed by some more work when I got home. Eventually I had a chance to talk to [censored] before it was time for bed, and by then I had no desire to blog or do anything else.

Today I'd hoped to be #inittowinit, but when I woke up this morning, I had a crushing headache. Unfortunately, this happens occasionally, and while I often push through, I wasn't in the mood to even try today. I called in sick to work and spent most of the morning sitting on my chaise and trying to avoid looking at screens...which certainly helped the headache even if it didn't help my productivity.

I rallied enough to make myself a very tasty hot ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, which I ate while watching the second half of the Iowa State vs. Texas Tech game with [censored]. The game was almost as good as my sandwich, which should tell you just how good my sandwich was. Then I closed my eyes for a bit longer before deciding to finally do a couple of hours of meetings just so that tomorrow wouldn't be quite so brutal. I wrapped up the day by making dinner for me and [censored] - chicken and mushroom pasta, which was quite tasty, if I do say so myself. And now it's time for bed - goodnight! 

by the way

I was busy, busy, busy today, as the people say. I had to wake up early this morning so that I could go into town for an economic development meeting, which was complicated by the fact that it was extremely foggy. The meeting went as well as they normally do, and then I had to go to the doctor's office to get allergy shots, which also went as well as they normally do.

Then I came home, took advantage of my only window in which to do some real work, and then sat in meetings from 12:00 to 5:00. This is approximately four hours of more meetings than I wanted to sit in, but at least they were decent enough. Unfortunately I didn't really eat at proper times and so my brain was melting by the end of it. Luckily it was fairly sunny out, so I decided to let my body melt instead - I sat out on the balcony and dozed a bit as I tried to recover.

Recovery was crucial because I also had a city council meeting tonight. I walked at downtown just in time to get started, and the meeting went about as well as can be expected. I also got a surprise tour of the back half of City Hall, which was wilder than you might expect. And then I came home, ate, did some work, did some laundry, procrastinated, etc. And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

and i your willing victim

It was far too beautiful today to be stuck inside, but duty called. So I spent my Monday in my usual slew of meetings with barely enough time to eat anything, which always gives me a bit of a headache. My headache was perhaps compounded by feeling the sun through the window as I tried to focus on my meetings, but I survived.

And literally as soon as I possibly could, I shut my laptop and took a walk downtown (if you can call it that) to drop off some food for the town play's concession stand later this week. Then I came home and sat on my balcony for the first time this season, where I journaled with a glass of zinfandel, which was just about perfect. Then I talked to Katie for an hour while I fended off the season's first mosquitoes, who seemed to be getting into the game early this year. The birds were all awake and there were a suspicious number of box elder bugs on the side of my garage, which makes me wonder what the season portends.

After I said au revoir to Katie, I procrastinated for a bit and then made myself a sandwich rather than cooking anything like I had planned. I then spent the rest of the evening sitting on my chaise and alternating between journaling, daydreaming, and considering work. Now I need to go to bed - goodnight!