2008's already got me spun...

First, the back story. I haven't blogged for months because, every time I've been at a computer (for months), I've been working...even at home. The office has gotten incredibly busy, there aren't enough people to cover all the work to be done, and there isn't enough time in the day (workday or daylight) to fit everything in. So, I've been doing at the office what can only be done at the office, and taking home what I could do here. It sucks. I've been frustrated at how my work life has bled into my real life, frustrated that I'm always focused on/worrying about/making time for work, and add to that the fact that this is the most money-tight time of the year, and there is no such thing as overtime pay...let's wrap this up and say that I've been a little stressed lately. I've thought about blogging, but even when I had the time, it was hard to think about spending more time in front of the computer, even if it was for my own stuff.
But things are looking up. With some judicious sacrifices of my free time, I'm nearing the top of the 'to do list' mountain, and with the winter break behind me, I can pretty much breathe again. Workwise, anyway.
That's not to say I haven't had a life. Socially, November was beyond busy...it was actually a little nuts. Two thirds of the days of that month were taken up by something. Family visiting (that was great; our own mini family reunion- Aunt from England it was wonderful to see you), dinners with friends, pottery class (it's over now, but I had a blast; I will do that again, when it's financially viable), bead shows, farmer's market, gathering Hanukkah gifts for the Mom, book club friends getting married, the list goes on. By the time December rolled around, I was exhausted. I purposely kept my calendar pretty clear, having only the company holiday party (food was decent, music was sporadically okay, none of my friends won any prizes, and that night was the first big storm of the winter), and a couple of visits from friends to take up my time. The best part was that Lauren came home! Yep, my best friend is back in the country, and she came to visit, which was great. We haven't had much time to hang out yet, but I'm looking forward to when we can spend some real time just hanging out again, doing nothing. I miss nothing. With fake cheesecake.
Then the holidays (blessed time off!), and the Toronto branch of the family gathered for finger food and gifts and movies and games. It was a great night; we had a ton of fun, and I got home at 4am. Unfortunately, I was supposed to meet some friends at noon the next day, and totally forgot, but after one short phone call, and one quick dash to the bus, I made it downtown by one and we got to shop a little.
Christmas eve the Robins and I did the predictable Jewish thing and went out for Chinese food and a movie (Juno is awesome).
There was more to my winter break, but I'm skipping ahead to this past Sunday, when my friends half kidnapped me to Blue Mountain to go skiing. I haven't been skiing in, like, four years, but I had a great time (and paid for it the next day- ouch), and then NYE we went out for a great dinner and then hit up a med-student house party. Spent New year's day having brunch with the friends, and cleaning the apt.
Then came today.
Got to work ready for a busy day (everyone leaves for the national sales meeting tomorrow, so all the last-minute stuff had to be done by today), and instead started the day with a call from my bank letting me know that my account had been hacked and someone in Montreal withdrew all my $. Woo hoo. So I spent a very busy day running around the office, then rushed off to the bank after work, where they cut up my bank card. Yeah.
So, I came home, called the Mom for some venting, and then called the student loan office to get my payments put on hold rather than bounce one. While I was on the phone with the osap lady, the pizza I had in the oven turned into a cinder, and I spent five minutes with the osap lady on hold while I opened the patio door (letting the snow in), and waved a blanket at the smoke detector to make it stop screaming.
Got the finances triaged, salvaged enough of the pie for dinner, then thought I'd make a batch of cookies to make myself feel better and to take to work tomorrow (a little 'while the cats are away' celebration). So I'm getting out the ingredients and I can't find the brown sugar (and I know I have brown sugar), so I get the desk chair and climb up to look for it (yes, make fun of the short girl now, go ahead, ha...ha), and there's no brown sugar, but there is aluminum foil, and a whole unopened bag of peanut butter kisses, so I call that a win. Put away the cookie ingredients, and sit down to stuff my face with chocolate and peanut buttery goodness and finally blog again. The Mom said not to take today as an omen of the year to come, but it's hard not to.
But then, stolen money versus unexpected chocolate...I guess this year can go either way.