Treading

Things are, as usual, never dull on the job. Due to this cold as well as wanting to not walk around very much on my sore feet, I worked from home today and found out that my support assignments will be changing as of October 1, as so many colleagues are leaving at the end of the fiscal year. Lots of meetings and discussions about this, all while still trying to catch up on other things like suddenly having to schedule tons of year-end meetings for four of my current partners. My inbox is manageable again, but I'm less caught up on the workload than I'd like to be. Glad I don't have a commute to throw a spanner in the works! Lots of stuff around the house to do as well, because our little furry lodger arrives tomorrow, so I'm caught up on most of my finances, the wool-wash is done, Rob's unpacked, things are straightened out and put away (I'd almost forgotten how to cat-proof things), and all I need now is some more relaxation and a good night's sleep.

Missed and Not Missed

Nice to watch a couple NY baseball games, even though the Yankees lost in extra innings and the Mets are being clobbered as I type. I've missed baseball, apparently the Yanks clinched while we were away. The Emmys were also televised, probably the first year I can remember not being able to see them. Most of the rest I haven't really missed, especially work. I came back to 200 emails, but I'm not complaining as a fellow exec assistant who had been on PTO returned to over 2000! By the time I logged off, with this head cold still kicking my butt (I've cancelled my plans to come into the office tomorrow), everything in my inbox was under control again. We caught up on all the "special" Jeopardy episodes, and now have only three regular-season shows to watch, but not today. Time for more medicine!

Goodbye Manhattan

Well, I'm coming back to the area on Saturday and Sunday on my way to and from Philadelphia, but this was my last day in the office for the next two weeks. Unfortunately I got very little sleep last night, probably due to nervousness about impending travel, so I sought to leave as early as possible, pretty easy considering very few people were in the office, certainly nobody I supported. So I hightailed it out at 3 PM, sped through Moynihan and Penn, got the subway just as the elevator doors to the platform opened, got a seat right away, and all was fine (give or take having to stand too long on the local bus) and I was able to log on again and do another hour of work when I got home. Trying to wrap up everything before travel time! There's a non-zero chance that I will in fact log off tomorrow with inbox zero...

Passage to India

White Rabbits! Do they have that superstition in India? Regardless, that's where one of my partners is headed next month, so I spent half the workday getting the ball rolling on his travel, which seemed to change a few times every hour. We finally got everything set, and it certainly kept me busy during an in-office day! I came home in the muggy and amp weather to find the roofers hadn't been working today, but they certainly made use of the dumpster still sitting in "my" parking spot. At this rate I hope they at least try to finish up by the time we leave for England. In the meantime my car is safe in the driveway in a spot where I can see, so I'm trying not to be too concerned about what happens when we're away.

Filling the Day

Got through my commute and work day just fine, no real down time at all in the office, but my feet were bothering me too much to visit my partners so I settled for MS Teams conversations. Not sure if it's the new sneakers (possibly not as I was having much the same issue with my previous pair), the socks, or just me getting older. I'll be wearing thicker socks tomorrow with my support slippers to cushion my feet when I go out to get the car inspected (this time for sure!) but that'll be first thing in the morning so it shouldn't affect me too much. What is affecting me, more than I thought, is the death of the saintly Dolly Parton; we won't see her like again.

Like Unto a Zombie

No real news today, I just couldn't wake up after yesterday's driving and car stress. I'm not used to being out and about two weekend days in a row. Also, when we returned around 6 PM we found the landlord's gutter repair/replacement folks hard at work, so I had to park in a different spot than my usual one right in front of the house, and retrieve my car to repark it around 9 PM when the gutter replacement was finished (and that was a bit stressful seeing them walking around the makeshift platforms outside our top-floor living room). I don't drive well at night, even tbe 30 or so feet it took to park it, and when I blearily glanced outside this morning I saw the car was crooked, which I never do in the daytime. Good thing I decided against taking it in for inspection, as I could hardly open my eyes all day. Somehow I got through work and made lots of progress, tried on my new yoga pants which I'm wearing under my kurta for the wedding reception (the first pair got waylaid so I ordered another pair to arrive today and, lo and behold, wound up with both pairs), and now I'm all packed for tomorrow's sojourn into Manhattan. I cannot believe I made it through the day like this.

