Hello there, Strangers!  Guess who forgot she had a blog?  Yes, that would be me.  Sorry!  

Let's see.  I've alternately worked like a crazy person and had stretches of very few clients for job #1, and job #2 was pretty much the same.  The last couple of weeks have been of the crazy variety.  I went to Colorado for my friend MBMs' wedding 2 weeks ago.  It was unbelievably gorgeous (see above) and I had a really fun time.  Well, aside from the motion sickness, vomiting and altitude issues, that is.  It was nice to get the hell out of town for a little while.  And, after 2 not-so-great plane trips I'm thinking that if I go anywhere in the near future I'll be driving. Unless I forget about the horrendous turbulence, vomiting, and panic attack, that is. 

What else is new?  Um, I'm 32 books in to my 81-book 999 Challenge on librarything.com.  I'm trying to be halfway done by the end of the month...not holding my breath, but you never know.  The kids are doing well.  They were pretty depressed when I was gone, but now that I'm back they're back to normal, whatever that was.  Still as broke as ever, despite working like a rabbit on speed a lot of the time.  Oh!  And some good news - I finally got back on my thyroid medication and since I started taking it 5 weeks ago I've had a crazy amount of energy, my brain seems to be working a little better, I'm sleeping for longer stretches, and I've lost 9 pounds!  

Also, it's dawning on me a little more every day that I have spent the past 2 years (really 9) mostly unconscious.  My friggin thyroid totally screwed me up on so many levels that now that I'm starting to straighten out, it's really scary to think of how bad I was and that it wasn't that long ago.  My doctor said that it would be 9 months or so before I'm mostly back to normal, but that before I'm really all the way normal it's probably going to be a couple of years.  At this point, I don't care if it takes 5 years.  The way I'm functioning now is so much better it's remarkable.  Yay for medication!

I think that's enough updating for one day...or month, whatever.  Promise it won't be so long next time.  Hope you're in the air conditioning and not outside in the steamy swamp formerly known as Milwaukee.  I'm off to finish watching "House", fold some laundry, sort through a pile of papers, and eat some dinner.  Glamorous life, hey?!?

Hallelujah!  Taxes are done.  As you can tell, we are all exhausted here in 'Stallis.  And just in case you were wondering, don't worry.  I won't be above the poverty level any time soon.  :0) 

Outside of frantically getting taxes ready, job #2 has been keeping me pretty busy.  I still have quite a bit of work left to do before the class tomorrow morning, but I'll be burning the midnight oil to get it all done.  Gotta love Sunday classes!  

I'm hoping to finish another book tonight/tomorrow, so I'll update my reading list then.  I only have 14 out of 81 books read for the 999 Challenge, and I'm already getting a bit nervous about finishing.  It does not matter at all if I finish or not, but I'd like to really give it a run.  I'm going to join 2 new bookclubs for one meeting only.  I was a member of one of them a few years ago, and the other is being held at my Grandmother's old church.  The church meeting I'm going to is even being hosted by her best friend!  (I found out about this club through a friend and couldn't believe what a frickin small world it is when I heard JB was hosting!)  The main push for doing both of these extra meetings is that the books they are reading qualify for the 999.  Sad, but true.  It feels like extra work to fit these 2 other books in this month, but I've "got to" read 81 anyway, so what's the big deal?!?  That's what the library and all of my leisurely time is for, right?  

We're supposed to be getting 3-6 inches tomorrow (TWSS), and the weather dudes are acting like it's some big hairy deal.  We'll probably get a 2 inches and it'll be a huge let-down once it's all said and done.  (Who hasn't been there before, right?) ;) 

Hope you are all having a good weekend!

All for nothing...

Well, that creepy guy didn't show for his appointment.  All of that hand-wringing for nothing!  That's okay though, I got to come home for lunch that way, and another therapist friend of mine, M, said she'd take him as a client because she has no problem dealing with shenanigans like he tries to pull.  She can have him!  Whew!  And my last 2 clients today were easy peasy.  

Here's an update on the books I'm reading.

1) Three Soldiers

2) Anatomy of the Spirit

3) He Who Whispers

4) The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

5) Out of Africa

6) Armadale

7) Hercule Poirot's Early Cases

And up next...

1) Mistress of Mellyn (need to start it over again)

2) Plum Spooky

3) The Hollow

4) The Dulcimer Boy

5) Parnassus on Wheels

I only have 12 books read for my "999 Challenge", that means I have 69 to go!  (tee hee) I'd better get a move on.  Of course, it would be easier to catch up on if I could stop watching "House" on USA.  I made the mistake of watching 1 episode a few weeks ago, and I've been hooked ever since.  Sadly, I think I must watch 8 shows a week, but they're all out of order, so I only sort of know the story arch.  Good thing Netflix is sending me Season 1 this weekend!  

Hmmm, now why is it that I don't read more often?!? 

It's Tuesday morning, and I needed to get this out of my system, but didn't want to call anyone to complain because nothing can really be done about it.  

I have three appointments today, which is a good thing, but I'm kind of already creeped out by it.  My first client has no-showed on me twice before, is so forgetful that I need to call him an hour before the appointment time so he remembers the appointment, and then when I saw him last time (which was the first appointment he has kept in literally 5 months) I'm pretty sure he was hitting on me.  Gross.  And completely inappropriate.  The whole time I wanted to vomit directly on him and make him leave, but I didn't.  And now he's coming back again this morning, supposedly, and I DO NOT want him as a client any more.  He's creepy.  What to do?  If I pass him on to another therapist friend of mine, I'm sure he'd be fine.  I just truly do not want to deal with this mess. 

