Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Went from a week of so-so sleep to a night of no sleep Friday and it absolutely wrecked my Saturday. Couldn’t nap to save my life, didn’t do any of the errands I’d wanted to do, and I was a snarling, irritated mess. Thankfully I was able to spend the majority of it alone, and did get better sleep last night, which meant I was able to run those errands today, but didn’t do a lot more than that.

Part of the sleep thing is that MG is a restless sleeper, and I’m not the deepest sleeper in the world, so when he’s tossing or talking, it can wake me up. I may have to try ear plugs or something. He’s told me to wake him up, but that’s not my wont. Something will have to be found, and I’m sure we will, but working it out in the meantime has left me irritated.

Did take the time to make a good batch of soup today. I’d bought the veggies earlier this week and just hadn’t gotten around to making the soup itself. And let me just say, whoevver invented curry powder has my undying gratitude. Love, love, love the stuff. Combine it with peanut butter and I’m in heaven. Folks who’ve been to my previous soup night parties will have had this, the African Bean Soup. So had good soup, put some in the fridge, and several servings in the freezer.

I’m also thinking it’s finally time to have a soup night party soon. Haven’t had a get-together in the new place yet, so sometime after the new year I’ll have one.

Gradually returning to the land of the living. This cold has sucked ass. Not so much with the breathing, that’s actually been mostly okay, but this one has just left me incredibly drained of energy. I’ve been able to sleep, eschewing sudafed in the evenings in favor of sleep and depending on the humidifier, which has worked well. But that has meant that each evening around dinner time the sudafed has worn off, and without pumping another stimulant into my system I’ve not had the energy to do squat. Yay for funky dreams.

Am definitely feeling better this evening, and am hopeful that a run might be attemptable tomorrow.

Pretty much done with shopping for the immediate family, just waiting for the last bits to arrive early this upcoming week before I head down to see them next weekend. Can’t wait to see how the 2nd niece has grown (she’s 9 months old now), and to play with the older niece. But first, gotta kill off the last of this cold.

I love watching people trying to parallel park. I can see tourists doing so all day long on Independence Avenue outside my office window and it provides no end of amusement.

Speaking of amusement, day two of sudafed (yay head cold) is progressing nicely through the floaty feeling stage of the drug. Makes critical thinking oh so much fun. Did manage to avoid taking it last night before bed, so wasn’t up all night, but I did have several fun dreams as I floated in and out of consciouness (I usually don’t remember dreams unless I’m not really deeply sleeping).

The first was a scenario where I was working at a summer camp, likely a scout camp (but not the one I worked at up in Maine). I remember being really excited because I could keep up my triathlon training, though on my mountain bike, not the tri bike (dirt roads), and get in some much needed open water swimming practice. As well as getting some skin cancer sun exposure.

The second I’ve now forgotten. I don’t recall that it was terribly long.

The third and last one was teaching English to junior high school students in Taiwan, which involved me speaking a lot of Mandarin. While it was good to exercise those attrophying language muscles, it made for an odd dream (trying to explain to these kids where the term “alphabet” came from? why?).

Anyway, was good to sleep without drugs (though with a humidifier), but not the most restful night I’ve had. I’m hopeful I can avoid the almost inevitable sleepless night that comes with most of my head colds (and thus causes me to miss a day of work – because if you can’t infect your co-workers, why bother having a cold?).

I’m fighting off a head cold at the moment. Stayed over at MG’s place on Saturday and he had a fan going to keep the air circulating, and I temporarily forgot that fan blowing across Moose’s face = dry nose = head cold susceptibility. You’d think with the AC drama over the summer I’d remember that, but no. My own fault, but still annoying. Lotsa vitamin C & B being consumed (yay for Emergen-C) at the moment.

Tonight was a non-food night of shopping at the grocery store. Needed those lovely home staples of bleach, toilet paper, etc., so grabbed the requisite coupons and dragged myself up for it. Didn’t get home early enough to do whites (for which I needed the aforementioned bleach), but I can do that later this week. Did get in a swim after work, drill work this time, and felt good doing it and after. The bike ride home tends to feel a tad chilly, even after I dry off thoroughly, but it’s short enough not to be a hassle.

