MatterBulletPoints - Redux

I posted a version of this yesterday, and then Lewis left a comment that made me realize how whiny and depressing it was - so I took it down. Thanks to LSL, I thought about how the blogs I read are truly to see what's going on in other bloggers' lives whom I've become friends with - and if all I really have to write at the moment is a whiny-oh-woe-is-me post, then so be it. No one's feet are being held to the fire to read this, or to come back. So there.

So life these days ...

• Work is work is stress. I have so many deadlines to meet this week and there's no way in hell I'm going to meet them all. I'm still trying to make a team work with one less person, and basically I'm absorbing the big projects that void leaves. Still, I don't feel like I'm getting anything accomplished to the extent that I can't be laid off ... ugh.
• I mentioned that our stove broke down. Ends up it's the "motherboard" (I still don't know what to really call it) - which needs to be ordered - which will finally be fixed on February 5 about $480 later. It better make some damn good dinners after all that.
• I've been fighting off a cold for over a week, which hit me on Saturday. I spent most of Sunday napping and feeling crappy, went to bed at 8:00 last night, and feel now that I'm home from work. My throat and right ear are killing me. I can't find the right drugs to feel better.
• Good thing - Scott's computer as back in the land of the living, including a new free external hard drive and extra RAM from Dell because they, well, fucked up. Scott gave me an old external hard drive, and now we're both faithfully backing up our irreplaceables.
• While cleaning out junk that had fallen behind my computer and filing cabinet to install the new hard drive, I found a watch (battery still working!), my beloved Human Rights Campaign cap, and the Eeyore PEZ dispenser Scott gave me for my last birthday. And the drawings an architect friend of ours did of our house's floorplan, to facilitate the remodel that we desperately want to do one of these days.

Thus endeth the whining.

MatterUpdate

My life this week:

• My stomach's been upset since Tuesday. I think it's the flu (and I haven't taken well enough care of Matterdays to shake it) - and stress.
• Deadlines are looming - which makes being sick even worse. I stayed home today, and felt horrible all day; partly from being sick, partly from not being at work.
• Scott is on vacation through next week. This weekend is our annual neighborhood camping trip, so he headed up to Fort Ebey on Whidbey Island yesterday. I'm heading up tomorrow morning with Kali. It should be a relaxing vacation weekend for us, but all I can think of is what I'm not getting done by going. I guess laundry and housecleaning will have to wait. And I'm not looking forward to the ferry ride with an upset stomach.
• I feel like I'm neglecting the few friends that I have. I need to spend more time with them.
• Our eleventh anniversary is this week. Yay us.
• I haven't eaten since Wednesday night. I have a frozen dinner in the oven right now. Mr. Microwave died. I wanted to replace it with an over-the-stove version so that we'd have some counter space, but we found out that some idiot, when remodelling our kitchen probably 20 years ago, placed the cabinets too low. Grrrr.
• I'm hungry. 25 more minutes. Wait - it's GOOD that I'm hungry.
• Scott doesn't have cell phone reception up at the island, so other than a quick voice mail from each of us, we haven't talked since Thursday morning. I miss him. I feel a little lost. I don't even like it when he closes at work, so this is sad for me.
• The dogs have been fighting a lot lately. I think they fought before Scott left, because Kali is limping. I have a sick feeling that they're going to fight over the weekend. I think I'd better bring bandages. We'll be in the middle of nowhere.
• I'm going to eat dinner now and go to bed early.

*tap tap tap* Matt? You there?

Yeah, I'm here. I've been a bad blogger. Bad, bad blogger. I should be spanked.

Work is hectic, with the end of our company's tax year (this week), and our fiscal year ending next month. I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed. But, some things are slowly getting accomplished ... so I'm stressed, and working some weekend days as well (although from home so far), but my head is above water.

This morning I woke up with an annoying, dry cough. I looked outside at the half-inch or so of snow that fell last night, and wanted to call in sick and just go back to bed. Not this week, though. So I went and plowed through my day, eating half a piece of pizza for lunch (just never got to it all), feeling increasingly nasty, and then left the office promptly at 5:00. Once I got out in the cold, walking the three blocks to my car, I started shivering with chills so hard that I just wanted to cry. All I wanted was to be in my bed with my Scott and a puppy or two or three. Got home, took a long hot shower, put on my pajama pants and a sweatshirt, and poured myself a screwdriver. My experience from grad school shows that a few strong drinks the first night you feel like crap can kill anything. And I took my oscillococcinum (my buddy R introduced me to this - not sure yet if it works). And Scott was sweet and brought me some Dayquil and Nyquil to get me through those horrible first days of a cold.

I'm half listening to the responses to the State of the Union address (I had it on the radio, but couldn't make myself seriously listen), dinner is in the oven, and as soon as dinner is over I'm chugging some Nyquil, getting into bed and hoping I don't spend most of the night alternating between sweating and shivering uncontrollably.

Thus endeth the pity party. I'll try to get a meaningful post later, kids.