I was up at 4:40 this morning. *dies a little inside*

But today's event, while full of Big Important People, is a well-manned event for 50. We have THREE tech guys AND a sound guy, and a full wait staff.

Unlike, y'know, my one-man show of a professional training for 80 this past Wednesday.

It's not so bad.

Aside from the waking up at 4:40. In the morning.

I had yesterday off, because I'll be working all day Saturday. It was nicely timed, because I had BIG event on Wednesday. It went really well, but I didn't really breathe until it was over, so having a day to decompress from one event before revving up for the next was nice.

It took me until around noon to actually get to the "decompressing" part of the day. Most of the morning was spent glancing suspiciously at my phone, anticipating it to ring at any moment, for the caller to be someone from work, and to be calling because something Terribly Important couldn't happen without me for a day, or there was massive fallout from some heinous mistake the day before. Oh to be a problem solver with no problems to solve but my own for a day. It's a really jarring transition sometimes and it's kind of funny to nod knowingly to yourself as you watch yourself go through all the textbook stress and anxiety behaviors you knew were going to crash into you once you stopped moving long enough.

Nothing a little kitchen cleaning, cat cuddling, and looney toons playing in the background can't help with. Tiggy was so damn happy to get morning cuddles. She just squirreled around in my lap for an hour purring and kneading like if she stopped I'd get up and leave. Zuzu spent the morning wallowing in the warm blanket nest I made for her when I got out of bed.

I took a shower and decided I was going to catch up on a few errands. I printed off labels to return my order from Zappos. Since I had the day off I finally had the opportunity to schedule an appointment for my yearly bit of civic duty ^^. I've been part of NORC's National Longitudinal Survey of Youth every year since the project started in 1997. They must be getting desperate to retain their sample pool. They always give a bit of money as a thank you for participating, but this year it was $50, which is going straight into my "fix the bathroom" fund. I returned two tops I didn't want that have been sitting in my room for two weeks. I went out to the mall and found a really neat top that will need a bit of altering, and I finally found a pair of dress jeans to wear for stuff this winter. I always hate wearing my dress pants, because it feels like work clothes. I can't wear jeans at work so having nice jeans I can dress up for social stuff is exciting!

I also got caught up on my laundry (washed, dried, AND folded!), found most of my bills due for this month (still another pile to mine through), and finally sent out evites for the brother's wedding gathering next week!

I like having a random weekday off here and there.

I feel like I haven't really left my desk chair. The weekend was a blur of motion and things and happening. I'm already looking longingly for the weekend, except this weekend will not be still or quiet or restful either. If by Thanksgiving I have not succumbed to some sort of plague, donate me to science, for I will surely have the cure for what ails you hiding in my veins.

The outcome of all this kinetic energy? ( If you care! )

Sharing the same four digits in your street address does not mean you've got the right mailbox.

Sharing the same street name does not mean you've got the right mailbox.

Not matching the name on the mail to the name written on the inside of the door on the mailbox DEFINITELY MEANS YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT MAILBOX!

Sure, I didn't check my mail for three days, but I had to brace myself in order to remove the wedge of paperstuffs that was crammed in my box. I had the mail and junk and ads of three different people. It happens regularly, but this is ridiculous.

"Close" doesn't cut it, mailman!

I am grouchy about adult life.

The bills I don't have sorted, the mail piled up, the half-done laundry, the work that is all crisis all the time for the past two weeks, my soap that dries out my face, the nagging nagging horrible guilt that comes from putting off responsible appointments like the dentist, eye doctor, follow-up appointments with my doc I've put off for months because I don't monitor my bp at home (freak out!). But now I'm out of drugs and she won't refill until I come back in. Bah.

I honestly feel like throwing a tantrum. But.

I made a follow-up appointment for two weeks from now. I won't be on meds, but will monitor my bp anyway so I have SOMETHING to take to her.

I sold my bedroom furniture and got it moved out within a few days of my new stuff showing up! Michelle is at the top of my Awesome Friends list for doing me the HUGE favor of both purchasing it, and saving me from Craigslist strangers. I hope she loves it as much as I did for so many years! Instead of being smart and just going to bed last night, I dragged my new furniture into my bedroom and put the drawers back in. The cats had a lot of fun running underneath dressers as they slowly scooted across the floor. The mirrors are too big/heavy to get back on by myself, so that will have to wait.

I will have some time tonight after work to at least sort my mail into manageable neat little piles.

Then I go eat dinner that I don't have to cook, and play video games/save the world.

So I promised photos of corset, and here it is (and Michael, looking dashingly dead)! Note to self: Corsets hold stuff up. Don't stick a safety pin to your bra to hold your petticoat up, because you don't need it. But you WILL have a safety-pin-shaped indention in your ribs for hours. Also note to self: alter the petticoat so it's not too long and we don't have this issue again. I love all the floof. And I had time to get the tablecloth bustle all ruched properly this time, instead of just draped on my butt.



Franklin Street wasn't as scary as I thought it'd be, but we had an iPhone to help us navigate to parking once they started arbitrarily turning roads one-way. I will sound impressive and committed when I say we parked in Carrboro and walked to Chapel Hill, but it was only a half mile or so.

Also with more of the fabulous things that happened this weekend, Michelle offered to buy my bedroom furniture, which means I don't have to go the Craigslist route and have strangers in my house! YAY!

I was all gun-ho to start emptying drawers yesterday but it was rainy and cold, and I was sleepy, so I priced out a Dell laptop, which probably WON'T be any cheaper than a Mac, for what I want in it, and knitted while watching a Teen Titans marathon, the ninja turtles movie, and half of Bram Stoker's Dracula before going to bed.

