02-03-2008

WooHoo! I hadn't dropped off the first page of blogs, yet! It's definitely been too long, though.

DH is holed up in a conference room on campus with some classmates, working on some homework that's due Tuesday afternoon. He asked if I wanted to come with, and I figured what the heck, I need to get out of the house anyway...so I'm here listening to them try to remember their college DiffEq as they answer questions about electrical properties of neurons. Whee! At least I know it won't last *too* much longer, since kickoff is in an hour and a half (he/we don't care one bit about it, but his classmates are going to want to go watch it).

Yesterday was icy...for the first time (well, the first time that I've left the house). I walked out the back door onto the back porch, thinking that it was just a light dusting of snow. Whoops! Both feet went out from under me, and I bounced down the concrete steps. Bruised my left hip a bit (mostly hit the meaty parts), and banged up my right elbow pretty bad - nothing broken, thankfully, but it's still sore (though not as bad as yesterday).

Other than that, life's been pretty good overall, recently. I'm feeling pretty good about work; a couple weeks ago we got a new CRM system and my AR side is *loving* being able to enter all my projects and prioritize them, and attach all the relevant emails; I was probably more productive last week (after I had everything entered in) than I have been in months. My previous method of having a bunch of emails in my inbox and in various other folders, plus a separate spreadsheet of "low priority" stuff I wanted to take care of really wasn't doing me any favors; now I have everything laid out in front of me, and I can see what I should be doing next, and if I really just don't want to work on that, I know what's next most important, and can at least still be productive. Yay!

I think I finally found us an accountant to do our taxes; I asked our landlord - he does his own, but a friend of his has reasonably complex taxes and was able to recommend his accountant. I called her, *really* unsure of myself, because I've never done this before (always been able to do my own, until now), but she was really nice, and set me right at ease. She's sending out a packet that'll outline exactly what paperwork she needs, and we can either meet with her or just drop off the paperwork and let her call with any questions; and she estimates it'll only be a few hundred. So, SO relieved to at least have some movement on that front. Knowing there was no way I'd be able to figure them out on my own and that I had no idea how to find someone to do them for us has been really weighing down on me.

I also finally found a manicurist! Yay! She uses the same gel my old manicurist uses, and did *almost* as nice a job (she's probably 10 years younger, so has a lot less experience). Only problem is, she's in a salon almost half an hour away, and costs way more than I *want* to pay for a manicure. I'll survive it, though; I'll just go less frequently.

I'm just now starting to feel a little...I wouldn't say *lonely*, but...like I need a little more socializing, people to talk to. It's not *really* bothering me, yet, but I'm starting to get twinges. I've decided I just really suck at making friends. Lots of factors make this worse:

- Working from home means there's nobody (besides DH) that I have to see every day and can get to know easily and casually.
- Back in Oregon, the bulk of our social life revolved around one other couple that we did *everything* with. I screwed that up, big-time (don't ask), and we're not even talking any more. This has made me really really gun-shy when it comes to opening up to people.
- I'm an introvert who sucks at small talk, and always have been.

So, given that, I'm making a conscious effort, and it's looking like I'm gearing up to be more social than I have been since we moved here, in the near future:

- I go to the coffee shop every Saturday afternoon and sit and knit with a really lovely group of women that I like a lot...and at least a couple of them are there some weekday evenings, too; if I wanted to make the effort to leave the house, I'd be welcome and enjoy myself.

- We went and saw "Laughing Stock", a hilarious play about putting on some plays, at a very nice little community theater about half an hour away, last night. We had a great time, and DH happened to mention to the coat check lady that we'd done a lot of theater tech work. She got very excited, and introduced us to the theater's tech director (who was _very_ tired, so was only partly coherent) - we got a really comfortable vibe off the theater as a whole. I just sent an email off to their main email address offering to help out with lighting - we'll see what comes of that.

- There's an informal Case Medical Spouses group that's getting together in a week or so for a potluck dinner...I'm a little nervous about that, but I'm sure it'll be great once I get there.

DH's parents are visiting us the opening weekend of his Spring Break, in March, and we're headed to DC for Teller's Macbeth for the closing weekend - and we'll be staying with my cousin in Frederick while we're there. She's so sweet - she found out we'd be in the area, and insisted on saving us the expense and hassle of staying at a hotel. We were talking and neither of us could remember the last time we'd seen each other. It's been at LEAST 15 years.

OK, yeah, I think this is way more than long enough, now. I obviously needed to get some of that out. Since I started this, we've come home and eaten dinner while watching Torchwood on the TiVo, and DH has gone back upstairs to finish studying. I think I'm going to do a little knitting and maybe take a bath before going to bed. I hope those of you watching the big game are enjoying it!