cleverly disguised as a responsible adult

Life is eating me. I'm working hard on my LARP of a Responsible Adult. I'm tired of adulting, but I need to just keep moving. It doesn't help that now I'm in an office with a window. Gray, rainy days sap my motivation to keep moving and doing things. When I was in an interior office, I never saw outside, so the weather had no affect on me. Also, SAD is starting to kick in. No me gusta.

The kids are SO ready for Halloween. Super excited. I'm not stressed about it, just a little anxious. We went to the annual Halloween Party last weekend. I made a royal blue dress (Moneta bodice and two layers of circle skirt) and got new rainbow socks, arm warmers, and belt. I didn't get a wig, but I still made a pretty adorable Rainbow Brite.

I'm on the final day of a week of not fun antibiotics. A couple weeks ago, I picked at a hangnail and it got infected. Last week I realized it wasn't getting better on its own and my finger was literally twice the size of the same finger on the other hand. I went to the dr and got a course of antibiotics. It's helping, but annoying. My finger is still kind of sore and swollen - zils were NO FUN on Monday - and the antibiotics are a "take 4x a day on empty stomach". Very annoying.

I started playing Guild Wars 2 again. The expansion came out and the Halloween event started. I love the Halloween event, so I started it back up. I only need to carve 30 more pumpkins and I'll have the entire meta-achievement done. This will mean nothing to non-GW2 players, but it's a badge of honor, skill, time, or something like that. They also came out with a new character class, so Downwood and I created twin characters. Our names are Castor and Leda, because that's how we roll.

I have too many good books piling up. I finally read "Ancillary Mercy" and it was WONDERFUL. I cared more about the AI in this book than I will ever make anyone care about a "real" character in something I come up with. WONDERFUL, I say. I have "Radiance" and the WtNV novel on my desk and I CAN'T DECIDE. As soon as I read one, I'm not reading the other. WOE IS ME.

I interviewed a new tattoo artist at the shop by asking for a small piece. Mostly, I wanted to be sure that we could get along (he loves books, so YEAH) and that his ideas about color are in line with mine. I love my new little pumpkin and am excited for my birthday tattoo - a memorial cardinal for Grandpa Tom.

My birthday tattoo will be on Nov 7. This is the same day as Newer Dancer Night. Emi thinks I should dance to "something classical". I don't know if I'm going to be able to get something good by then....and if I'll want to dance after a couple hours of tattooing. I kind of want to just put on something nice and sit back with friends and a drink.

And now it's time to work. The things I kicked off are all done. I need tea and to warm up some breakfast so that I can take my penultimate antibiotic before lunch and the last one in the afternoon. I will say one thing for this regiment: it's REALLY cut down on my snacking habits!

Wowza. So much of the tired. So much stress. So much not eating and then getting way more frustrated and sad than situations warrant. Therefore, reverse order updating until I hit the limits of my memory.

• I need to take some good measurements of myself and order some custom fit blue jeans. My skirt+legging combination has been working well, but it's starting to get cold enough that I want more fabric on my legs. Or maybe I should just make some more long flannel petticoats. That'd help, too.
• The Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast is kind of interesting. I admit to listening to it simply because they did a crossover episode with Night Vale, but there are worse reasons to like something.
• Work kind of sucks. I'm in meetings for about 7 hours a day and then people wonder why I've not made any progress on their issues. Sigh. I told my TL how frustrated I'm getting because I'm not able to do the things that make me happy. If I'm not on the phone, people are stopping by to ask me questions. Yes, I've been here long enough that I know a lot about a lot of things and there are things that I do better than almost anyone else on our team, but there are times I'd rather send them to someone else to figure it out.
• I turned 35 on Monday. I called into work, claiming a migraine that was keeping me from looking at a screen. Really, it was mostly that I just couldn't stand the thought of going in. So I got some extra sleep, got to have coffee with Downwood while Ox was in class, and watched Disney movies with Emi after school. And went to dance class. So it was good.
• My entire Sunday was taken up with my birthday tattoo. I got there about 10:30 and read my book and waited while my artist prepped the stencil. Then she put it on me. Then she had to set up. So we didn't start with ink on skin until well after noon. It took four hours for her to do all the line work, so I didn't walk out the door until 5. Then I had to go pick up a pizza, but we didn't get it called in, so I had to wait for 25 minutes. So I didn't eat from 8 am until almost 6 pm. So I was really not in a good emotional place. But my new tattoo is gorgeous and worth it. We'll talk colors when the lines are healed. So pretty.
• My folks came up on Saturday. We talked and watched football. Then they took the kids down to the park to play and I excavated one of our kitchen counters and reorganized a very messy cupboard. Then Mom and I cleaned while Bob and Downwood worked on making the model train table more sturdy. The house is now very clean and kind of wonderful. In the evening, we dropped the kids off at the hotel to have dinner and swimming with Grandma and Grandpa and we went out for a grown-up dinner. It was very nice.
• Work is crazy. So much busy. So much "I just need an hour of your time". So much "THE SKY IS FALLING".

And now, back to work with me.

My classic coping mechanism to phone calls that are making me crazy at work is to do my nails. I'll carefully apply polish, sometimes in really cool combinations, and use the motion as a way to focus on something other than making someone's head explode with only the power of my brain.

Since I'm going in for my annual shellac manicure tomorrow night, I figured it wouldn't be a great idea to be painting my nails today.

So instead I brought in a tube of henna and started drawing on my hand.

I'm not very good at it yet, but I'll get there. It's therapeutic in the same way as the nail polish - it's something pretty and something to keep me from cursing at the customer.

I have some more calls this morning. We'll see how far up my arm I end up going.