Oh, and I managed to lose my work badge. Which isn’t such a big deal, except that the policy of the security people is to drive you batty by punishing you for being a dork make you wait ten working days to get a new badge, even though the technology exists to print out a new one on the spot (as well as cancelling the old one). So, metal detector city for me for the next two weeks.  Thankfully that’s pretty easy when I bike in since everything but my keys (metal-wise) is already in my bag from the commute in. So once I come back from visiting my family over the weekend of the 8th I’ll be re-badged.

Did a massage exchange yesterday with a gentleman whom I’ve exchanged massages with before (for those unfamiliar, it’s simply a “you massage me, I massage you” arrangement). He could use some technique pointers, but overall is pretty good. Haven’t done one of those in ages, so was nice to get a little body work done.

And now, time to crash to help sleep off the cold.

I love going to the dentist for a filling. First they numb you up so even now, hours later, I still feel like a stroke victim who’s lost control over half of his face. Then they run a drill which was just as annoying to listen to when it wasn’t inside my mouth as it was (I checked, it was).  Then, when it was all over, I find out that evidently while they’re filing insurance on our behalf, they’re not taking payment from the insurance company – now they file, but you pay it all up front and get reimbursed by the insurance company. Whee.

Good thing I love my dentist (who gave me a lottery ticket for referring a co-worker to him – I won $1.00).

Add to the grumpiness the unseasonably warm, wet weather (I like warm weather, I like wet weather, but not together and not in November when it’s supposed to be cooler) and that the anesthetic has lead to a slight nausea and you have a fun morning.

In slightly better news™, my boss loved a memo I wrote yesterday for the front office, had no changes for it, simply asked that it be put on letterhead and signed out. Sweet. I don’t think I’ve ever had that happen, so is a good, good thing. Also, had a conference call over a payment issue that’s stretched out for months now, and it looks like we’re finally going to get to make some payments in a law suit now that everyone’s on board with the right database info and numbers. Whew. I will be happy to have that little thing off our plate. Now if I could just kill off the other two big projects that won’t die, I can get back to more normal matters…

It’s hard not to feel bitter this morning since I’m not out there racing the Marine Corps Marathon. The knee did not improve sufficiently over the week to feel comfortable doing a race of this length, and discretion is the better part of valor, or however that goes, and so I’m skipping the thing this year. There will be other races, and my ego was not so invested that this is a crippling event psychologically, but it’s still disappointing after all the training.

Not helping the mood is that I just paid out the ass so I can not listen to/watch a bunch of useless Continuing Legal Education courses so I can keep my law license. One does like to stay employed, but one wishes it weren’t so expensive, nor such a waste of time (there are no CLEs in my practice area).
Did sit down this week and look at next season’s races. I’ve picked several that I think I can do. Unsure as to whether I’ll sign up for another marathon (did put a half marathon in the mix, early in the season), but picked out a couple of triathlons, and I’m seriously considering doing a half ironman toward the end of the season (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run).  Added into the mix this year has to be more serious weight and core training. The IT band troubles I’ve had this past week are the proof of that, and I’d really rather avoid this sort of thing again if at all possible. The weights and core work will help stabilize stuff, and I’ve known that (intellectually), but not really felt the need for it (emotionally). Well, now I can’t afford to neglect it, so back to the weight room I go.

Thankfully, for the runners, it’s a gorgeous morning here in DC, and it looks to stay that way through the entire race. You couldn’t ask for better conditions. Which will make going out to watch pretty nice, too.

This is not the best of Mondays.

1. I have a classic case of “runner’s knee” thanks to yesterday’s run – nice little stabby pains in the left knee. Made walking to work oh-so-much-fun (and stairs? don’t get me started on how much fun stairs are right now). Also almost guarantees no race next Sunday for moi. This after making it through the entire training season for the race with no injuries. Ugh. Looks like the post-running season gets to start early.

2. On top of the stabby pains on the walk, I realized halfway to work that while I had made a nice, fresh carafe of coffee and put it in the thermos to take with me, said thermos was in fact still sitting on my kitchen counter. Which means I am doomed to at least one cup of the substandard “Starbucks” coffee they have downstairs (at least the Starbucks branded stuff is better than the regular swill, but it’s still not anywhere close to as good as I make it at home, nor to how an actual Starbucks establishment would make it).

Blah.

