Back to the Grind – If I Can Log Back In

This image is quite legit. After 10 days out of the office and inactivity, I struggled with a few routine tasks at work today.

Nothing major, just – where do I park, how do I purchase a Diet Coke at the cafeteria, and oh what's my password again?! We actually keep the same password for about a year. The good thing is that you can remember it. The bad thing is that it always falls about now (8 days, according to my annoying reminder) and I have to set it, then remember it AFTER Christmas break!

My mind is not quite prepared for that.

The good news is that today was the first day for Secret Santas on our writing team. I got some Very Milk Chocolate Cocoa Mix that I can't wait to try!

The other positive thing is that my 4 p.m.-ish departure from work means I'm guaranteed some sort of sunset on my commute home. Very vibrant strip tonight! 

Unfortunately, next week I'll have to adjust to dark on the way to the office. And dark on the way home.

Maybe by then I'll resent my password to IhateTheDark24-7!

Post-Tryptophan Return

I feel like I'm in the middle of a tryptophan coma. I finally woke up today from a week's vacation and had to face reality.

And yes, like the meme above indicates, I'm already looking forward to the next vacation... In 17 days, 21 hours... Not that I'm counting.

Most of us know the sad reality of taking a week off is that you work like crazy BEFORE your time off to get things done. Then face a steaming pile on your RETURN – as a punishment of some sort for using your much-earned vacation days. It's corporate reality.

I literally had hundreds of project-related emails in my inbox this morning. And got to those after ticking off other urgent items on my to-do list. Thank goodness I had a chiropractic appointment today to adjust my back – if not my attitude, too. 

But I do admit to missing my amazing team. I will not, however, understand or appreciate the need to set an alarm while it's still dark out. 

Lord, help all of us get through December until our Christmas vacations! 

P.S. I will lay off the leftover turkey this week!

Shooting Hoops and Stuff

After our boy hit the road Saturday morning to head back to Iowa, the rest of the weekend flew by.

Jim and I both pretty much spent the day at Assumption High School for the Cranberry Classic basketball tournament yesterday. He was doing official committee-type duties and I was shooting pictures of our 3 Royals teams I didn't get to on Friday. 

Our Lady Royals won the girls tournament and our boys went 0-2 with some close, hard-fought games. Should be a fun season watching them all!

The "and stuff" part of the weekend was me waking up stuffed up with a scratchy throat this morning. Took me some time (and hot tea) to get my voice up to normal. So unfortunately I had to miss church choir. And BINGO.

And then I almost lost my voice again yelling at the Vikings! I had hoped to stuff Christmas cards into envelopes and put on stamps and labels while watching the game. But I couldn't relax enough to multi-task!

Thank SKOL-ness we had one final reason to raise our voices in the end when we came back to beat Arizona 23-22. Uff da.

I did start working on the card project after that. But when the first mailing label on the list is my mom's, my heart was not in it. Gonna need a minute. That's the worst part about updating labels – having to remove people who physically left our lives over the past year, but are still with us in spirit. 

I suppose, since it's only December 1st, I could put that off for a few days and, for fun, log onto my work computer to see how many hundreds of emails showed up during my vacation! I don't think I want that to be part of my "and stuff" for the weekend.

I do have to remember how to set my alarm again. Totally worth it.

Have a wonder-SKOL week, everyone!