Back to work

A long day today. Of course I walked back in to the usual office madness, and added to that was month end, and Alan moving into Tom's (my old boss) old job. Tom's office looks so strange without his stuff in there.

I was depressed as a dog this morning. I guess it was all that time alone, or thinking about being sick by myself, etc, but I was really low. I'm pissed off at myself because a) I am so incredibly lucky, I have no reason not to be happy; b) I'm sick of sounding like a sad sack all the time; and c) this blog was supposed to be a creative writing outlet, and here lately all I do is whine on it. Small wonder almost no one reads this thing. But then it was also for me to use as a diary, so I guess it really shouldn't matter if anyone reads it or not.

Alan, at least at this point, is striving to maintain the status quo. Aside from adding a few more meetings, no major changes so far. He has added a weekly meeting to my calendar to discuss collection accounts, that should be fun. Legal accounts don't even update monthly, since we spend so much time waiting for court dates and such, but I guess he'll either figure that out, or I'll spend a lot of time saying "still waiting".

I dived back in to my month-end stuff, which was familiar, at least, and stuff I know I can do. I figure Alan will have a bunch of changes he wants to make, he is a real stickler for detail, but I can get used to that.

***

I had an appointment with Russ to get my hair cut tonight. He worked me in on his day off since I missed last week, and I really needed it cut this week before I go out of town. It looks good. I have no idea what he's doing to it, but at this point, it really doesn't matter. It's not like I'm dating or anything. As long as it isn't on my nerves, I don't care at this point.

Just before I got in the chair, my mom called to tell me that Carl's (my sister Lisa's husband) auto shop had burned down. This is their sole source of living right now, so that's kind of scary. She hasn't been working since she had the baby. She just got home from a cruise they took for her birthday this year. What a welcome home. Apparently the shop burned to the ground. I'm sure it was insured, but still. Geez.

Ben was there too, and after the cuts were done, we went out for sushi. The sushi place we like is just up the street, and they have specials on Monday nights. Ben is a friend of Billy and Russ's that they made through the SCBears den. He's a nice enough guy, but kind of has that "engineer" thing going on. Kind of like Michael. He's brilliant, but kind of operates on a different level than normal people, which makes him a bit awkward socially. Plus, he's only 20, so he really isn't completely formed yet. Still, dinner was nice enough. It also kind of finished off the last of the depression I had been carrying around this morning. I felt more normal when we got done.

Russ is talking about quitting smoking. He challenged me to quit too, and seemed surprised when I told him I rarely smoke during the week. Usually when I smoke, it's socially with him, or with Kat and dana. Every now and then if I've had a really bad day I'll light up when I get home, but not usually. Smoking is kind of our socially acceptable excuse to be by ourselves though, when just Russ and I can hang out and talk without Billy. Sometimes you need to do that when you're married - have a bit of time away. I love Billy, but sometimes Russ can talk to me more frankly when he isn't around. I hope it isn't disruptive to our friendship if he stops.

After dinner, I left for the library. I need something to read, and I wanted to turn in some books, and get a book on CD for the trip this weekend. I ended up not getting home until almost 9pm. That's a long day for the first day back out in the world!