sigelphoenix

Ugh. My body decided to be stupid and hit me with about of nausea in the middle of dinner last night. Not food poisoning, not PMS-related, not vomit-inducing - just enough queasiness to render speech impossible and make me useless for anything besides going home and curling up until it went away. This is especially frustrating because it used to happen to me all the time as a teenager, but then it went away and should not come back now that I'm taking care of myself and being healthy. >:(

So that meant productivity was shot for the evening, which makes me grumpy. I'm trying to get my mood back on track this morning:

1. Prior to the stomach blargh, I was having a wonderful time on my date with ratzeo, discussing plans for the Warmakers endgame.

2. Today is Friday, and it is sunny and warm.

3. This.

4. BPAL will (most likely) post this month's update tonight. I'm not looking forward to it because I actually want to make an order (perhaps it's best if I don't establish a pattern of monthly BPAL orders, you know ;D), but I like the prospect of new shinies to read about and put on my future-order wishlist.

5. Tomorrow is the first day of the Street Fair! I probably won't get to go until Sunday, but I'm still jazzed for it.

1. My tax return arrived yesterday, woo! I'm not planning to splurge on anything - but not because I'm responsible. It's because I've already bought pricey things (or know of pricey things I will soon purchase) and I know I'll need that money in the bank. XD;;

2. The weather is supposed to turn gorgeous this week, and be warm and sunny for the weekend. (This is despite the fact that it is cool and drizzly today. Oh, Seattle. ♥)

3. Fic-writing continues apace. This one is coming much more easily than the last one, happily. I'm also working on an RP with shadawyn, which makes me extra happy because it's been a while since the twins have really talked.

4. Last night I finished reading Batgirl: Year One, a trade that I picked up at the book sale. Awesome fun. The more I read of Barbara, the more I like her.

5. Wearing Pele today, and it's absolutely lovely.

(I say that because I need to hear it. XD;;)

Here are the good things from the weekend that are keeping me going today:

1. Awesome Warmakers game yesterday! Admittedly, I am self-centered and excited that some shiny stuff happened to my character and she got to do cool things. But it was a fun adventure all around, with our GM letting us go to town on a tarrasque and then dangling plot teasers in our faces.

2. I have already started writing fic for the game - about 1000 words of tarrasque butt-kicking written in a burst last night. Part of my eagerness is because this is all part of the final milestone in Sae's character development and maturation. Part of it is just because, well, ZOMG tarrasque! 8D

3. shadawyn's and my BPAL order arrived last week, and I got to pick up my part of the order on Sunday. Several of the frimps from the package were also to my liking, so I have quite a bit of shininess on the perfume front right now.

4. On Saturday, I went shopping with kyonkun - didn't buy much, but it was fun. We also met up with ratzeo for dinner (at Mandarin Chef, my favorite Ave restaurant).

5. Last week I completed every single one of my goals. I needed to rearrange my Saturday goals a bit in order to accomodate deadlines and my own lack of energy over the weekend (woo PMS), but I was quite productive in exactly the ways I'd hoped/planned for the weekdays. (Which reminds me, I need to make a new goals for this week's to-do list ...)

I record my life in list format. Behold:

1. Yesterday's retreat was pretty good. The sessions were motivational speaker-style, but even though there were a couple of smarmy "unlock your potential" hand-wavers (with bonus cultural appropriation of "exotic wisdom," yay), most of the speakers had solid, straightforward styles and were great to listen to. Also, the food was great, and I got to eat pretty much nonstop all day. 8D

2. Since I was completely away from the office yesterday for the retreat, coming in this morning felt like coming in on a Monday. Which (hopefully) means that it will feel like the weekend arrives very quickly.

3. I decided to wear "Rosalind" today, even though the first time I wore it I was worried at how much it smelled like soap. I discovered that it's less soapy this time around, which lets the pretty fruity floralness come through better. I don't know the reasons for the change (diet? stage in monthly cycle?) but I'm glad of it.