So after this first appointment, I get to sit at the desk for 2 hours until my next appointment comes in, and then it's another hour before my last appointment at 7pm tonight.  Ugh.  I'm glad for the money, but really?  That's a m-fing long day of doing not much and it's a total sausage-fest!  I have found out that I prefer working on women because they are mostly normal, and even if they're a little weird, they're still normal!  Plus, I don't have to worry about anything popping up to say "hello", and I don't have to really worry about how much product I need to have on-hand because of mass amounts of leg hair.  Blah.  I'll get through it okay, but I wish someone was there with me.  I'd feel a little better then.

That's all for now.  Wish me luck!

It's another day at home, and I'm avoiding my taxes fairly successfully.  I really have to try to keep up on my record-keeping this year so I can avoid spending hours writing everything down and searching desperately for random receipts that aren't where I know I put them last.  Oh well.  At least I can do laundry and listen to Bill Bryson while I'm taxing it up! 

On a positive note, my kitchen is coming along nicely, albeit a little slowly.  I'll post more pics once I finish my dishes.  It's been such a relief to get rid of things, or at the very least, give things a new home.  There are now actual flat surfaces that stay crap-free almost all of the time!  Amazing!  I can't wait to get my taxes done (so far I have earned negative $ for the first half of 2008 - great) so I can file all of this paperwork crap away and start on my dining room/home office.  The living room still looks good, and now that the kitchen is almost complete, this office is the last major bane of my home existence.  I fully expect to get caught up on sorting and filing and deciding what to keep and what to recycle, but seeing as how it's going to take me almost a month to finish my kitchen, I'll give myself the same amount of time for the office.  Maybe it seems like I'm giving myself too long for each room, but you know what?  I'm actually doing something this time and I'm enjoying it in the process.  

Alright, back to my taxes.  I think I'll listen to a history of Marie Antoinette now for a change of pace.  And there's always dinner for a nice distraction.  I'm hoping to finish my taxes tonight, but I'm not holding my breath.  Wish me luck - and hope that I will have actually earned some money last year!

A Thursday at home...

Stuff here is going okay, I guess.  Kind of the same as ever.  I took the day "off" today (not that I've had more than 1 appointment this week) to start gathering my taxes together so I can have them done hopefully by the end of the month.  Of course, I ran a couple of errands this mornings, came home, had an early lunch, and then proceeded to do...um....I'm not exactly sure what for the next 5 hours.  

Then, in a flurry of inspiration I pulled out my tax info at 4pm, opened up my '07 tax stuff and noticed that there were two potential bills from the IRS that I was supposed to have paid and sent in this past September and January to the tune of $1000.  Hm. Now, no one has notified me that I'll be audited or hung from my kneecaps for 40 days, so I'm wondering if I really should have sent them in?  I'll just push the panic-induced vomit back down until I have my taxes done and innocently ask something along the lines of "So, these IRS people - are they fairly understanding?".  Fuck.  I then spent the next 2 solid hours (honest!) listening to Bill Bryson read "I'm A Stranger Here Myself" and tried to write down and think of every possible bit of income and expense that I could have done in January of 2008.  Yes, that's right, two hours spent doing one months work and I'm still not done.  I can't find my previous check registry (I remember putting it somewhere safe and will most likely find it in 4 years), half of my receipts that I know that I've saved, and half of my pathetically sad bank statements for last year.  Again, fuck.  I know they will all surface in the near future (fingers and toes crossed), but at this rate it's going to take me another 11 days in which I'm not getting paid.  Not that that's unusual.  

And now, good old Bill is back at it, and I'm just gearing up to face the other half of this desk. Perhaps I'll have another glass of wine while I knuckle down.

Tomorrow, L is coming over to help me finish de-crapping my kitchen.  I'll have photographic evidence soon, I promise.  Can't wait! And now, back to Bill, wine, and January 08 tax stuff.  Where oh where is Robin Leach when you need him? 

It's the same old, same old around here.  The only new exception is that I am super-motivated to clean the old stuff out of my house and finally put things where I'd like them to be.  What a concept, hey?!?  And I know it's only been 5 or 6 years that I've lived here, but I don't like to rush things too much.  (sigh...)  

The catalyst for the push to clean out this time was thanks to Oprah.  I've always liked her show (I DVR it every day!) and have always love love loved Peter Walsh.  I've been reading "It's All Too Much" for quite a while now, and after reading a chapter again and catching a re-run of the "Clean Up Your Messy House" show I reached a breaking point.  The only problem was that I did need help getting rid of stuff, even if it was only having a friend standing next to me asking "do you really need that?".  After sitting here in this pit getting more depressed by the minute, I broke down, emailed G & A and asked for help.  (Side note, why is it so dang hard for me to ask for help?) So, I cleaned up my coffee table that day, and then this weekend G and I did half of my kitchen.  I've decided to post the pictures as extra motivation to keep things cleaned up.  I feel a little more accountable that way.  Here are the before and afters!

Guess I'll be off to procrastinate and have an early old-folks dinner.  I've got water aerobics tonight and I need to eat dinner around 4 if I want to avoid barfing in the pool with the old ladies.  They might frown on that.