Looking Around

A weekend off- and stuff

Here I sit at a local coffee shop. The coolest thing for me is finding the local ones with free Wi-Fi. I can feel like I am getting out while still being able to do some things (like check this site and see that it has been a year since I posted). What I want to know is how does my girlfriend/fiance/virtual wife sense when I am about to this sort of thing? She says that it is an addiction and seems kind of sensitive to me spending a lot of time on the Internet that Al built, but I don't see it. I am more of a coffee addict. Let me go for a week without Internet access and no symptoms of anything except boredom. Let me go three hours without some coffee and heads (mainly mine) will roll. That seems to me a physical symptom of addiction. I am exaggerating some, but the point is I seem to need the coffee. There are days when I don't even think about firing up a computer or looking for something on the internet. So, it puzzles me when certain things happen.

Like right now, I just sat down in a coffee shop- with a Chai Tea Latte frozen drink by the way- when the phone rings. Yes, it is my favorite dream woman. She is ready to chat. I am in Georgia. She is working at a conference in New Jersey- how did she know I had just gotten into the fire up the internet mode? I know we are deeply connected on a soul level, but this is going just a tad too far. Now, when presented with the choice between surfing and connecting, I will choose to connect with her- but does this have to happen every single time? Do I have to answer her call every single time? Well, yes. Not because I am "whipped" but because she is a fairly independent woman and when she calls, she has something important to say or talk about- or she just wants to hear my voice and, guys, don't tell me that is not flattering. But, my conditioning is that she is wanting to tell me something that it is time to hear. So, I answer.

But, what gives? Why is it right at that moment when I am just getting down into doing something? What am I avoiding? This can't all be her doing. That is one lesson in life I have down, when something like this is bugging me, I usually have something going on that I am dealing with in myself. Either I don't want to deal with what I am about to do (eventhough I am convincing in my clear dedication, HA!) or I want to put it off or there is something I need to do first. Or I just want to blame her for something going on inside me. Hey, it happens.

And, the last couple of weeks have been hectic enough in and of themselves. My friend and I moved into a house- the unpacking and shifting of furniture is enough stress. I have been struggling at work. The manager went out of commission with a heart attack and may not be back for a couple of months. The District is short handed, which meant that was working alone in a two person store for the most part. And, Sarbanes-Oxelly (I may have the spelling off here- the Act is called SOX for short) started to kick in.

The Act specified things for corporations to do that would make sure measures were in place to prevent any other company to ever turn out to be an Enron. Once Bush's buddys had the field day... up came the ladder and no one else can even try now. That meant about four months of inventory, accounting and filing had to be checked, re-checked and reported on. I could have used two people to help out. I am still not caught up. And, we are changing over our computer systems. Did you know that Excel makes a rather decent mapping program? I am learning. It is pretty cool, but time consuming. And, don't get me wrong, I love working for the company, I like the work I do, it is just that lately seems to be too much stuff all coming due at the same time. And, it is a lot of stuff that is coming down out of the blue from "on High" outside of the company. So, it is that out of your control frustrating (but it is out of my supervisor's and her supervisor's control- so what can you do? keep a cheerful attitude and do what you can each day).

Anyway, I am going on quite a lot today- I have a weekend off so I can take some time to do this sort of thing. I haven't yet got into my new bicycle- my new means of commuting the two and a half miles to work. It has been 4 weeks- and on Thursday I bought my first $15 of gas since my bike came. I was buying about $20 a week. And, the best benefit is that my body is slimming down, I am feeling more energetic and my legs are sore- ok, so it is not ALL peaches and cream. I am hoping that this time next month I will see a serious decrease in my measured blood pressure (I was being coaxed by my doctor to go on medication). So, we'll see. And, I will try to not go 22 days again without putting something more up here.