B’s so cool, in fact, that last week while I was on vacation, she looked in on our cats and lived to tell about it (she’s a dog person). She even let us know about strange events, like the flooding of downtown, and the fact that our (less-than-awesome) building management had given less than 24-hours notice of an “apartment inspection,” necessitating an early-morning trip on her part to secure the kitties against escape. She rocks.

While I was sunning myself in North Carolina, B also had to put up with watching our awesome BossLady pack her office and mementos for an amazing new job opportunity in Nashville. BossLady (B’s nickname for her, which is perfect) was a great boss, and an amazing lady with a knack for questioning authority without disrespecting it, as well as being an fierce advocate for her team. Trust me when I say it was much easier to come back and see BossLady’s empty office than I’m sure it must have been for B to watch the boxes get packed all week.

Which is why I totally got it when I returned to work this Monday and saw this is my cubby:

It’s hard to read, but those white notes across the top row of glass blocks read: “You have NO idea how much I missed you last week!!!”

One thing I did do before I left was help B. start a blog. She’s done a great job with it in just a few short weeks, incorporating her amazing photography skills with great writing. I hope you’ll all check it out, and say hello to Shutterboo!

I remember when I was a kid, I imagined what it would be like to go to work everyday instead of school. To a ten-year-old, office work consisted of flipping your hair a lot, wearing sparkly clothes with shoulder pads, always removing one of your clip on earrings to answer the phone and talk to other sassy, busy people, all while drinking chocolate milk from a mug.

True, I took most of my ideas about the work world from soap operas and movies and added my own love of chocolate milk. It’s not really like that, is it? I mean, it’s not like that at my office. But it may be like that at yours. If so, I raise my chocolate milk-filled mug to toast you on your success. Because that’s pretty awesome.

Suffice it to say, not much time to post. But thank you for the birthday wishes (my birthday was Monday) and soon I’ll tell you about my trip to Tennessee, the “Olde Type Photo Booth” capitol of the world, apparently. Also, I’ll discuss my super awesome birthday celebration with Mr. M, plus some other random stuff.

But for now – off to another meeting, then a dinner tonight, then an all day excursion tomorrow that should keep me out into the wee hours. I have the coolest job, like, ever.

And that’s “hot,” not “hoot.” But that would be funny.

See? My brain is melting to the point where I think “It’s so hoot!” is funny.

Anyway, I’m having one of those “just get through the day” weeks. Where each day, I start out more tired than I was the night before, and I tell myself “just get through the day.”

Mostly, it’s been to get through the first part of the week to get to the cooler weather. Oh, to be able to sleep with the windows up and the door open again, what a treat that will be. While it’s wonderful to be able to sleep in an air-conditioned room, which I appreciated each and every morning when I would leave the room and run smack into a wall of humid, hot “air” that had built up in our apartment overnight, there’s something to be said for sleeping with the bedroom door open. Because when we ran the AC, we shut the door, but bring the cats in to sleep with us so they can enjoy the cool air. Which means that they have to be let in and out when they need to use the litter box, or hear “prey” in the hall, or just feel like it. They never go in and out at the same time, and they’re too short to use the doorknob, and I’m a light sleeper, so each time I’d hear a meow I’d be up and letting them out. Or if Mr. M heard them, he’d be up, but I’d wake up.

In addition to the trips to the door to let the kittens in and out, Zelda has started to knead me at night. At first this was extremely painful, as she would knead the bare skin on my inner arms, and, as I’m allergic, each little scratch would swell and itch and forget sleep. This weekend, Mr. M found a fleece stroller blanket about 3′ square that I now keep tucked under my pillow, so when Zelda feels the need to knead, I pull out the blanket and drape it over my arm. She absolutely loves it, and will knead on that blanket for much longer than she would when it was just my bare skin. Which is great for her, great for me in the sense that my arm doesn’t hurt, but I cannot sleep with a kitten kneading my arm. Couple that with the fact that if I sleep in such a way that she can’t get to my arm? She meows, loudly, and will not stop until I roll over and let her knead on me.

I know I should just train her to stop it at night, but with the heat and the lack of sleep and the up and down and up and down and the hot humid “air” everywhere but in our bedroom and at work, I just can’t do it right now. It’s all I can do to keep my eyes open at work today.

This is turning into a long and rambling post of me complaining about the heat and the kittens, and for that I’m sorry. I’m just trying to make it through the day, then through a client dinner tonight, then a big work event tomorrow that should last late into the evening. So basically, if I can make it through the rest of the day, then dinner tonight without falling asleep face first into my plate, then through the event tomorrow and the subsequent schmoozing late into the evening, and through tomorrow night without too much kneading action and a little more sleep, I should, should, should be able to make it through to the weekend.

Did I mention I’m getting a sore throat, too?

1. Spill coffee on myself.
2. Misdial the fax machine three times.
3. Sit down in a chair that wasn’t there.
4. Do something so embarrassing it cannot be here repeated on the internet. Trust me. It was very, very embarrassing. Imagine something truly embarrassing – then double it.

So, how was your day?