four blogs

I’ve started about 4 blogs this week… starting with last Friday.
I wanted to talk about how awesome it is to have my very own ‘local’… A pub next door with a good atmosphere, cheap drinks, and people that love Dexter (and more importantly, let me bring him in).
I was going to blog about Saturday and Sunday… going skiing at the indoor ‘ski slope’ in Milton Keynes (interestingly enough, the second place I’ve done indoor skiing)… my trip downtown to watch My Bloody Valentine (loved the 3D)… and karaoke on Sunday night…
Monday brought London’s record snowfall. There was LOTS to talk about there… everything from the trains and tubes to the buses shutting down completely… the DJ’s on the radio begging people to stay off the streets… driving my death-trap to work…building a snow-woman and snow-dog with Dexter in the backyard (more accurately, I built them while he ate the snow around us and attacked my poor snowdog)… and watching some teenagers build an igloo in the field behind my house.
Then, of course, I got sick. It makes me feel old that when I go out in the snow and ‘play’ a little the result is getting sick. Tuesday was miserable... I have the strangest cold/flu ever. None of my usual cold/flu symptoms… just a massive headache, sore neck and back, dry-hacking cough, and really upset stomach. Dexter is no help… he’s just pouty that I’m not taking him for a run twice a day. Lucky me… It’s now Friday and I still feel as icky as I did on Tuesday.
Of course, these are just the things in my personal time… work has been the busiest I’ve seen since I got here. We’re prepping for an exercise, going through a big software integration, conducting a wide-scale hardware transition, and there are only 5 of us to accommodate it all. I had thought this week would wiz by… I’m not adverse to working and was actually looking forward to staying busy this week… Boy, I had no idea what I was thinking. The phone has been ringing off the hook and I have to deal with all the angry German, Polish, British, and other foreign (to me anyway) nationals… Of course, when people are angry and trying to explain their issues in a language foreign to them (English, that is), their accents get thicker and words poorly substituted… which only serves to confuse me and, in turn, further frustrate them. It’s really a vicious and exhausting cycle.
In all… work frustrations, combined with being ill, and topped off with a dose of nasty weather has left me drained. I’m not actually in a bad mood, which is surprising considering the grumps I’ve been surrounded by all week… but I am ready for the weekend.
This morning was just the icing on the cake too… of course, it snowed some more last night… the roads were complete shit… and I’m driving a light little rear-wheel drive POS with tires as bald as Mr. Clean. A trip that takes me 20 minutes on a normal morning with some traffic took me almost 90 this morning. Seriously. The whole last 1.5 miles of the drive I did not break 6 MPH… and I know this for a fact because my Tom-Tom told me so. I’m supposed to have lunch with the Admiral this afternoon and I have no idea if that’s still going to happen or if they’ve cancelled completely... AND, all of the work I’ve been busting my butt on this week is looking as if it’s going to carry over into Monday. Uck.
So this was my week… something that isn’t too unlike the weather. Monday morning I woke up to a blanket of clean, pristine snow… the world looked neat and tucked away and I loved the sight of it… but I find myself on Friday up to my knees in muck… something that had me so excited, backfiring in my face.
Here’s to the weekend and all the potential it holds.