Got up this morning totally Mr. Cranky Pants. Did not want to get up, did not want to go run, did not want to see anyone, did not want to do anything. Sat around, pouted, read the paper (they’ve been delivering it regularly since Tuesday), pouted some more, and was generally in a horrible mood. Was feeling like I’m tired of training for the marathon, I’m tired of feeling like I waste an entire weekend day doing the long runs, and a lot of, “Why am I doing this if it’s not fun?” Of course, I do it because it is fun, I do enjoy it, it’s just that I was feeling a total lack of motivation this morning. Was also missing MG, who’s been away for work this week. And, as I said, just feeling a big dose of the blahs. Must’ve had something physical going on as well, stress-wise, this week, because my eczema’s flared up as well.

Thankfully around mid-afternoon I snapped out of it as I did massive amounts of floor cleaning (yay swiffer wet), did laundry, even ironed (which is a measure of how blah I’d been feeling – I never iron). Feel much better now. MG’s headed back to town tonight, and will wander over. In the mean time I’ve lit a bunch of candles, popped in a movie, turned the lights off and am relaxing. It’s not quite meditation, but it’s much more restful than I’ve been of late. Hopefully the long run tomorrow will be better for excising Mr. Cranky Pants from my system.

In other news™, I had an unexpected surprise yesterday when I pulled up my leave and earnings statement. Evidently the beginning of the month was an anniversary at work because I went up a step for the paycheck that hits next week. Extra money is always nice, especially unexpected extra money. Oh, and my parents now know about the new neice/nephew, speaking of expectations, and also that my brother will be teaching sixth grade starting in the next week or so. Good news all around (which made the attack of the cranky pants all the more bizarre).

Had my monthly haircut this evening, so texted Brian and headed out to dinner with him and Jhim. Was good to see them both, and good to get out. I’ve been lying low here in SW DC, mainly because money is a tad tight right now, so eating in or eating cheap are the preferred modes for food. Simple food has also been my preference at home because of some stomach woes I’ve had on and off. My digestive system has never been the best, and every now and again it decides to really go off the deep end until I smack it down, which may be coming soon (don’t ask).

Picked up staples at Whole Paycheck on the way to the bus, which thankfully was running pretty well this evening; didn’t wait more than 10 minutes at either stop, and there’s something to be said for catching the bus that drops you right in front of your building. Had planned the trip, so was a good boy and used a cloth shopping bag from home rather than taking fresh bags from them. I wish store still gave you some discount for doing that (some used to give you a nickel or something per bag you brought in and used yourself rather than using theirs), but even without it was nicer to have a bag I knew wouldn’t rip open on the bus, and that I didn’t have to stuff more plastic bags into the recycling bin.

MG’s out of town for work, and we’ve been chatting on the phone in the evening. Sounds like he’s pretty busy there, but doing good work. Miss him, but the communication helps.

Oh, and don’t tell my parental units, but I’m to be an uncle again. My sister-in-law is about a week pregnant (confirmed with the doctor yesterday), so she’s due in June. This, mind you, while she was on the pill (and after she had her first child in March of this year). I did remind my brother that there were things he could do as well (condoms, anyone?), but was gentle in my reproach. At least he’s married to the woman this time (my older niece is the daughter of his HS girlfriend – oy). I’m happy for them, and will be happy to be an uncle again.

It appears that I wasn’t the only one, but yesterday evening was just one extended freak-out. After the plane stuff in the afternoon, my little brain decided it would be a good time to start stressing over pretty much anything and everything that it could, leading to absolutely no sleep until I finally hopped back out of bed at 1-something (I think), gave myself a reality check, and went back to bed.

Slept really, really poorly, so called in to work (that’s why they give us sick leave!), went back to bed until about noon, then got up and was a total slug.  The most productive thing I’ve done all day was read the paper, once I finally realized delivery had started today (I ordered a subscription to the newspaper earlier this week; how retro). Oh, and registering my DS games with Nintendo. Whee. Hopefully I’ll sleep better tonight, but there are times when it would be nice to just be able to turn off the lizard brain and stop it from freaking out, especially when I realize it’s completely off-base and freaking out for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

In Other News™, the cult co-op has put together a committee to pick a new general manager. We’ve finally driven the latest one nuts enough that she’s quit, though she thankfully has given us to the end of the calendar year to find a replacement. I think this means #7 in 6 years or something like that. Fun! I was asked to be on the search committee, and said yes; the list of folks on the committee was distributed today by the management and I’m on it. Will be interesting to see how this goes. For those of you in properties with property managers, what would you want to know from a candidate for the position?