sigelphoenix

I should remember to do this more often!

1. Recognizing the music coming from a co-worker's office as the Intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana ... because it was used in an episode of Rurouni Kenshin. 8D

2. I'm the only one in my office-pod this morning, because both of my co-workers are at a workshop. That means I get to play my music without wearing headphones. \o/

3. Last night, I awoke multiple times to hear ratzeo tell Kershach to stop grooming his head. XD This is probably not such a happy thing for ratzeo himself (particularly since Kershach got him right in the ear once), but I still find it absolutely adorable. ♥

4. Rediscovering my love of hair jewelry! When I was trying to look all nice and professional for the Accreditation visit, I broke out my collection for the first time in weeks, or months. Which is sad, because I have a rather massive amount of it! (I seem to forget about things like jewelry and my BPAL during the winter, because in the mornings I'm usually stumbling around in the cold and dark, looking for just the essentials of "pants and shirt" before running out the door.) Of course, this also means I just plunked down a bunch of money ordering even more hair jewelry online ...

5. Spring, spring, spring! Seattle is finally giving in to the change of the season, and I'm so happy to get the sun back.

I didn't particularly want to go back to work today, because I still have the remnants of a head cold, and that makes dealing with work pressures particularly unappealing. But it was better to go and get things done than stay at home and let deadlines pile up, so I went.

And good things happened!

1. My department set up a laptop and projector in the conference room, so we could watch the inauguration ceremony. I was pretty much in a constant state of tearing-up-with-happiness (with the exception of Rick Warren's speech).

2. Some co-workers brought in food for the office, so we had bagels and salmon spread for a breakfasty snack, and hot wings for a lunchy snack.

3. One of our newly graduated doctoral students donated 10-minute massages to everyone in the office. While 10 minutes is hardly enough time to do any permanent damage to my shoulder knots, it's definitely enough to make me feel better.

4. Mail call! I got all three packages I was waiting for in today's mail: books, more books, and tea (which was part of my previous tea order, not a new purchase :P).

5. I'm spending the evening cooking meals so that I can have dinner for the week, as well as homemade lunches at work. The menu is spaghetti with ground turkey and mushrooms, and oven-baked salmon with mashed potatoes and broccoli. Simple dishes (that's all I cook, anyway), but tasty. :D~

I'm fighting off the remnants of a cold that laid me low on Thursday ... but, all things considered, my weekend is off to a good start.

1. Work: All things considered, work is going pretty well. I was out sick on Thursday, but I took the opportunity to work from home for a few hours and get some (easy but time-consuming) tasks done while I didn't have the distractions of the office. I was still only half-functional on Friday, but the office was closed for admissions, so I had more low-distraction work time. Plus, everyone being in the office together, with our doors closed to the outside, generates a stronger sense of camaraderie.

My work stress is just declining in general, though, and that's fantastic. Admittedly, a good chunk of that is because the high-stress period of the year (for my position) is winding down. However, I do think I'm doing a decent job of sticking to my resolutions and keeping my work stress in perspective.

2. Old friends: Last night after work I met some old friends from school (the group I went to the NWSA conference with) for the first time in several months. One of our friends hosted, and we put together a potluck dinner that turned out amazingly delicious (port, bread and cheese, couscous, samosas ...). Spending time with these friends is always such a positive, energizing experience, because they're funny, whip-smart, and passionate about justice.

I notice that this is something I really need to have in my life, even if it's just every couple of months. My closest friends are geek-types, and that's what I love on a day-to-day basis ... but at the same time, the things that get us really fired up (and "angry," if you want to say that, but not in a negative way) don't always overlap. And being fired up in a social context that doesn't match - that can turn into just feeling angry-in-a-negative-way. So being able to plop myself into a group of people who say "yes, we're angry about what you're angry about, and let's use that to generate ways to resist and rebuild" is valuable.

