Cadged from batagur:


When you see this, post in your own journal with your favorite quote from The Princess Bride. Preferably not "As you wish" or the Inigo Montoya speech.


"We'll never survive!"
"Nonsense. You're only saying that, because no one ever has."

I can't handle my current schedule. I just can't. And it's starting to stress me out so badly that I literally feel like I'm drowning. Glub. I used to be so much better at managing the stress that I am now. So I'm going to try to conduct my Sunday appointment by phone, so I don't lose 6 hours driving to Knoxville and back on Sunday afternoon/evening. I can get practically another day of work in the office on Sunday, if I don't have to drive east. I'm also trying to cancel my Thursday workshop, but I can't reach anyone to confirm it.

And I must have slept really hard last night, because I'm sore and achy this morning.

I have so much to do that I don't know where to start. Sigh. When in doubt, do the paperwork. Ciao for now.

I picked up three new listsibs. So, hey to kayteelou, ziasummer, and byronicheroine. :-)

My hearing lasted until 1:30 a.m. this morning, but I didn't get back to the hotel until around 2:30 a.m. Why the delay? I stopped for Krystals on the way. Yes, I know that they'll eventually kill me, but it was 2 a.m., my options were limited, and I hadn't eaten since 3 p.m. that afternoon.

Anyway, I slept in until 9 this morning, which wasn't long enough, but I hate to lie around in bed in a hotel room. I'd rather just come on back home. It was a mistake, as you might imagine, because I was still really tired, and my trip back to Nashville was occasionally harrowing. Thank heaven for those strips of ridged pavement that they put in the emergency lane. They have saved me from veering into the median on many an occasion.

I got back to the office, and there were belated birthday gifts waiting for me. A bottle of spearmint bath gel and lotion from Jeanette, a giggling ghost, Halloween tub, and candy corn from Tina, a Bride of Frankenstein diorama that lights up from Gail, and teacakes from Cheryl. Not to mention the free book that Simon and Schuster UK sent me, just for asking. :-D

So, yay for extended birthday celebrations! I intended to have a birthday party this weekend, and then I took a look at my schedule. Here's the way it goes for the next two weeks:

Saturday: Volunteer work, Pokeno Party (with costumes)
Sunday: Church, meeting with client in Knoxville
Monday: Meeting with client in Kingsport, appearance before Oak Ridge Board of Education
Tuesday: Resumption of hearing in Memphis
Thursday: Workshop in Memphis, which is going to be canceled to make room for...
Thursday or Friday: Meeting with client in Kingsport
Friday-Saturday: Back to Knoxville for Tennessee football game
Next Monday-Wednesday: Hearing in Kingsport
Next Thursday: Workshop in Sullivan County
Next Friday: Collapse in a heap...then get back up and go to Fantasy Book Group

And somewhere in all of this, I have to plan the Halloween party at work. Who keeps doing this to me, again? Oh, that's right. Me. If I was more flexible, I'd kick my own ass.

...and I have a million things to do. But before I start, there is a car parked in the handicapped spot in front of my building. It features this bumper sticker:

KNITTERS FOR OBAMA
Wielding Our Pointy Sticks For Change

Made. me. laugh.

It's my birthday, too.

And I spent it, respectively, appearing in a hearing at the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development Office in Memphis and conducting a testimony review for a dismissal hearing tomorrow in a warm, stuffy conference room at the local association office. I'll be spending the rest of my birthday, sitting on an ugly bedspread with files spread around me, calling witnesses from my room at the Drury Inn.

A rollicking good time will be had by all. **insert eyeroll here**

Actually, I'm more pissed off about the fact that, because of my #$%& hearing tomorrow night, I'm going to miss the debate and, more importantly, the debate watching parties, than I am about having a sucky birthday. I can always extend my birthday celebration to next weekend, and, in fact, generally do celebrate my birthday over a two-week period. Once of these days, I actually hope to be able to make my birthday festivities last an entire month.

It will be the four-minute mile of birthday celebrations. :-) Ciao for now.

I came into the office at 9:30 a.m. to make some copies for my hearings this week. I have to head out for Memphis by 6:30 a.m. tomorrow morning, and I have a dinner party to prepare for tonight, so I had to get them done today. So I thought I'd do my copies and pop into church at 11 a.m., which is not far from my office. Alas, no. I have been making copies for 3 hours, so I missed church. Why, oh why didn't I tell my secretaries to do it while I was on the road this week?

'coz i r n idjit.

Quickvote
Who do you think won the U.S. vice presidential debate?
Joe Biden 77% 15064
Sarah Palin 23% 4397
Total Votes: 19461


The most genuine moment in the entire debate:

I'm going to be in Memphis for three days next week, including my birthday, so I brought birthday donuts into the office today. I had to go by the bakery anyway, because I'm having a dinner party on Sunday night, and I ordered a birthday cake to serve as my dessert.

In addition, I had gifts waiting for me. Julie gave me a little pumpkin bag whose eyes light up. It was stuffed full of candy corn and individual bags of Skittles. Kate gave me a pair of hilarious racing nuns (little wind-up figures) and a big honkin' bag of, wait for it, Skittles.

They's callss to me. My preciousss. :-)

I'm very upset that I am going to have to be out of town for the next presidential debate, since it is taking place in Nashville at Belmont College. My organization is doing a couple of debate events...a pre-debate kick-off on Monday night and debate-watching party on Tuesday night. I would love to attend, but I have to be in Memphis for two hearings, dammit...unless I can get my hearing on Tuesday and Wednesday settled.

Keep your fingers crossed.