Drenched

The day started out a bit difficult for me. My back's been bothering me all week, and I had to schlep an Amazon return in to Whole Foods this morning as I wouldn't get the chance at lunch. Turns out the pain I was feeling was more the weight of my laptop than the returned item. I continue to be in great shape at work, just waiting on both partners and client EAs to get back to me on scheduling things, and I'm taking so much self-study that I'm actually starting to remember a lot of the AI terminology, which scares me. Lunch was terrific, my colleague signed off on my and Robin's kurta outfits for the wedding reception, and the Indian food we had was nice but the restaurant not so much (very cramped and unprofessional, much more a takeout place). I'd packed my rain jacket for the afternoon deluge, left work a bit early before it started (only wind on 9th Ave and a little rain on 8th), and by the time I got to my neighborhood it was coming down in sheets. And it still is. Just a bit drenched to the bone! But warm and dry now, watching the Yankees win again, and getting ready for shuteye...

There and Back Again

The back is still twingy, and I'm sure the backpack this morning didn't help, but the naproxen kicked in and by noon I was busy enough at the office that I didn't really notice. This evening we watched the best episode of Beat Bobby Flay I've ever seen because, even though it was scripted up the wazoo with them all pretending it wasn't, they made it extremely official that Flay and Brooke Williamson are A Thing, and it was totes adorbs all the way, lots of huggy kissy and such. I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. And it made my back feel better too.

Temporarelief

Not permanent by any means, I'm still doing naproxen in the morning for the next few days, but I could actually move around without pain today, which made job stuff a lot easier. And because it was a work-from-home day I could also relax a bit. Goodness only knows how I'll fare tomorrow when I have to go into the city. Meantime I have to call my former doctor's office to see if I can get a telehealth visit with my new primary doc prior to my annual physical in late October, as I'll need someone in-network to sign off on my prescriptions. Lots of hoops to jump through, it being the US, but another reason I would not have taken the early retirement package this year. Very content to get a steady paycheck for another two years!

Connectivity

Well, I thought my work-related tech issues were behind me, but this morning a firmwide glitch stopped all external emails from arriving, so I had to go onto my email at the client site and stay there for awhile until things got fixed. Not good for a firm where customer connection is key. Thank goodness so many people were still on PTO. My brain is half-there too. Tomorrow I get my hair cut, Sunday I take the car for inspection, just ticking off the things to do before the big September travel (first to Philly for the wedding reception then to Merrie Olde), and expecting fate to throw a spanner in those works as it sometimes does.

OMG Shoes

Now that my tech issues at work are temporarily behind me, I can again concentrate on my personal health and such. To that end, I wore my new sneakers to work. I still have problems with the fourth toe on each foot, particularly the left one, but I'm guessing that's just a breaking-in thing. I love these sneakers, they only cost $50 and they have very wide toe boxes so things should settle by the time we're in England. I just hope the trains are running OK by the time we arrive, the tracks near where we'll be just buckled and three train cars overturned (fortunately no deaths) so it'll be awhile in repairs. I don't mind buses though!

Stuff Do-Age!

Wow, what a difference a good night's sleep makes! Somehow I put away all the laundry yesterday so that helped me get a good start, the Woolite wash was done well before I logged on, I'm trying to get through steaming my clothes but I keep giving up on one particularly stubborn shirt, and best of all a work issue that I've been having for at least a month is finally on its way to being solved. So chalk all that up to a win so far! I kind of wish I had more job stuff to do, but three of my seven partners are out this week and I can't concentrate enough to keep taking self study courses. I should have that problem all the time!

A Tempting Offer

Today was yet another call offering voluntary termination to a portion of my company's workforce. Since I qualify for the maximum I was sore tempted, but we're only given three weeks to decide and my personal finances are not nearly as organized as I want them to be. Besides, I'm still kind of addicted to 26 pay stubs per year, which would be cut down by almost half (only lasting for 8 months) if I were to retire at the end of this September. So I'm on the fence but leaning towards getting off exactly where I stand right now. Having nobody to consult besides Robin, I have to go with my (and his) gut, and my stomach started churning a bit too much at the thought of extremely imminent retirement. For now I'm going to wait and see if they board the merry-go-round again this time next year, at which point my head -- and stomach -- will undoubtedly be in a different place.

