Musings on a Small Life

I went to the office to pack more files this morning, and do a bit of cleaning and prep for tomorrow. Just an hour's work, then walked over to the nearest Tim Horton's for a toasted sesame bagel with strawberry cream cheese and a small half-coffee/half-hot chocolate. (Their coffee must be akin to swill; it's vile and I certainly can't drink it without halving it.) My mantra today: Kiss. My. Cube. Goodbye. Below: Part of the space we've shared with another department. My cube area was to the left. The lights hang so low I can almost touch them if I stretch up, and I'm only 5 ft 3 inches. There's about 3 feet between the partition and cabinets and the opposite wall/doors. Of course it's all mostly empty now! Looks spacious and nice enough...without the 2 bookcases jammed in, plus all my other stuff and that of my adjacent co-worker. Until you actually have to function in the fish bowl. I hate these low partitions. Whoever had the bright idea of forcing...

For whatsouer from one place doth fall, Is with the tide vnto an other brought: For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought. ~ The Faerie Queene: Book 5: Canto II by Edmund Spenser ~ Remember Alan Rickman reading this in the 1995 version of "Sense and Sensibility?" I couldn't help but think of this today, as I was vacuuming. Mr. Sucky Monster (according to my cats) spit this out: My almost 2-year lost earring, obviously just inexpensive costume jewelry, but a favourite. I remember dropping it when taking out my earrings one day after work, then hunting high and low for it, sure it was behind my bookcase or wedged in a corner. I never found it, until today, though I had saved its mate. You'd think I'd never vacuumed in the ensuing time, but I use that "monster" at least twice a week, more often in fur shedding seasons. Why it chose today to return the earring is beyond me, but I certainly had a good chuckle over it. And that's...

I got to the office just before 7AM, as usual. Thought I'd better start consolidating our files and supplies, because there isn't room for all the cabinets we currently are using. And frankly, when we moved into our space two years ago, I didn't bother organizing things very well. Always thought I'd do it later , but later never came. So a couple of hours this morning was spent doing just that, and I whittled our must-move cabinets down to four. This is for the general office stuff, mind you, not our own files. Then, since one of my co-workers was moving everything up today, including her computer, I thought why wait? We made use of a dolly we found in the unused and inoperative "phone" room (tiny closet-like space) and hauled boxes, computer equipment, and furniture upstairs with it (yes, the building has an elevator!). So, after about 5 hours of physical labour (which felt fantastic, actually), my entire cube space, minus one very heavy file cabinet I ...

...when your crucial (to you) meeting regarding a certain big web project for the Principal gets moved yet again, now not till the 21st. By the time I actually get to meet with the web person from Marketing, I'll have it done. Badly, but done. LOL. Okay, not quite. On a positive work note, we finally are moving--Monday. It was supposed to be today, then tomorrow, now it's Monday. Fine. I'll start packing tomorrow and will move smaller things up to my new cubicle. My plants, all the silk flowers I have in the liquor bottles that grace my window sill. Hey, it was hard work drinking all of that alcohol! (Okay, it took me years . Months.) I'm trying Passion Flower extract for calmness. Someone, can't recall who, left a comment about it last week on the cats' blog. It definitely has an herbal taste. Not unpleasant, just plant-like. 25 drops in a tiny bit of water, three times a day. I've only been having it once though. Maybe I need to take it the three tim...

I've had live-streaming video playing all day here at the office, from our CBC news site. No commentary, just audio/visual, no translation. Would that I had a translator! Every time they bring up a miner, I've stopped my work and watched. Miner #18 has just come up, as I type. I'm sure much of the world is riveted to this incredible drama. It's beyond my imagining, to fathom what it's like to be trapped almost 700 metres below ground. Even with rescue on the way, the physical and psychological toll would be heavy. Especially the psychological. And what happens to all these men when the elation wears off? Can any of them actually live a normal life again? How do they readjust? How do they go on when their "hero" status fades in the months to come? I'm sure some will have PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. What of the miner whose wife and girlfriend found out about each other at the site? I jokingly thought perhaps he might not want to come back...

I did not cook a turkey for myself this year. I gave that up some time ago, though I used to do it, or more rarely, join a friend for Thanksgiving dinner. I did have turkey pot pie, though, and lots of pumpkin, so that counts, right? And I took a quick jaunt downtown, to ramble around a few streets, camera in hand. Nothing unusual, nothing I haven't snapped before. I enjoyed it anyway, so that's all that counts. Then I bused up to Value Village (second hand clothing and housewares) and found three tops for work and two books, so that was my "big" weekend splurge. Tomorrow is supposed to be just as gorgeous as these past two days have been, so perhaps I'll walk to the cemetery or elsewhere. I seldom can stay inside all day without going crazy. Okay, okay, crazier.  :-P Happy Sunday, everyone. Sorry, Mr. or Ms. Squirrel, I didn't bring any peanuts.  One of the many parks in the City. The campus is nearby, to the right.  Someone had an attractive autu...

A wee bit cool, but I'll take the sunshine! And a bonus: It's supposed to last the entire long Thanksgiving weekend, and into next week too. Fingers and paws crossed for an abundance of vitamin D.  :-) So off I went to Lemoine Point this morning, hoping to see a few deer. No such luck, but lots of chickadees, a jay, a woodpecker and of course squirrels everywhere. I even managed to get a snapshot or two of a cute chipmunk, perched on a tree stump. Most of the leaves are yellow; there's very little red--i.e. very few maples. Are there other trees whose leaves turn red? If I feel energetic tomorrow, I might pop out somewhere else for a few snapshots. Downtown, perhaps, or back to campus. It should be very quiet, with so many students gone home for the long weekend. Or maybe I'll be a slug and hang around in my sweats, eat chocolate, read and blog all day. Nicki already got his birthday present yesterday; Jysk had a cat tunnel (with two holes in the top as well as...

I started off my morning by inadvertently sitting my butt down on a very wet fabric-covered bus seat, which woke me up in a hurry--and soaked me right through. Eeeewww. LOL. But I'm doing a happy dance because we have only one more day before the long Thanksgiving weekend. And tomorrow is supposed to hit 20C (68F), which is warm for this time of year. Fingers crossed! Even if it's not quite that warm, the sunshine will be welcome. It's actually nice right now and I have my camera, just in case I spy something interesting on the way home today. I've not been walking much to and from work; it's been too wet and cold and dreary. Our office move has been pushed back a day, to Friday the 15th instead of Thursday the 14th. If all goes well. If all doesn't go well, the move will be the following week. (Please, Goddess, let it be next week.) I've got one impending web project well in hand...I think. Not the one for the University Principal, but another that i...

Okay, I've taken only two today. They don't seem to have much effect. The capsules my uncle's wife left me back in June, from Italy, were far more potent. I'm trying to keep calm about this web project that my boss has to present in mid-November, then has to go to the Board of Trustees at the beginning of December. It seems like there's oodles of time, right? But our analysts have to get the data and produce very specific-looking graphics for these metrics, and once I have all their information, probably in a few weeks (!), I'll have to put it together at the last minute. Yeah, that'll go over well. At least I'm meeting next week with a couple of staff members from Marketing & Communications who should be able to assist with the design. I hope. I have to ask myself why I allow my Self to get so twisted into knots. Because I'm reasonably conscientious? Whatever. Just give me the Valerian before I have a freakin' meltdown.  :-P And I ...