"Neglect of Journal" charges dropped!

Friday night. Yes, I know it's been forever since I've been here - consider me shamed. I've had really good intentions, though! (What do you mean, "The road to He** is paved with good intentions"???) In any case, here is a bulleted list of things that have happened this week (because I'm too lazy to be clever or think in proper sentence structure):

* Managed to get the condo in reasonable enough shape to have cleaners come. Afterwards, the condo was beautiful and yet still cluttered and claustrophobic in its own neglected, decaying, stuck-in-the-70s sort of way

* Condo stayed clean for about eight hours until I had to drag everything from the spider-infested, dirty, and dusty balcony into the living room so that the contractors could sandblast and then start painting all of the outside surfaces of the complex. Yup, had just under two days' notice and they won't be done for two weeks. Yup, that means everyone in my building is going to have to have the contents of our balconies in our living rooms through the upcoming holiday. Super duper planning, idiot Property Management and Homeowners' Association folks!

* Did not get more than five hours sleep Monday or Tuesday night in order to make the above two bullets happen. Consequently, did not follow through on plans to go to TCB's, clean his poor, abused condo and then cook him a lovely, candlelit dinner on Wednesday when he came home. I do, however, have two placesettings of china, stemware, and stainless plus all of the associated serving pieces, as well as candles, candle holders, and wine all ready for a lovely dinner at some point.

* TCB was scheduled to arrive in Oceanside on Amtrak at about 6:30pm Wednesday, so I left work (in San Diego) at 5pm in order to be there on time. It took over an hour to negotiate the 30 miles of snarled traffic but that was OK because he called at about 5:45pm to let me know that he'd missed the train because of traffic between LAX and Union Station, so he wouldn't be getting home until 8:25pm. Went by Petco to get stuff for Abby and Dave, got Taco Bell, procured TCB's spare key from his pet-sitting neighbors, found that the kitty box hadn't been tended to during his absence, and - nearly overcome by unpleasant cat-byproduct smells - watched TV while eating atrociously. Once TCB was picked up from station and further cat supplies were purchased at Petco, I crashed out on the sofa while he puttered around trying to make things liveable again. He woke me up at 11pm to tell me that he was going home and I got to drive home (45 minutes) because I had an early meeting at work the next morning.

* After another long day of meetings, I took Alcott to see his sister in her school's talent show last night. I cannot believe how rude the audience was - hooting and hollering throughout the performances to the point that I couldn't hear half of her solo. (When I mentioned same to Alcott, his comment was, "Yeah, that school's pretty ghetto." I'm guessing that doesn't mean good things but I didn't ask him to elaborate.) Genevieve, the other CASA, picked up the youngest sibling at 5pm and I picked up Alcott at 5:30pm for a 6:30pm concert and it took her 75 minutes to go about 20 miles while 25 miles took me just under an hour. Needless to say, because both boys hadn't had dinner when we whisked them away, by the time the show ended at 8pm they were starved. The four of us went to Subway, got four sandwiches for us and one for a sibling who hadn't been able to attend, then munched away just as though we were any other family in America. The Chinese lady behind the counter asked me if Gen and I were sisters and I told her we were just friends but that the boys were brothers. "Are they your sons?" she asked, to which I replied that they, too, were just friends of mine. "You take good care of your friends, just like Chinese people do. You will have good luck!" (Man, I hope she's right!) Alcott was dropped off at home at 9:30pm, I got home about 9:45pm and vegged on the sofa until 11pm.

* My alarm went off this morning at 6am, just as programmed, and I got up just a little later but, unfortunately, dozed off while eating breakfast on the couch. I woke up at 8:15 - unshowered and nowhere near ready to leave for work - and realized that I had a very important 8:30 meeting. In fact, I had meetings booked for every minute of today from 8:30am until 5pm. Seriously. I ended up moving several that were more discretionary to next week because I just don't have the emotional energy to deal with it right now.

* One of my former team members from my last position here at VLSCI made a crack about having talked to TCB and said that he'd been asked to be part of the wedding party. Oh, OK, then. Wait just a minute...what did you say??? What wedding? I don't care if the VP just started the All Hands, answer the question you coward!

Seriously, I need a nap.

Comments

Shannin said…
What a busy girl! Make sure you are taking time for yourself.

Will the maid service be coming back? Maybe getting into a cleaning routine will help. I know one of the other commenters mentioned www.flylady.com - they have the 20-thing fling which really helps with the clutter.

Hope you can get some well deserved rest this weekend!
I'm exhausted just reading your post! I second the vote for lots of rest this weekend.
Anonymous said…
Don Aslett wrote a really helpful (and funny) book called "Clutter's Last Stand". For your sake, I hope it's available on tape or CD!
Anonymous said…
Denise, your condo association sounds as efficient and considerate as ours! Ugh, that sucks... hope they get everything done on time!

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