Busy times in The Long and Winding Road

Things are pretty busy for me right now. Not sure how that happens when I think that in general, I lead a fairly dull life. Maybe not, lol. Even though I tend to start feeling anxious when I don’t have enough down time, I am doing my best to live in the moment and to remind myself that THIS is what life really is all about – enjoying it, being busy. I have to remind myself that life is more than working, cleaning the house, playing with the dog, doing laundry, shopping and cooking and watching TV. At least, I hope life is about more than all that, at least some of the time. Thinking about it that way helps me embrace being busy and to enjoy it; it helps me to appreciate that I do have friends and family and activities that I enjoy and which make life interesting. But.... I still do need my down time and sometimes I have to be pretty aggressive about making sure I get it.

So anyway.

I’ve been very busy at work, which is good. I like being busy. It makes me feel needed, productive, and efficient. And the time goes by quickly. Even though my vacation is 3-1/2 weeks away, I’m starting to be aware of the fact that it is looming and that there are loose ends I need to make sure are tied up before I go, so that is putting a little bit of pressure on me.

Yesterday I did NOT feel like coming to work. It turns out that a few of my friends at work felt the same way. I think it was a little bit of a letdown after our picnic basically got rained out. We put so much work into it, both in the planning for it and on the day itself.

Last night, I got home and Josie seemed lethargic. We get pretty tuned into our dogs so it didn’t take much for me to notice. She laid around all evening, and when I finally sat down in my recliner, she curled up with me. She ate her dinner and seems to be going potty okay so at least that’s all good. But I worry about her, maybe a little more than I should, but she’s not even 7 lbs. and with small dogs you have to really stay on top of it if they aren’t well. This morning she didn’t seem much better, although I was relieved when she came off the bed and came out to the kitchen when she could sense I was almost ready to leave for the day, because she always gets a treat when I leave. I’m kind of anxious to get home tonight to see how she’s doing.

Puppy TMI......... her stool was very slightly loose and I noticed a couple of very faint stains on my duvet cover – not sure if that’s what it is, she tends to get little spots of this or that on the white duvet – but, it means I’ll be washing it tonight. I hate doing that because it’s such a pain to get the duvet back in the cover. Ah, the life of a dog mom!

I went to physical therapy today for my hip bursitis. The therapy seems to be helping. I only have one more visit for this calendar year that will be covered by insurance, so I think next week they’re going to just give me some exercises to do at home and we’ll see how that goes.

Then I had to go to Federal Express; this morning I prepared something to send via Fed Ex to Canada and when I printed out the shipping label on line, it printed out some other forms and I couldn’t find any instructions on exactly what to do with them or where to put them, so I just ran into their office to let them guide me. They are only a couple blocks from my office, so it was on my way back from PT anyway.

I haven’t really had time to shop, or cook, so this morning I said the hell with it – I splurged and ordered two dinners from Lish. Tonight I have to run a few errands on the way home from work, then wash that duvet cover, and I want to spend time with Josie, so I don’t want to cook and clean up. Tomorrow night I’m going straight to Sarah and David’s after work to babysit and I usually take my dinner with me. So, I ordered Chicken Shawarma - chicken thigh marinated in yogurt and traditional Middle-Eastern spices, then oven roasted and served with pita, a crunchy Greek salad and a delicious tahini sauce.

And, Grilled Shrimp Tacos - Build your own tacos - start with grilled sweet wild caught shrimp on flour tortillas, then add your choice of lemon crema, tomatillo salsa, or a smokey chipotle sauce (or add all three!). This taco is ready to go as is, or you can top the tacos with the sides of crunchy slaw and black beans and corn.

Found out today that an old internet friend of over 12 years, whom I’ve never met, is in town from Australia. Long story there – Michael also “knows” him (it’s from when we all played World of Warcraft and another game that preceded WoW), and so does my friend T. So, of course, we all want to get together. T can’t do it on Friday night, and I am booked up all day and evening on Saturday, so we’re aiming for Sunday, probably at my house. That is going to be one very interesting get together.

I’ve got to find time to stop at the grocery store Thursday night. I am running out of things at home, plus I need the ingredients to make the cheese cake bites that I’m taking to a luncheon on Saturday afternoon. Oh yeah, and I need to find time to make them, too. Ha!

So Brangelina is over. I have to say, I’m kinda surprised. Maybe I shouldn’t be. We never really know celebrities anyway. We only know whatever persona they choose to display for the cameras, and whatever their publicists put out there. I would guess life in a fishbowl surrounded by people who want to kiss your butt and the money is flowing, presents challenges and temptations most of us will never experience (for better or worse, no pun intended).

Oh well. They’ve got their problems, I’ve got mine! Back to it for now, I guess. Ciao!