Halloween isn't even here yet, but already I've been very festive. I love it. My Halloween season started on the 20th with pumpkin carving! On the 24th I was Amelia Earhart for a co-worker's party, and last night I had my own party, themed in Victorian macabre. I still don't know what I'm doing ON Halloween.

I dearly loved hearing all the compliments on the decor. I want to leave my house like that year-round!

I didn't take any photos of my own party, so I'm eager to see everyone else's!

So, Hocus Pocus just came on. I love this movie and I haven't seen it in forever. And then I sat staring dumbfounded at the screen. Lo and behold, I am staring a a baby-faced adorable Timothy McGee.

I think I screamed. I had a GIANT crush on the young Thackery Binx. I find this hysterical.

When I plan a halloween party, I'm pretty sure I requested clear, cool, and crisp autumn weather to go with it. Not 70, muggy, and raining before dawn. Snap to it!

While everyone else's ovens burned their pumpkin seeds, some of the batch I threw into the oven last night were a little undercooked and too chewy. Mostly good though. But I have a LOT of seeds. I will be cooking them in batches (provided they last that long...do raw seeds go bad?) through the weekend, and I will bring them to next week's Yarn Night to give away if you dumped your seeds in the bowl, and want noms!

So, next time you have something shipped by DHL, and you're not home, and you think you hubby might not hear the delivery man, you can leave a signed note on your door, and your package will be delivered without having to have a warm body to answer the door!

My Bodyline dress was delivered this morning! I think I'm feeling fevered. I think I should go home. A good dose of dress up is just what the doctor ordered, yep.

My corset should also be arriving today! Happy happy mail day!

For five hours tonight I made a bajillion cookies, got bean dip ready for the crockpot in the morning, picked up and vacuumed the downstairs, and threw all the garbage and recycling in the entry way to go out tomorrow morning. Of course I have a pumpkin carving event on trash day. So the can will be nice and empty for all those pumpkin guts. Where it will sit for a week. Awesome. XD

Now I go flop into bed, because it's been awhile since I was still active this late at night.

Yay, my new corset shipped today!

Yay, I have maple candy melting in my tea!

Yay, I bought a really cute lolita dress today!

I wish it had been longer!

Saturday I spent dissatisfied with my closet and its failure to produce an exciting vampire outfit for Nick's vampire birthday party, but I had a lot of fun! And I was happy with how his present came out, and SUPER excited I actually finished it on time!

Any time on Saturday not spent scowling at my closet was spent flailing about the house. I tried to get started cleaning up for the pumpkin carving gathering I'm hosting tomorrow night in lieu of the usual yarn night. But a lot of the Halloween party stuff is still incomplete and in limbo and spread out EVERYWHERE. I was getting distracted and kept trying to work on that stuff instead of clean up, so not a lot of progress was made in either corner of that fight. Starting to panic...running out of time! Ack!

Also found out my parents are going to pick up the furniture we're all buying from my aunt and uncle next week, and will be bringing it all down Halloween weekend. Which reminds me I have utterly FORGOTTEN to measure and write up a listing for my bedroom set. I'm in a bit of a bind because I don't know if I can mess with selling it while I'm trying to get ready for the party, but by the time the party is here and done, more stuff will be arriving and I'll have a whole extra bedroom set just...handing around. Bah.

Sunday morning left me just enough time to take a shower and get ready to pick up people to go to the state fair. It was cold! I liked it though, it meant I could eat lots of hot fried food. I had alligator tail! It was really really good! I also had roasted corn and apple cider. I was seriously contemplating doughnuts, but I thought that might have pushed me over the edge. I regret not taking the doughnut dive. The new fair food this year was a "pig licker". Chocolate covered bacon on a stick.

Michelle won first place for her socks! Very exciting.

There were also cows, and bunnies, and little baby chicks...and goats, which all of my loving friends were happy to point out at every opportunity. But there was always a fence between us, so it was okay.

I had to hit up the grocery store for pumpkin carving dinner stuffs, and to get a pumpkin! For some reason when I got home last night I thought I'd be hungry, y'know, because it was dinner time. So I made food, sat down, and just stared at it before putting it in the refrigerator. By then though, I'd already thrown stuff in a crockpot to make tonight's dinner. I think I'll be pretty good about taking my lunch to work this week. Making foods on Sunday is really helping to keep me on track!

I keep sputtering, and searching the page to let me know that the words coming out of this guy's mouth is some sort of prank. How absolutely ballsy, and pretentious, and just...ugh. It's like a script from every "recognizing racisim" lesson all rolled together.

http://emailsfromcrazypeople.com

This site is hysterical. It will also make you afraid to leave your house, or interact with another soul in any way, ever again.

So my corset arrived last night! I love it, and the size I picked according to the size chart was perfect.

Just not in love with the fabric. I got a solid black denim, which on the website didn't look acid washed ^^ But the color was too uneven up close in real life for what I wanted for my Halloween costume, so I'm waiting to hear how long it would take to process an exchange, because they ALSO have a few more solid black options that were sold out when I ordered on Friday. Yes, I am impatient.

But excited! Yay corset!

So I ordered two things on Friday, and I have no way to track them. One I got a tracking label for, but usps doesn't recognize it.

I want to know where my stuff is!

I do much better with taking my lunch to work instead of buying out if I cook something on Sunday for dinner, and then take leftovers to start the week.

It turned out well! I wonder if it could be adapted as a crockpot recipe? The kale might turn to mush though...

( quinoa with mushrooms, kale, and sweet potatoes )

I just bought my first real steel-boned corset! In boring ol' black, for versatility.

O.O