Homeward Bound

After three straight days on my feet, especially with yesterday's commute (MTA's BusTime lied to me about my commuter bus not being in operation in the morning so I wound up doing the local bus/subway/ walking thing both ways and that really did a number on the tootsies), I decided to take it easy and work from home the rest of this week, having met my 2-day-in-office mandatory quota. And I really needed it, I'm still very tired from all the flitting about. Fortunately I had a chance to relax a bit, although not really all that much since my workload continues to be surprisingly heavy for this time of year. It does look like things will calm down next month, but I don't want to speak too soon.

Can't Trust That Day

Still somewhat exhausted from yesterday's sojourn, I nonetheless schlepped into the city with my backpack to help greet a bunch of peer reviewers and make sure all was in readiness for this very busy week of both peer reviewing and PCAOB inspections. I'll be so thrilled when the week is over! July has been a heck of a month, and I need a vacation more than ever, but at this point I'll settle for a quiet August. I tried to keep my movements to a minimum, and it was really nice doing the homeward commute unburdened as all my stuff was left at the office in a temporary locker. Still, methinks I'm getting too old for this, Riggs.

Drug Induced

I woke up earlier than I'd planned with what I guess was a touch of indigestion, and my heart area didn't feel quite right for most of the morning. As a result I felt drugged, and although I got a lot done around the apartment (emptying recycling bags, putting away laundry, dealing with more Mom Estate stuff) I felt quite inadequate work-wise, so I took four hours of PTO and just sat quietly, playing my online games and watching the Yankees lose the first game of their double-header, and the Mets lose as well. Not the best day for NY baseball. Oh, and we've responded to a cousin's invite for his wedding in Philadelphia for the weekend before we head to England, so that'll be a fun "dry run" of Being Away. Now, of course, it's evening and I'm wide awake.

Cirdacian What?

Ugh, I've been up since around 4:30 AM, very uncomfortable and too warm in bed, even with the AC on. Fortunately we were finally able to give the ACs a rest during the morning, it's been either too hot or too humid to turn them off, but they were back in business by early afternoon. Such is summer! A nice easy day at work, as most of my partners were either busy with inspections or out of town, so that made for a nice change and I was very grateful considering my lack of sleep. Robin and I both dozed for a bit before putting on the ACs and then again after dinner this evening, so I'm feeling almost human now and ready for whatever comes up at the office tomorrow. But first, perhaps a bit more sleep?

Ping Ponging

Fun day at work and at home, trying to juggle lots of job and personal stuff at the same time. I feel like I'm at a ping pong game or something. But personal stuff (more things from Mom's estate) is done, I have a bunch more papers to file, and I'm in good shape at work as usual. Even had a chance to speak with my uncle this afternoon in his new senior living complex (via FaceTime no less, Mom could never have done that!). Big weekend awaits for footie, with England/France tomorrow in the consolation game and Spain v. Argentina in the big one, commandeered to a ludicrous extent by US insistence on four quarters throughout the tournament (these "hydration breaks" totally ruin the flow of the game) and an actual Halftime Show. And maybe, just maybe, I'll get back on the bike over the weekend, if I can breathe by that point.

The Calm Before

No baseball (Home Run Derby doesn't count, particularly as they've changed the rules again and none of it really matters anyway), no footie, weather is decent enough to have had the windows open for a few hours this morning but we're back to AC... I feel like I'm in a holding pattern again. I got nothin'. Work is well in hand, took a couple hours PTO as I felt positively drugged, but nothing much to watch...

Easing In

I was right, I didn't sleep well at all last night, maybe 3-4 hours at most, and it took its toll today. Thank goodness it was a work-from-home day! I'd also been tossing and turning over work stuff which came to fruition today when I could least handle it, but it's out of my hands now and moved up the chain of command so I think I'll sleep well tonight. Especially as the US men look to be going down in World Cup defeat. Serves our country right for having the grifter in chief get involved.