Egads!!

I tell you, I feel like I'm cut off from civilization and miss you all so much. You can't blame it on Mike though. This isn't a case of spending all my "free time with a guy syndrome." No, that would have been earlier this year. Mike and I have settled into comfortable coupledom. What's been keeping me away has been work. I'm rarely home at a decent hour and when I am, I'm too tired to write. But I am planning on changing that. I feel like a big meanie for neglecting you all and I am sooooo sorry.

Anyway, it's probably best to just give a brief synopsis of the past two months. Mike and I moved into a four bedroom house in the middle of July. Packing and stuff pretty much took up the end of June until end of July. Took us two weekends to move everything. We were smart and did an overlap of the two places (Mike's idea) so that we could space out the moving. I have so much stuff! Omg, it's insane. Since then we have settled into a comfortable routine but have been so busy that we haven't been able to really unpack. It feels like we're living in our storage area. lol But we have to get cracking because Valerie is coming to visit with her fiance (yes, you heard me right -- she's engaged!) so we need to have a place for them to sleep. It's good though cause I really need to get a move on. Part of the reason we didn't unpack much is because I needed to wait for school to start up again so I can afford bookshelves. lol Mike's convinced I have way more books than I think I do (which is over 4000).

I was going to try and catch up two weeks ago but ended up with a nasty sinus infection. It's been making the rounds. I didn't take off from work so it ended up hanging on far longer than it should have. I worked my ass off last week (almost 50 hours at the store plus teaching hours). So, I gave myself two days off in a row this week. Was gonna catch up yesterday but the rain made me feel blech so I slept. Been feeling insomniatic this week. Really need a break. So, Mike and I are planning on going away to the mountains during my fall break.

I really like working at the bookstore but it is sucking up way more of my energy than it should. The last two weeks have been the worst because we were trying to get our calendar kiosks (yes, this year we have two, oh joy) up and there was major fubaredness happening (none of it our fault -- thank the corporate crackheads for this one). It didn't help that I was sick and Tony (manager) was sick at the same time. He's in rehearsals for a musical and that's sapping him. We've all been covering and taking care of more things so that he can focus on it cause it's something he loves to do. Thought it would make him happy but I dunno. He was majorly stressed the last two weeks because of everything and he took it out on us big time. It wasn't just one of his brief minute spazzes but a stretched out one. And none of us needs this kind of stress. The good thing is that the rest of us are backing each other up in the schedule, etc. Jon and I rotate weekends and now Lindsay has the other key so we'll be able to balance even better so none of us burns out. We're all doing other things (school or other work) and now Tony is seeing what it is like for us to be juggling dual "jobs". Problem is, I don't think it's made him more empathetic. Just grouchy.

So we'll see. I gotta get our house organized so that I can set up some kind of schedule for myself which will include keeping in touch with you all. You have no idea how much I miss ya. Please be patient with me. I think about each of you a lot and so wanna talk. I just gotta get all of my ducks in a row. It's been great having Mike cause he is a big help. It's good to have someone to snuggle with. And he deals with my snarkiness when I'm grumpy. Part of the problem this year is a lack of downtime for my brain. Gonna take that so I can be my usual tigger self and have more energy for all the fun things I haven't been able to do lately.

Anyway, I gotta run. So need to clean today. Mike is as good as me at ignoring stuff. I think that's a blessing and a curse. lol I'll try and be better and post at least once a week. Love and hugs to you all.