Corner of Bourbon & Division

Everyone's gone home, and the place feels very large and empty without people in it now. It's just me and the cats. I'm an introvert, yes, and I'm sure that if they'd stayed much longer I might feel differently, but right now it's kind of lonely.

So in order to combat this, I am off to Hurley's for a pint. I will see all the friends I haven't seen in weeks.

I feel as though I haven't seen most of my friends in a dog's age.

Yesterday was pretty damned harrowing at work, work-load-wise. I arrived just in time for a fire drill. We evacuated the OCC across the street, where of course none of the back-up equipment worked and only one phone was functional (*cue frustrated screaming*), and moved back in about an hour and a half later. The phones went crazy all day, the lines ringing 5 to 10 at a time, with only four of us to answer them (and one of us was my n00b-in-training). Then toward the end of the day the crazy frequent-fliers began calling, which truly b0rked our afternoon because it always takes forever to get them off the line. I left in dire need of a drink.

I arrived at Hurley's at 18:30 to find most of the usual suspects gone. Luckily, miseri and sorceror showed up, followed shortly thereafter by Bruno-who-has-no-LJ-that-I-know-of, and we had a fun time geeking out over musicals, d&d (2nd, 3rd & 4th ed), L4D and countless other fun topics. Then we all turned into pumpkins at 20:30 and headed home, where I collapsed into bed.

This weekend I have to cram a whole bunch of things into a very short space of time. I want to plant new tomatoes in the garden (the Brandywines are officially toast, I am sad to report), and one of the side beds still needs excavating and planting. I want to get more herbs to plant, and there is a TON of weeding to be done. There are two patches of weeds in the garden that are currently rivalling the virgin rainforests of the Amazon, and I want to dig those up and replace them with lovely perennial flowers, or something. I also have plans for the minor gardening wasteland at the base of the cherry tree, which is happy and blossoming (the tree, that is). I am feeling guilty about the cherry tree, because I didn't get to spray it in time before it blossomed, so I fear it will develop that fungus it gets in the summer. I hope it'll be okay.

Then I have plans to get an outfit for tcaptain and maya_banana's wedding.

All this to say that I will have to really squish things into my schedule if I want to both see friends, get some sort of sleep, and make sure the garden is okay.

I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be getting my tax refund soon. Sooner would be much better than later, at this point. I'm not running on empty, but there are things that need to be paid off which would get paid off more quickly if I had it. *sigh* Money sucks when it's not flowing freely.

I think I had more to say, but I can't remember it right now. The latent headache I've had all week is really wrecking my ability to focus.

Hurley's was a blast yesterday. A million people were there, including a few I hadn't expected, like grimmwire, and some semi-surprises like silly_imp and her Man (he was a surprise: I hadn't seen him since the summer of 2006, since I had my housewarming barbecue), and le_maistre_e, who had made indeterminate noises about showing up.

There was Kielkenny, and scotch (though I abstained from the scotch, sadly), and good food, and MUCH giggling. We worked ourselves into hysterics a few times, discussing books and geekdom and corsets and many other topics that are really only funny if you're there. :D

It was a great time, and we all to a man crashed hard at about 20:00. I was home and in bed by about 22:00, and it was a bit of a struggle to get up this morning. In retrospect, that second beer was probably a bad plan, although it was reeeeally nice while I had it.

Today is another work day. I'm hoping it won't be as crazy as yesterday. I worked all through my lunch hour yesterday, which was not very much fun.

There was a scheduling fluke at work, and it turns out that I have today off. Bonus!

I've done a load of laundry, cleaned the cat pans, washed the dishes, organized the counters in the kitchen, put away some books, all before the cleaning lady got here. Yes, I am one of those people who cleans before the cleaning lady comes. In my defense, I pay her to clean what's under the clutter, not the clutter itself. If I do prep work, then she gets to do the actual scrubbing, which saves me both time and exasperation (have I mentioned lately how much I hate washing floors?).

Bizarrely, if I were going to work today, I'd still be on time if I left now.

I am going to run errands. Sadly, it's also snowing, and they're saying that we should expect about 30cm of snow by this afternoon. Bleh. Still, I have to go pay off my credit card, so that I can then use it to buy plane tickets. Isn't that exciting? I'm excited. :)

Speaking of vacation and time off, I have unofficially received word that I will be allowed to take time off during WorldCon. Everyone all together now: WOOHOO! Now my nefarious plans for hosting a million people will be a lot less complicated. I am also going to have a post-con barbecue in the garden on Sunday afternoon, once all the hoopla is over. Details on that will be made public as they become available. :)

*does a Happy WorldCon Attendance Boogie*

Tonight is Hump Night at Hurley's, which is all to the good. I am looking forward to seeing friends, having alcohol, and eating pub food. Good times.