2002-03-22

That was not the exciting weekend I wanted. Getting sick and staying at home for four days was not satisfactory. Yes, I know it's Friday already and I get another shot at it. My time sense is a little off; it's been busy for such a short week.

After successfully avoiding the first round, the Roommate got sick last week and I followed suit a short time later. I'm not saying I got sick because of him, but let's just say I was suspicious that so many surfaces in the apartment seemed to have tongue-marks all over them.

I'm trying my best to be healthy for a bunch of things that are happening this weekend. Some blog-friends are meeting tonight for drinks; while I think I'm not drinking alcohol with this cold, I am looking forward to it. One of the things I put on my List, the list of things I wanted to do this year, was to meet more people, especially some of the people who write online.

What? No, I didn't actually write this 'List' down. Yes, I admit I've kind of been working on this fictional 'List' in my head for months now and sometimes make it up as I go along. I have the best of intentions, even if my follow-through is lacking. At least I know I'm doing my part to pave the Underworld.

I have to make another guilty confession: There's a huge backlog of projects which need to be backed up on my hard drive at work. Really, most of it is not especially useful to anyone, most of it is a terrible mess. In a lot of ways, archiving much of it is kind of a moot point. But I am so behind with the processed that I'm embarrassed to even broach the subject.

Consequently I panic a little more than usual when my computer dies at work. I'm not too bad doing technical support for the Mac (read: Out of Practice Mac Geek) but I still hold myself responsible for a hard drive which melted down in part from my "help" once, so I'm once-bitten-twice-shy about certain kinds of repairs. In retrospect it was an easy fix, and I was able to do it myself, but at eight last night when it died, I didn't know that.

So in anticipation of help from the IS team, I cleaned off my computer's desktop. The desktop covered with folders. Everyone who saw it asked how I managed to get anything done with that mess on my desktop. So I up and moved it all into a folder, except for the files that I really access regularly or am currently working on, so now there's a big bare area in the middle. The problem is I grew so used to having the screen filled with icons that I panic every time I see it, thinking that the computer's crashed and I've lost my files.

I'll get over it in a couple days. Which might be how long it takes me to fill up the screen with icons again.

Anyway, I'm pooped. After only four hours of sleep and with a sore throat, I somehow stumbled into work an hour early to fix things and check on the projects with incredible deadlines. I was going to comment that busy days provide an interesting study in group dynamics. Actually, it's more interesting how definitions have changed (or at least how mine have) since the industry slumped. What "busy" is. What a small team of people can accomplish in a short period of time, and what is acceptable to ask an individual to take on. What my relationship is to work. I think that's something else for the List, isn't it?

I suppose I could challenge myself to put the List on paper. But I don't know if I can handle that level of commitment to it.

Sunday I think I'm going to help a niece and her husband move into a new place for their twins, who are due very soon. She and I have both lived here in the San Francisco area for years, but I don't think we have seen or spoken to each other since before I moved here. I've never been very good with the extended family stuff, though I suppose I get a little dispensation for being a "Funny Uncle." I'm not that much help for moving even when I'm not nursing a cold, so I suspect my parents and I will be there mostly for moral support. Apparently her husband has a lot of strong friends who will be there; good.

Wait...I just realized that if she's going to have children, then that makes me their Great-Uncle.

I think I have to go lie down now. Somehow I've started getting older faster than I used to.

2003-03-29 - Moving Notice
2002-06-04 - Accordians and Ambassadors (Diary Fragment)
2002-05-24 - Manias (Diary Fragment)
2002-05-09 - See this little island here?
2002-04-24 - Bored and Drippy.