ups and downs

Today was a little weird -- good stuff mixed up with annoying stuff in a way that makes it impossible to categorize my overall impression of the day. It started with an 8am mtg, which is obviously bad; but, if I leave here at 7, the traffic is pretty smooth, so that was a plus. I had quite a few meetings today, but none of them were overly annoying. I got my allergy shots this morning, and they seemed to be fine today, but tonight the grass injection started itching and burning, which is no fun. I stayed late tonight (left the office around 8:15), but from 6pm onward it was spent socializing with Laura, the director who likes to force me to do crafts. She's leaving my company to move back to Texas full-time as of this Friday, and I'm going to miss her, so we got in one last crafting session tonight. She passed on some of her crafting stuff to me, so I'll have to make an attempt to use it sometime.

But, when I left the office, my tire pressure light came on in my car, even though I didn't seem to have a flat tire. I took it to the gas station, measured the pressure, and while each tire was 2-5lbs lower than recommended, none of them were drastically lower--and when I filled them up properly, the light was still on. I drove home, checked the tires when I got here, and none of them appeared to have deflated, so I don't know what's going on -- but it was an unexpected and unwelcome deviation for my homeward commute.

All I really wanted to do tonight was play 'Civilization'; I haven't played in months, and thinking about 'Colonization' last night put me in the mood to play the game. I think it's because 'Civilization' is neither my job nor my romance novel, and I could use some unwind time from both. So I started it up and successfully played for only an hour -- but that was probably because I did a horrible job in the beginning of the game and, while I was on pace for a cultural victory, was so far behind in the power struggle that two other nations declared war on me simultaneously because I was an easy target. Bleh.

To top it off, my face is flushed and I think I'm getting a fever. So, it's really time to go to bed. But in general, despite my not-so-psyched tone the past couple of days, things are good! I just need to recover from last week's time off so that I don't feel behind at work, and then I can get back to the balance that I'm trying to seek.

I just have to be really careful -- I recognize now that I was addicted to work in the truest sense of the word, and I have obvious tendencies to slip back into that addiction, which is something I need to stay vigilant about. And while it's good to take a break from writing for a week or two, I need to get back to it soon if only so that I have something to help keep me from getting sucked back into the office. But now, it's time for bed!