3. Kittens: The friend who hosted dinner last night has 4-month old kittens. XD They are absolutely adorable, little gray tabby boys whose stripes are more like splotches and make them look wild (they were, in fact, found abandoned in the woods). There was a little short-haired boy with a near-prehensile tail who sat in my lap after I stole his sleeping spot (a.k.a. sat in the chair he was on), and a fluffy long-haired boy with a face like a (tiny) bobcat. Like all kittens, they felt like they could fit in a single handful. Eeeeee~

4. Cuddles: I am lucky to live with two very cuddly boys who will give me snuggles after a long day at work. ♥ Kershach in particular is an excellent source of healing, when he is curled up into a kitty "C" and lets me just lay my head on his cushy fur and listen to him breathing (asleep) or purring (awake). He is also highly skilled in the art of the sleeping-in-on-a-weekend good-morning cuddle.

ratzeo is not a snorgleable fluffball, but he does a good job nonetheless. ;)

5. Tea: I continue to be addicted to Adagio tea, and decided to try their rooibos tea, even though my last experience with loose leaf rooibos from another tea company went poorly (the scent was so cloying it made me nauseous). Whether Adagio's rooibos is better, or my tastes have changed, or both, I am now smitten with their Rooibos Almond.

Although I guess this is both good and bad, because it makes me want to make another tea order ... even though I've made two large orders within the past month. *headdesk*

Boring tea babble: I've found myself gravitating toward flavored tea recently. Partly that's because I'm branching out as a tea nerdconnoisseur and just trying new things. But also, the flavored tea I've had the most experience with are the kinds you can find easily - which translates to bagged black teas from grocery stores. Flavored black teas tends to have a muted taste, I think, because black tea is so strong - or, conversely, the flavoring is overpowering and fake-tasting in order to compensate. On the other hand, herbal teas (which I've learned are called "tisanes" *The More You Know rainbow*) don't have to pit the flavoring against the strong taste of black tea, because they're just fruit pieces or flowers. I think that provides more of the actual flavor I'm looking for, and is a lot tastier - though of course YMMV.

*Last-minute #6: Junk email with a subject line of, "Your shlong can be shlonger."

Welcome to 2009! Here's hoping that, however well or poorly 2008 treated you, your 2009 will be better.

I'm going to use the New Year as a time to formalize the goals I've been developing over the past few months (and post them here in order to make myself accountable), so here we go:

( This gets long )

Here's to a good year.

For anyone interested in what I would like for my birthday, or Christmas:

( 10 things, ranging from feasible to ridiculous )

To anyone who plans to make use of this list: thank you in advance. :D

By the way, I find other people's lists reeeeaaallly useful when Christmas shopping ... *hint*

x-posted to LJ

Today is one of those "THIS IS WHY I WAS AFRAID OF GETTING THIS JOB" days. :/

To combat that, here are 5 happy things:

1. A rousing game of Red Dragon Inn, played last night with friends. :D

2. My kitty. :3 Kershach continues to be a snuggle-monkey in bed, and will let us drape an arm over him when he lies down next to us, or we can even hold him like a teddy bear. It's best when he's lying on my chest, and I wrap both arms around him and snorgle my face into his fur while I listen to him purr. ♥

3. Adagio's herbal tea. A while ago I grew tired of fruit-flavored (black) tea, because the flavoring added to tea leaves either tastes fake to me, or the leaves themselves make it taste weird. So I decided to get some herbal tea from Adagio, which is just made of fruit and flowers. Their Wild Strawberry is quite yummy, and I plan to get more flavor samples with my next order.

4. Speaking of Adagio orders, I have one coming in today. XD (I'm not addicted. Er.)

5. ratzeo continues to be my partner in all ways: best friend, boyfriend, roommate, fellow kitty-parent, and co-conspirator in all things geeky. ♥

1. My CDs arrived yesterday, two days earlier than scheduled! I've only had time to listen to part of "The Heart of Everything" last night, because I couldn't let myself get distracted from my reading ... hopefully I'll get a chance to sit down and listen to them all soon.

2. I made a big ol' batch of lentil soup last night, and it's delicious. (Soup, you say? In June? Why, sure, when it's colder here than in Siberia!)

3. There was a work event last night that resulted in lots of leftover flower arrangements, two of which are now adorning the reception area, so my work area smells lovely and floral.

