a little better

1. Got the Required Research Task done for today.

2. The student who, in very hushed tones, told me they "needed" to meet with me, wasn't angry or unhappy, they just wanted to verify some stuff from a day they missed (this is someone - okay, it's a man - from another country so he has a strong accent and also a very deep voice, so I sometimes have a hard time interpreting "tone" from what he is saying, and I imagined things as being more dire than they were)

(WHY do I do that? Why does my brain always jump first to the "there's gonna be trouble" assumption in those cases? I don't know if it's the old 'When a pessimist is prepared for the worst, anything less than that is a pleasant surprise" or memories of bad meetings from long past but I always worry when someone "needs" to meet with me but doesn't say WHY)



I've decided I'm taking tomorrow OFF from coming in. My hives are bad, clearly they're caused by mold in the air in this building based on the pattern of their resurgence and retreat (and yet, our roof repair is on the "deferred" list. And yes, my chair keeps harassing the higher-ups about people's allergies but I fear it might take someone going anaphylactic for them to come up off the money)

And I need to do some grocery shopping. And I want to go to the natural-foods store. And I want to look for any new issues of the Brit-Knit magazines. So I think semi-first-thing tomorrow (HATE the Friday afternoon traffic) I'm off to do that.

I'm just tired and the past two weeks I've existed on what food I can acquire from the Mart of Wal and a lot of their stuff is not so good, so I've missed some of the things I normally eat.

Not sure what else I might do. I don't think I quite want to take the time to go to a movie (I've kind of decided to wait until "Inside Out" is available either on-demand for streaming or on dvd). Maybe hit one of the antique shops? (Maybe go back to the place with the weird old air conditioners and get a better reminder of what make/model they are?) Probably go out to lunch; the last time I went to the good barbecue place I tried their pulled pork and while their ribs are very, very good, their pulled pork is outstanding and I'd like to have some again.

Maybe just go to the big JoAnn's and allow myself time to wander around and look at stuff because it's not going to be an end-of-the-day, gotta-grab-what-I-need-pay-and-scram-so-I-can-get-to-the-grocery trip. Maybe not even really buy anything (I have yarn way past life expectancy, same with fabric) but just enjoy LOOKING at stuff. I don't take that kind of time as much when I'm out because I'm always in a rush; I'm always going, "If you can get done shopping by 3 pm, you can get home in enough time to do the rest of your piano practice, and then, and then...." and I get so tired of the "and thens" of things I need to get done....