4. Last night I slapped together an improvised solution to salvage the lentil soup whose recipe I mucked up. This also increased the volume of the soup, so I have the next week or so of dinners taken care of (which is my preferred method of cooking: make a giant batch o' stuff a couple of times a month).

4. Getting back on track with my reading. Just gotta keep it up.

30-second compressed rant: My sickness, which has seemed to ebb and flow all weekend, has seized control of my throat and head this morning. (Probably the fact that I had to wake up early and go to work, rather than out with friends, is exacerbating the unpleasantness.) I'm way behind on my "homework" reading. I left my lunch in ratzeo's fridge. People on the phone continue to be stupid.

*deep breath*

I am determined to do better, though. I indulged in some listless laziness at the beginning of the morning, poking around at work without getting much accomplished, but now I'm getting back on track. Here are five things I'm focusing on to boost my mood:

1. Warmakers yesterday was lots of fun. I didn't do much roleplaying myself, but people around me did, so I got to observe some interesting conversations (which I often miss out on when I'm roleplaying my own character). Also, we ran out of time before reaching the big combat, but that means that next adventure opens up with our battle against a tarrasque. 8D Also that means both the games I most recently played have ended on cliffhangers. *shakes fist at GMs who have me addicted*

2. I still have untested BPAL imps from my previous order, but instead of trying out a new one this morning I decided to go with something I know I like, and put on Szepasszony, which has thus far emerged as my favorite. It starts out as a light, aquatic, just-barely-soapy floral that is quite pleasant; after an hour or so on my skin, it deepens into a less-soapy, fuller scent that I want to describe as musk (but I have no idea if the perfume actually has musk in it, so that may just be how it reacts with my skin). A nice little comfort/mood-enhancer.

3. My coworker, whom I sucked into Adagio, shared with me a tea blend she ordered from there, called "Firefly" (yup, that Firefly). Tasty and geeky!

4. Being sick and having no lunch suck, but they give me an excuse to hit the Ave for pho.

5. I'm not actually coming into the office tomorrow, because my supervisor is sending me to an all-day retreat for "support professionals." I hope to get some good things out of it. And, hey, no answering phones all day!

Home sick today, blargh. And, of course, this is the day before I planned to go shopping for the last ingredients necessary for my attempt at making lentil soup (which is great sick food).

Honestly, I probably could have made it through work today, but I just would have been hosed for tomorrow and possibly the rest of the weekend. And when it's a choice between one more day of work while uncomfortable, and a date with shadawyn + Warmakers adventure?

Yeah.

So! Today is not so bad. Here are my happy things:

1. Since I'm not incapacitated, I should be able to be productive today. I don't want to push myself, but I want to get most of the way done with The Macho Paradox when my brain is feeling functional. When it's not, I'll break out my markers on drawings that have been inked and waiting around for coloring.

2. I'm not quite out of sick leave yet. Which is impressive, considering I've been accumulating it for less than a year, and I have a -2 CON penalty. XD;;

3. Payday!

4. I got approval from the big boss for my vacation time for the NWSA conference. I was pretty sure it would be okay, especially this far in advance, but it's nice to get the final word.

5. Wearing "Aeval" this morning. Too early for a final verdict, but right now it's gorgeous.

1. Yesterday's geeky morning was followed by today's geeky morning, wherein ratzeo and I spent the bus ride theorizing about Warmakers. 8D

2. The Open Source Boob WTFuckery has been countered with the Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Program, joined by the Gentlemen's Auxiliary.

3. I'm wearing "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" today. The reviews promised a floral scent with a sharp, cold edge. What I'm getting is a pretty floral that's definitely not gentle, but, alas, not the edge I was looking for. Still, it's quite lovely, so I like it a lot. But this means that my search continues for a perfect BPAL scent for Sae. 8D

4. This. Yeah.

5. Progress on The Macho Paradox goes slowly, but steadily. (Rather than beat myself up on the low number of pages I've read, I will focus on the good: that I've been making consistent progress on a theory - however light - book for the first time in months.) My next NWSA research book, Black Sexual Politics, arrived at my house this morning, and The Cult of True Victimhood shipped out today.

