Abbie's Real Life Blog

This is the only full day of work I have this week, between two trips for Tracy’s interviews, and I’m a little strung out now that it’s over.  We got in late last night from a one-night trip to Orlando, and we leave tomorrow for Columbus, though we’ll be gone two nights for that, and I realized yesterday that I hadn’t made rental car reservations and we weren’t clear on whether someone had already arranged for the hotel or not.

So I spent most of today handling reservations for the trip tomorrow, the trip next week, and the work trip I’ll be taking in January, which is not that far away, really.  Today I realized that I didn’t have hotel reservations for that trip either, but that’s a much bigger deal because it’s a conference and all the conference hotels book up right after the conference organizer opens up the housing registration, which was back at the beginning of October.  I don’t know what the hell my problem was, there, because my boss made her arrangements and I totally forgot about it.  Nothing was still available through the conference organizer at this late date, so I had to search for a hotel within walking distance of the conference center that was not too expensive at a non-conference rate.  I was successful (it even has free wi-fi, which is totally amazing these days for downtown hotels; they all charge $10-12 per 24 hours for internet access, which sucks).

So that was today.  Now I have to get out of here and go buy presents for Tracy’s birthday, which is Saturday.  I’m behind on so many little things right now.  I hope I can get it together next week.

Part of this occurred because my computer died on Friday night.  I was going to shoot a wedding in Palmyra on Saturday, and I needed my laptop to backup my CF cards, but it failed and I was pretty wound up about it.  But it’s not like I don’t have computers at home.  I have an old Mac laptop that I use only for Internet and iTunes these days, a desktop machine that mostly runs games and is the only computer constantly connected to the printer (an issue that I may resolve soon by buying a long-overdue wireless printer), and Tracy’s pretty laptop that I bought for her last year.  I ended up stealing hers to make my backups.

Without my laptop, and thus without access to my photo software, I spent the rest of the weekend being incredibly productive.  I knocked a couple of things off my 4th Quarter 2008 Resolutions list: I cleaned out the garage (and it looks amazing), took a load of stuff to the electronics recycling, took some stuff to Goodwill, and made a giant pile for Freecycle.  I will make a spectacular effort to put all that stuff on Freecycle next week.

In addition, I made it partway through an AFI movie, Patton, (and I’ll finish it tonight) plus I read Three Cups of Tea on the trip.  Both of those were on that Resolutions list, and with all the flying we’re doing in the next two weeks, I should have no trouble reading two more books.  Yay!  I’m feeling very successful with that resolutions list.  I will definitely do another one for 1st Quarter 2009.

The wedding in Palmyra last Saturday went pretty well.  My camera was acting up a little bit, which I need to troubleshoot.  If I have to send it off to be fixed, I need to do that soon.  I took my D50 to Florida because I didn’t think there’d be much to shoot, as I spent the day with Tracy’s parents while she was at the interview.  But then we went to the Leu Gardens in Orlando and I shot about a hundred photos.

Florida was nice.  I can see the draw.  The trees in Missouri are bare now, and it was forty degrees on Monday when we left.  In Florida, it was eighty degrees and sunny and pretty, and there were flowers blooming and oranges ripening on the trees.  Tracy’s parents are moving to Orlando, so we did some house-hunting with them.  One of the houses was right on a little lake.  I can definitely see the draw.  It’s probably not so fabulous in the summer, or during hurricane season, but otherwise it looks pretty nice.  Tracy was definitely impressed that the hospital is run by the Seventh Day Adventists, which means vegetarian food in the hospital cafeterias and several vegetarian-friendly restaurants around town.  I should remember that- if I ever get sick, I should live in a place where there’s a Seventh Day Adventist hospital, just for the vegetarian food.

So that’s what’s up so far.  Tomorrow is the trip to Columbus, and we’ll get back around noon on Saturday, and we’re flying into Columbia, so that’s great because we won’t spend so much time driving.  And my sister is coming with us, which is an interesting wrinkle in the plan, because I realized today that I don’t know what she’ll want to do while we’re waiting for Tracy to be finished with her interview.  My sister likes coffeehouses, but does she want to sit in one for several hours?  I would like to go walking in the park, but I’m not sure my sister is into that.  Maybe we’ll find some shopping.  It is Christmas shopping season, after all, whether you like it or not.

Which just reminds me of more I have to do, so I am going to stop writing now and go do it.