A post in which I walk back into flaming hell

I knew today would be bad.  I really didn't know how bad.

I was up early, and since I hadn't stayed home to cook last night, I threw some saffron rice in the rice cooker this morning.  When it was done, I paired it with the left-over big limas for lunches this week.  Easy enough. 

Carla was out, so Jeffrey was doing the weeklies (which have to be done every freakin' week, never mind that the whole country has been closed for the last week).  That left me to tend to Monthlies, which I started in on.  But first, I had a telephonic appearance for a settlement conference in Canada.  They debtor did  show up, with the same tired arguments we've been de-bunking for the last eight months, and without an attorney to make them get with the program.  Fortunately, despite his run-ons (he was like a belligerent, stupid Mr. Rogers) we had a good mediator from the court, and with her help we were able to hammer out a settlement.  I took a little less money than I had been authorized to take, but given the stupidity of the debtor, the costs involved in going to trial, and the glacial pace of the Canadian courts, I felt that it was a good result.

That done, I started pounding on month end.  I realized about half-way through the day that the insane people who run corporate wanted a two-day turn around on month end.  It is due in tomorrow.  And half the freakin' staff is still out of the office for the holidays!  I have no idea who they thought was going to do all these reports.  They day just fell away in great chunks of time.

I wouldn't have taken a lunch today, but I realized about five hours in that I had left my phone at home.  Ordinarily I wouldn't have worried about it - it's not like I'm getting crucial calls on my cell - but I had plans to go to dinner with Justin tonight, and I figured he would be sending texts to plan things.  So I took an hour, ran home, threw some lunch down my gullet, collected my phone, and headed back to work. 

I didn't hear from Justin until about time to go home.  He called to tell me that he had been inexplicably sending texts to my home phone, which isn't even mine any more.  Since I had been worried that he was calling to cancel, I was relieved, and we made plans to meet at the house.  That involved me leaving on time.  There was plenty more work to do, but I was so frazzled I knew I just needed to go on; so I left.  I did send an email to Carla before I left basically telling her to get the lead out, so she would see it first thing in the morning.  I hope and pray she's in tomorrow, or it's going to be really bad. 

Dinner tonight was at India Palace, again to avoid the traffic on Woodruff.  Justin was unexpectedly timid about ordering - I'm not sure why, but eventually we got him sorted.  I had one of my favorite dishes, the Paneer Dopeaza, but I ordered it too mild (it was so hot the last time I got it that I was too cautious tonight) and it ended up not being as good as it should have been.  But the Poori bread, as always, was delicious, and we had a good meal.  

Justin looks great.  He has gained a little weight, but he wears it well.  The sweater he had on complimented his coloring beautifully, and he was wearing a cute hat too.  He's grown a full beard, which I of course like, and which suits him (although apparently he's shaving it off).  He's on OCD meds that seem to be agreeing with him, and he was cheerfully irreverent in an entertaining way.  He seems happy, and was full of Justin spark and spice.  It was good seeing him. 

Afterwards we ran over to Barnes and Noble because he needed to run an errand.  It was fun to be out and look around at the stuff.  It had been a while since I had been in one, and they had all kinds of neat stuff on clearance after Christmas.  I also got to check out one of Justin's former tricks who just happened to be there.  He completely ignored me, but it was interesting. 

Then it was back to the house so I could give him his Christmas present, which he really seemed to like.  That's cool because I was kind of out of ideas, and haven't seen enough of him lately to know what he really wanted.  I kind of had to fall back on an old idea, but the gamble paid off.  I scrapped the idea of having tea because of the lateness of the hour, but got down the Wedgwood plates and Great Grandmother's silver to use as we finished the last of Mother's Peter Paul Mounds cake.

It was a good visit, and I was glad to see him.