1. My coffee maker arrived on Friday, and I've been wanting to try it out. shadawyn and I have a date to go to Pike Place Market on Saturday, where I will raid Market Spice (an awesome tea/coffee/spice shop). So I couldn't really justify buying anything before that, just for the sake of my own impatience.

However! Today at work, a salesman came by, and, in thanks for my help (which was really quite minimal), gave me a $5 Starbucks gift card. So, I thought, why not? And off I went after work, to buy a bag of coffee beans.

... Except, through cashier error and my own obliviousness, the gift card was not counted toward my purchase, so I ended up paying the full price. :P Ah well. I did get a free drink out of it, because apparently that's what Starbucks does when you buy coffee beans. And, uh, I still have a gift card. XD;;

2. I have been giggling like a giddy child over my new BPAL imps since I picked them up on Saturday. :D And I also made a new order with shadawyn (a.k.a. my enabler). XD

3. ratzeo ran an awesome adventure on Sunday ... which was part one of two, so now I reeeeaaally want to play the other half.

4. kyonkun gave me a link to a Japanese image gallery of hairstyles (so I can see what Asian hair looks like), and I think I've decided what I want for my new haircut: something like these. (Okay, really and truly I would want one of these, but those would definitely take more effort than I'd want to put in.)

5. As I mentioned earlier, on Friday, we had a brief planning meeting for the NWSA conference. It really helped me focus and get back on task, after having floundered about for the past several weeks. I hunted down books to buff up my theoretical knowledge - I'm currently reading this and have ordered this and this.

Which brings me to my goals for the week ... which are basically to finish The Macho Paradox and set a pace to finish all three books by the time we have our next major meeting in mid-May. This goal takes priority over (though hopefully will not exclude) all other ongoing goals.

Can I do it? Honestly, I know there's the risk that I will fall behind here. The daily amount of reading I will need to do will be somewhat like my reading load in college - but now I don't have deadlines and grades acting as enforcers of my discipline. Learning to keep myself on track will be hard. On the other hand, this is a skill I need to learn anyway, now that I'm out of school.

InsaneJournal continues to be down, but should be restored today. In the meantime, here are the things getting me through the mid-week slump.

1. I made a giant batch of soup last night, using this super-easy but tasty recipe. (Just a note - I find it a little too salty, so you may want to add plain water.)

2. I made a semi-impulse buy and ordered a coffee maker and coffee grinder yesterday. I don't drink coffee on a regular basis, but I have been drinking it more lately; and this way I won't have to make a trip upstairs to the coffee stand every time.

3. Work on the Warmakers 4-koma continues. It's slow-going, because I'm so not good at humorous art ... but hey, it's a new skill to develop.

4. My BPAL order arrived! I still have to go pick it up from nekokoban, but ... my BPAL order arrived! :D Also, I'm wearing Bengal today, and while it's not my one of my favorites so far, it's still quite nice.

5. ratzeo is running game on Sunday!

Good morning, all! I hope you have a great week!

Here are my happy things for today - the events themselves occurred over the weekend, but they're still boosting my mood:

1. Saturday's sunny weather was gorgeous, and I got to spend the afternoon outside with friends.

2. The book sale on Saturday had a pretty good selection, and I found quite a few things I wanted, including copies of two of my favorite Wonder Woman books - Spirit of Truth and JLA: League of One.

3. Warmakers adventure yesterday! Alas, ratzeo could not attend (due to a favor he was doing for me and my household), and I missed both him and Gunnar. At least no one died while I took over his character, though. :P Also it looks like my pr0nfic went over well, which is a bit of a relief because I was kind of nervous. XD;;

4. Our new fridge was also delivered yesterday, which makes life more convenient. It also means we have freezing capabilities once again.

5. Got a few BPAL imps from shadawyn yesterday, and today I'm wearing Szepasszony. Though the scent is gentler than the description implies, it's lovely and I keep sniffing my wrists.