getting ready to leave for florida/bahamas!

My tooth infection was drained the last time I went to the dentist, and temporarily filled. The temporary filling proved just that, and has been missing for a few days now. I can't stop playing with it, making little sucking noises on the the hollowed-out-tooth. I am sure everyone around me is tremendously grateful, but every *once* in a while, it hurts in a weird hollow-achy-echoing sort of way, and so I keep messing with it...not that I want to hurt, but I have to keep testing it. Stupid intermittent reinforcement.

Anyways, I decided not to even call the dentist until I get back from my trip, because it's bearable now. I just don't eat on that side. My trip! My trip! I am leaving bright and early early early on Saturday morning! My mom is dropping me off at the office at 6:30am, where I commence Being In Charge of 40 people - 32 of whom have developmental disabilities. We fly to Orlando, stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort, go to Disney's Magic Kingdom for 5 days, then board a cruise ship and head out to the islands of Nassau and Castaway Cay - where I will be swimming with dolphins, para-sailing, and peering through glass bottom boats. We fly back on November 8th.

I am not quite comprehending that we are leaving the day after tomorrow. I'm still a little dazed. All organized - mostly - but disbelieving.

Today's so-strong-it-almost-knocked-me-over realization was how much I was going to miss Adam and my puppy dog. I had a fantastic morning with Adam today - it's nice when he doesn't have to work super early AND he wakes up while I'm still home. Last night I stayed up past my bedtime watching the movie Defiance - Adam begggged to put it on, and then fell asleep before the plot twisted even a little bit. It is not the type of movie I would normally choose for myself - I have a hard time watching anything emotional - rather, I have a hard time *choosing* to watch anything that makes me feel beyond light and fluffy. I am emotional enough - when I watch movies, I want to relax, not cry. However - I am usually *glad* when I watch emotionally-deep movies, because, let's face it, they're better quality than Dude, Where's My car? So anyways - I stayed up really, really late watching a lot of Jewish people die horrific deaths.

Anyways. Adam. Juno. My beautiful beautiful puppy dog and my amazing amazing man. Many mornings when I wake up, Adam and Juno are both still sleeping - Juno usually wakes up but doesn't move much - just follows me with brown eyes while I'm getting ready. Adam looks so good in our green sheets and blankets - secretly one of the reasons I picked out that color. I have a very hard time leaving the dogs and boy in the morning - when it's cold out and there is this wonderful October sunshine and I just want to stay in bed, one hand petting Juno, watching Adam's freakishly long eyelashes.

Too mushy for you? Sorry. I am all mush today. I am currently impressed with his ability and desire to always *improve* himself. The two of us being who we are butt heads in certain areas pretty damn frequently, but all the upset is worth it when I tell him something is important to me and I can SEE the work and effort he has put into understanding my needs more. It's an amazing feeling. I am feeling so lucky.

He won't be home when I get home tonight - so I am going to stop at the gym first with Tulip - I am going to walk for 5 minutes on the treadmill, run for 12, walk for 5 more, then do 38 minutes on the bike. That will cover what I was supposed to do yesterday, and what I am supposed to do today, with a few minutes extra to count towards my goal of 500 fitness minutes this month. I currently am at 365 minutes....so add up that, and I will need to do 75 minutes tomorrow to hit my goal!!!!

After the gym, I'll go home and put two butternut squash in the oven, and cook the lentils I bought today - I splurged on red AND green lentils, just to make a prettier plate. I have tracked my food fantastically well for the last week - and hope the scale will show it tomorrow at my weight watchers meeting. Even if it doesn't - because I seem to have a 1 week lag reaction time - I'll feel good about knowing I did it for a whole week. I plan on continuing it on my trip - I will be taking ww oatmeal and a bunch of fruit and other food with me to avoid crap.

I also want to take Juno for a walk tonight, and continue the packing process. I miss Adam already. My pirate costume is fantastic. Yay thriftstores.

I think that is all for now. I am all sorts of mixed feelings right now!

Friday morning

Today I apparently have allergies. I have never had allergies before. I am not sure what to do about it, other than just sneeze and sniffle a lot. Maybe it's not really allergies and I am getting sick. I don't know which would be better. :P I need to drink a lot of water today.

It's a hard day to be at work - the sky puts crayola cerulean to shame - *leaves* are actually falling. It's warm outside and so cold in my office. It's Friday, and there are very few people here.

I am making some progress with Alex's scarf - it's very cool. After this one I am excited to use my new intarsia skills and do all sorts of images and patterns. Although I do think my first order of business after this scarf is to knit myself some fingerless gloves. Holy moly it's cold in here.

Yesterday my big afternoon project was cleaning out The Closet of Doom and organizing my desk to make it more ergnomically friendly. My intern and I did great things - she tackled The Closet of Doom with a verociousness that I lack when cleaning, and I timidly approached my desk drawers. I have to admit, that it was all worth it this morning when I got to my office and was surprised all over again by how nice and uncluttered it was. Just another reminder for me that I really do work better when I am organized and uncluttered - the physical clutter feels like it messes up my brain. Sadly, being organized/not messy does not come naturally to me, but it's definitly worth being conscious of it and making it happen anyway.

I really like my job, but I am looking forward to the day when I don't have to work fulltime. This is a huge motivator for me to get my master's - I want to do what my mom did, which was be at home with her kids during the day, and teach nights. That sounds just about right.

It's time for me and my puffy eyes to go do some work - yesterday I mailed the first notice regarding our next big trip - the 2009 Walt Disney World Resort and Cruise! I am anticipating many a call for that today. I'm excited - this will be my first big trip that I orchestrate from start to finish, and I feel really good about it. We've got a year to plan (we'll be going Nov. 2009) and I learned a lot from the Alaska cruise.

I also have a newsletter to finish, so that's what I am going to go do now. (the photo is one I took of a bald eagle in Sitka, AK when I was there on the Cruise.)