4. This.

5. Work-related good news. More details as things develop.

1. I came home feeling blah and unmotivated to work. Eventually, instead of wasting my time doing nothing, I ended up talking to kyonkun for a while about nothing in particular. Chatting, gossiping, ranting - you know, sister stuff. 8D It was fun, because we're both so busy all the time that we rarely sit down and talk on weeknights. Also, it put me in a better mood than before, which helped me be productive when I got back to work.

2. I, uh, had a zombie dream last night. O_o But the happy part of this was that I woke up before it got gruesome or too disturbing, and then got to sleep for another hour or so before my alarm went off, so I wasn't freaked out when I woke up. (I hate how nightmares put me in a bad state for the morning.)

As for the dream itself, one of the reasons it was freaky is that we were all normal people facing off against zombies - not like you get in some movies, where a group of "normal" people includes, like, an ex-Marine, a doctor, and a gun enthusiast. It was just me and my friends from real life. And no, ratzeo was not there, which is why we were hosed. :P

3. Tonight I get to go home "early"! Normally I'm doing something after work - gym, grocery shopping, or other errands - so it's not often that I just get to go home straight after work. It's only an hour or so earlier than I would get home otherwise, but it just feels like I have so much more time in the evening.

4. The weather here ... well, sucks. For June, at least. But on the bright side, a) it should be getting warmer for the weekend, and b) it's good weather for the soup I'm cooking tonight. :P

5. My CD order shipped yesterday (well, technically, I was informed on Sunday night, but I can't imagine it got very far during that time). I should be receiving it Thursday, and then I will have shiny new music.

I've totally dropped the ball on my daily happy lists, though that's because ... er ... well, riding the emotional wave of the end of Warmakers has kept me consistently happy (if wooby) and distracted from most other things. <--loser

So anyway! Today's list of happiness! Which is ... only mostly about Warmakers!

1. Various time-sensitive things at work that were mostly out of my hands (and thus I was uncertain whether or not they would get done on time) have been resolved. That was a relatively minor stress, but I'm glad to have gotten it off my back.

2. Because of the rush of taking care of those work things, the morning has passed by quite quickly, and it's almost lunchtime.

3. shadawyn has tempted me (yet again) with new shinies. :3 I'm dipping my toe into symphonic metal music because of songs she's shared, and have ordered Within Temptation's The Heart of Everything, Nightwish's Dark Passion Play, and Krypteria's Bloodangel's Cry. All of which have songs that were used for Warmakers fic and FSTs. XD;;;

4. I have been writing and drawing for Warmakers every day since the campaign ended. Okay, yes, that's horribly dorky, but - I'm writing and drawing every day! This has been helped by the fact that other people (mostly shadawyn, but also the other players and GM) have been willing to keep talking with me about the game and develop a broad outline of the future plot developments, which keeps the characters alive in my head.

5. Tonight I get to go to jfrog78's house and hang with almost all of the Warmakers crew!

Maybe I'll even get back to setting goals soon ...

Definitely don't want to be back in the office today, but the weekend makes up for it.

The weather was gorgeous throughout, and I got to enjoy it in the ideal way - for instance, on Saturday when it broke 90 degrees, I was actually inside for a meeting for the NWSA conference. We were at my professor's house, which has a lovely and open structure, so we got to enjoy sunshine and fresh air while still inside and mostly protected from the heat. I'm still wrestling with my (lack of) confidence regarding our presentation, but there's nothing to do but work through it (because there's no way in hell I'd quit ;D).

That evening, I helped celebrate redbird's 21st birthday. :D

Sunday was slightly cooler and hit the perfect pleasantly warm temperature. Luckily, that was the day I hit up the Street Fair and got to hang out and eat fair food with folks. However, after the others tired out and returned indoors, I decided I hadn't bought enough shinies, took a brief rest, and went back out. XD I walked away from the fair with gorgeous hair jewelry (which I really have enough of, but they were a unique style, and also relatively inexpensive), earrings from these folks (only three pairs!), and two broomstick style skirts. (After all this, it's probably for the best that nothing from the BPAL update this month pinged me, so I won't be making yet another order. XD;;)

I also spent time wrangling my characters for the conclusion of Warmakers - which is this weekend! (Eep.) Part of me can't believe that we're at this point and feels all wooby and in denial, while, paradoxically, part of me can't wait. 8D