Week 32 - Slamming and Relaxing

Well, there was payback for the break in year end meetings last week. Not only were there meetings one after the other all week but I worked 12.5 hours on Monday. I have a huge spreadsheet that I have to download, format and create formulas galore on and I had thought I'd go to campus to do it. But after working all day, I decided to get it done so did it from home on Monday night. Yes, I skipped knitting. Shocking, I know.

I made time between meetings on Tuesday for a Ripples zoom and then made sure I could leave for my last swim of the season on Wednesday evening. I slammed on year end stuff until 4:40 on Thursday, when I finished the carryforward entry for Mary. Then it was time to do some laundry and pack. I'd already done some packing during the week but it was time to finish and get the last chores done - changing cat boxes, emptying trash, etc. Because I was flying to Rhode Island on Friday morning.

Friday's travel was completely uneventful. I was at the airport with time to spare, my flights were full but on time and Cornelia picked me up at the airport on Friday at dinner time. Corn was flying to Denver Saturday morning so Friday was her only option to see me and Carolyn had invited her for dinner. We had a lovely time eating a nice meal and then chatting. She didn't stay late but it was great to see her.

John was taking the train from the city on Saturday so Carolyn and I were on Trader Joe's duty. Worried about crowds, we were there at 9:00 a.m. but it wasn't crowded at all. Finding the uber specific items on John's list took some time but we had the food back to the house and headed off for pedicures, my first in 2 years, at 11:00. From there we went to the Crow's Nest and I got my favorite fried clams for lunch. Delish! I even had some time for tea and knitting in Carolyn's dining room - my happy place - before John arrived. Nice.

John arrived later than he thought (issues with getting the rental car) and I screwed up. Apparently I'd told John we'd eat at Crow's Nest on our way south so I happily went back, this time getting a lobster roll. Yum! With full bellies, we headed south towards our beach house, hitting Stop & Shop for more groceries on the way. There was unpacking of groceries and clothes, making of beds and generally getting settled. It felt great to be back on Potter's Pond and I went to bed happy.

When I woke up on Sunday, John was on the couch and didn't look happy. His NYC Covid app had pinged him to say that on Thursday he'd been within 6 feet of someone who tested positive for more than 10 minutes. The kicker was, he had been home all day and only saw a single person in the laundry room but not close up and not for more than 10 minutes. Since it's based on proximity of cell phones, he figured it was someone in the next apartment. But just to be safe, he scheduled a drive thru Covid test so off we went. It was cloudy and spitting rain on and off but we walked around Wickford and had lunch at an outside table, confident that the ping was a mistake. His test came back negative the next day, of course, but what a way to start our relaxing beach week. Even with this start, I knew the coming week would be fabulous. Just to be playing Boggle on our deck overlooking the salt pond felt like heaven on earth. Hey! I think it just might be.

Week 31 - Year End Break

So, this year there was a big hole in the fiscal year end meeting schedule. We had a few meetings Monday and Tuesday but none Wednesday or Thursday and only one late on Friday. Huh? Turns out Mary was going to her sister's to help her after surgery so we had a big break in the schedule, which has never happened in the 19 years that I've been prepping reports for year end meetings.

So Monday and Tuesday had some meetings but not many so it wasn't bad. I decided to get my grab and go lunch a day early so hit Mocha C's and The Warehouse at lunch on Monday. Well, half an hour after I got home, the phone rang. It was the antique store telling me that they'd found a blank check of mine on the sidewalk. Now I had dropped my wallet when I left The Warehouse but thought only my credit cards had fallen out. Nope. The few checks I keep in my wallet for the rare time I need one, had also fallen out and were blowing around Wahoo. I called the bank and they put stop payments on them but I couldn't stop myself from going downtown to look for them. I only found a carbon but stopped into the antique store to talk to them. They called me again right after I got home to say they'd found a 2nd blank check. Sheesh! Who needs this crap?

Wednesday dawned and I spent the morning catching up on a few things but was facing trying to fill an afternoon, not wanting to start anything beefy with more fiscal year end work looming. So despite being 9 days away from my Rhode Island vacation, I decided to take some vacation time to do a major clear out of my basement. After a quick lunch, I headed downstairs and went deep to the storage room, which was a disorganized mess. It's got shelves of Corelle around 3 sides but the rest was a mess. I was down there all afternoon and got the entire storage room organized, which left me with a full recycle bin and boxes of junk to get rid of. I took all of Thursday off too and made it through the rest of the basement. I still had a couple of piles to go through at a later date but I felt great with my progress. It was totally worth the vacation days.

I had dropped my fair entries on Tuesday and so ran to check for ribbons on my way to the pool on Wednesday evening. I'd won best of lot for my rainbow socks (a favorite pattern) and blues on everything else except a red on my crocheted coasters. I guess I should stick to knitting. It was 98 degrees and felt over 100 with the heat index so after my afternoon of heavy work in the basement, I jumped into the deep end of the pool, which felt great. Water aerobics is always a nice way to end a summer day.

I worked all day Friday and made a yummy homemade pizza for lunch. This was my last weekend before my trip and I couldn't count on having any free time next week so I spent the weekend getting ready to be gone. I ran to Omaha to get some Penzey's for Carolyn and dropped a bunch of stuff at Goodwill. On Sunday I cooked up a bunch of food, using things up and loading up with quick meals for the very busy next week. Luckily the weather had broken so the windows were back open, which meant I was sleeping great. As busy as the next few days would be, I was feeling good about the coming week. Just 4 more days of fiscal year end and I'd be heading to the beach. I'll make it!

Week 30 - Back to Campus

It was a beautiful week with a rare cool spell that had me sleeping with the windows open. Otherwise the even of the week was working on campus for a full day, which I haven't done in ages. Maybe a year!

My goal for going to campus was to start formatting all the excel files for fiscal year end meetings. It took some preparation to get to campus by 8:00 when I'm normally still in my jammies at that time. I did a bunch of prep the night before then set the stove timer for 6:30. I ate a quick bowl of cereal, threw on a dress and was out the door so early that I was at the Parking Office before 8:00. I bought some day parking passes and then met Lacey at Starbuck's. The union was deserted but we met a couple of people and chatted for a bit, which felt almost normal. Then it was time to get to work. : (

The highlight of the day was taking Dodie to The Green Gateau for a belated birthday lunch. It was great to eat out like pre-Covid and catching up with Dodie was a total treat. So was the Italian cream cake we had for dessert. Then it was back to the office for the rest of the day. I even worked late because I was swimming at 6:15 so had time to kill. I do so love water aerobics outside in the fresh air.

Otherwise, it was a normal week of working at home. I did mail some socks off for my sister's birthday, which arrived on time. I got a haircut, went to a retirement party at the library, had lunch in the park with a friend and went to book club. That's a lot of socializing for my pandemic life!

It was hot by the weekend so I forced myself to get up from knitting the new pair of socks I'd cast on and was having a ball with. Check them out. Then I slogged through all the clothes in my bedroom and spare room, both bureaus and closets. I had a huge stack to donate, a basket to take to Carolyn in Rhode Island and I could finally get to the clothes that actually fit. I loaded everything in the car immediately because I wanted things gone and this felt like it was halfway there.

Besides the clothes sorting, it was a low key weekend as I prepared for a manic week of closing meetings the next week. I also prepped all my fair entries and crocheted a set of coasters to fill out the 6th spot on my entry sheet (there's a 5 item limit so 5 small knitting items, which always leaves me with an empty ticket.) I believe there were lots of lists made, for both work and home. I'd be slamming on fiscal year end meeting prep so relaxing and storing up energy while staying organized was just the ticket. All in all, it was a good week.