Overwhelmeded

There is SO much to do between now and Wednesday, and I am pretty certain Julie P. is going to kill me at work tomorrow when she finds I'm not done with my presentation yet and still need the DVD by Wednesday. One saving grace was getting out of the SpeakOut training early today (thank you, Jill), but it was so tempting to just stop and BREATHE rather than do anything useful. I forced myself to nearly complete one of three work tasks, but after browsing a second item, I gave up completely. I just needed time to veg. I'm headed in way early tomorrow to try to set myself up with a massage, assuming Laurie shows up, so hopefully I can get a lot done before anyone gets in...

Our new office is fantabulous in many ways, but since it's still mostly packed, there is always the distraction of unpacking. And the annoyance of motion-detector lights turning themselves off randomly. Brandy has taken to throwing things past the sensor from her desk to see if she can get the lights to turn back on without having to get up.

In the meantime, Lyn has been great about catching up with me and forcing me to nail down details such as who is meeting me at the airport in Melbourne and when. I'm glad she's so organized and prepared. For me, I'm working at the cusp of exhaustion, and I'll nearly be happy to see the plane. I would bet (except that I just lost a bet last week so my betting money is gone) that I'll be asleep for the entire Boston to San Francisco ride, awakening just in time to be wide awake for the long leg...

I'm an aunt!

Susanne has a kitten! I'm an aunt! Hooray!!

The funny thing is, I'm not a cat person. At all. I think cats are evil, mean, and willful. But I'm very excited that she would have a kitten. My "neice" is named Mulberry Gray, and Susanne says they call her Mully ("a combination of Mulder and Scully"). I hope she manages pictures soon!

Packing

I've now spent the last three days or so at work mostly working on packing. Packing Michael's office, packing Michael's desk, packing videotapes, packing my office... We're moving on Wednesday to a different building. Jeremy asked if it was sad to be packing up. My office, no, not in the slightest. Not even a twinge of angst. But packing Michael's office was rough. I have a lot of memories of stuff happening there, from working with Daniel for a few months, to 9/11, to and through Julie C. and Kevin, to the end of my previous relationship, a lot of laughter and tears in those 100 square feet. Michael's office in particular. Long talks with closed doors, late nights, days when I was there by myself and lonely, Daniel's last day when Michael was out for whatever reason all day, and we watched a movie instead of working! I will miss that office. It holds a lot of my working life. All of it. Now mostly in boxes, but soaked into the walls and the ceiling and the carpet. And, although I am excited to be moving to an office of my own (sort of), it marks how things can never be the same again.