Leave-ing it at that and more sidewalks

Weekend wrap up.

Still not sleeping well.

The draft got done.

The assignment got turned in.

The term paper topic was proposed and blessed (mixed feelings on that one),

I got a couple more reasonable walks in.

I picked up supplies for the silly group project gift for my team members.

Sounds great right? Actually not too bad.

Although I didn't go to a party that might have cheered me up because I was feeling a lot like little miss rain cloud considering how the week is going, I'm seeing the weekend as a good one.

One of the orange leaves is somewhat over the size suggested so it may get replaced before the lot get shipped off to Alabama.


I did discover that I truly detest Microsoft Word 2007. My current how to cope with it is to save stuff out as XML so I can do the real edits in Open Office and pull it back into Word only at the end point.

I've had to use Microsoft Office for years now and every new version is an exercise in productivity hit since whatever you were used to, whatever you were proficient at, has probably been moved, changed, abandoned.

Long live open source, long live Open Office.

Most of of my Monday was about waiting, still waiting on a point of clarification I had about the RIF plan and release form. The call finally came in very close to COB so it was a more or less wasted day on the walkabout side of things.

I did, however, breathe a lot of paint fumes while painting out tins to house the group silly stuff.

Tuesday's highlight was hearing from one of my dearest friends but the low light was pretty amazing.

Started out with a roll out the door and try to connect with my money guy to discuss the pension and 401K choices. I thought was going to be at one branch but no joy there so I rambled down to the other and managed to miss him. Phone dropping out of network really starting to get crazy making through this.

But we did talk and discuss some numbers, some choices, some general catching up since obviously things have changed from December to today and set an appointment up to work a strategy based on my school focus etc.

In while I'm not doing school stuff, I've been number crunching and trying to figure out what has to get cut now, what's on the table for next and generally trying to figure out how I can keep afloat and stay on the path with school and all not go through what I went through back in the early 80s when I originally wanted this degree.

When I embarked on this degree programme during such shaky economic times I noted that, well, if I lost my job I would at least be able to get some financial aid that I would not have been able to receive before. So I dutifully went along and started the online form to get that going.

Little unexpected gotcha. I am confident that my mother was sure that she had, in fact, fulfilled her promise to me and paid off my student loans. I had no reason to doubt her and frankly, when I buried her four years ago, finding paperwork to document that was not even on my to-do list since it was common knowledge that she had.

Well, turns out, not quite and I found this out today. Could the timing be worse? Not much.

Does this feel like a total sucker punch? Well, yes, yes it does. Am I having an extreme emotional response? Well, yes, yes, I am.