I don't know about the rest of the country, but I find Sarah Palin's golly-gee verbal style a little, I don't know, third-gradish for someone who could be the leader of the free world. Can you just imagine her presiding over the Senate:

"I'm gonna recognize the gentleman from Texas, doggone it!"

As for my impressions of the debate, she did better than I (and everyone else) expected. Of course, since no one expected her to be more than a slightly animated houseplant, that may be damning with faint praise. God knows she got every talking point from the last 20 years of Republican campaigning into the debate, whether it had anything to do with the question or not. Although it was pretty funny hearing her throw the Bush Administration under the bus while spouting every cliched plank of the Bush platform. :-)

Joe Biden was much more content-oriented and knowledgeable, not that this should surprise anyone. And it was very moving when he had to pause for a moment, thinking about his family. And way to go, Joe. Co-opt the God bless reference, while the fundamentalist soccer mom counts to make sure she still has all her fingers and toes. :-p

Cadge from settiai:

The Rules: Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic, to your lj. (Any decision, as long as it's not Roe v. Wade.) For those who see this on your f-list, take the meme to your OWN lj to spread the fun.

Griswold v. Connecticut, (1965)
It's all about the sex, baby, and how the government can't prohibit a married couple from using birth control. Yes, there was actually such a law in Connecticut, at the time. The Court determined that the couple had a consitutional right to marital privacy. This was a predecessor decision to Roe v. Wade.

And that's all I have time for today. Ciao for now.

Jeanette and I had a blast manning the voter registration table at the Whole Foods in Green Hills. We signed up about 10-12 people, all of them young and hip, so there's a pretty good chance they'll be voting for Obama. And when there was no one standing around, waiting to sign up, we gossiped about everyone at work. :-)

The thing that really surprised me was the number of people who passed our table and thanked us for being there to register people to vote. It was rather touching, actually.

One of the advantages to manning a voter registration table in Whole Foods is the proximity of quality snackage. About 9 p.m., I got the munchies (I hadn't had supper), so I left Jeanette and perambulated over to the prepared food section, where the selection dazed and confused me. I ended up with a slice of cheese pizza, tomato/basil/cashew salad, and an orange juice. The salad was excellent. I may try to recreate it.

I just finished making an icon for Challenge 78 over at bloodtiesstills, and it's pretty fabulous, even if I do say so, myself.

I have to go to bed now. I'm spending two hours in the office tomorrow trying to settle my Friday hearing, and then I'm off to Memphis to meet with a client who has a hearing next week. I hope that I can talk her into settling, as well, but I doubt that I will have much success. She doesn't seem to recognize that a defense of "I couldn't handle the classroom they assigned to me; they were such rowdy kids" essentially makes the employer's case for it.

Wish me luck.

...I salute my union brothers and sisters at the Blacksville #2 Mine in West Virginia.

Solidarity!

...so the Halloween fun can begin.

( When pumpkins drink to excess... )

The irony. It threatens to consume me.

...if you didn't watch Jon Stewart last night, see if you can catch the show on the repeat bradcast today. Jon does a rant on Congress taking off Rosh Hashanah that may very well be the funniest bit that I have ever heard him do.

And just ignore Maher. He's an asshole.

The use of my Dark Lord icon prompts me to ask...has anyone seen Dick Cheney lately? No, seriously. Has anyone? It seems like he hasn't been seen for weeks now. Do you think he's dead, and the Bush Administration is afraid to say anything for fear that the electorate would take it as a sign that God has started actively smiting evildoers? ;-)

My birth month
My favorite month
Halloween
The first Monday in October
The third Saturday in October
The Storytelling Festival
The Southern Festival of Books
The month when my part of the state, East Tennessee, becomes so beautiful that it almost hurts to look at it.
October.

O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather.

Wouldn't the first day of October be a grand time to enter Challenge 78, the Autumn Challenge, over at bloodtiesstills? I thought so.

I rode the bus Monday and Tuesday,but I couldn't today, because I'm finally getting my hair cut at 4 p.m.. And then, Jeanette and I are going to man a table at Whole Foods and register voters from 7-10 p.m.. It's sponsored by the Obama campaign, but it's strictly a nonpartisan registration. It should be interesting, since the Whole Foods that we're manning is in one of the wealthiest parts of town...GOP Central. :-)

I'm wearing my black/yellow/white polka dot swing dress for the occasion, because I love this dress and because it's so comfortable to wear. And the best reason of all...it always earns me compliments. I got one in the Exxon Tigermart this morning, when I stopped for a big honkin' diet Coke on ice and a donut. Don't look at me like that.

I also bought a banana. ;-)

Hope everyone has a productive day. God knows I need one of them, my own self. I have a testimony run-through with a client today, I have a list of character witnesses as long as my arm that I need to call this afternoon, I have to drive to Memphis and back tomorrow, I have a hearing on Friday, and then I'm back on the road Monday-Wednesday to Memphis for two hearings. And then I have the second day of this Friday's hearing next Friday.

You know, when I finally find out who's responsible for my thoroughly crappy work schedule, I'm gonna take him/her by the hair and...oh, wait. That's me.

Sigh. :-/

Cadged from muntahz:

What Virginia Means

You are very hyper. You never slow down, even when it's killing you. You're the type of person who can be a workaholic during the day... and still have the energy to party all night. Your energy is definitely a magnet for those around you. People are addicted to your vibe. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are deeply philosophical and thoughtful. You tend to analyze every aspect of your life. You are intuitive, brilliant, and quite introverted. You value your time alone. Often times, you are grumpy with other people. You don't appreciate them trying to interfere in your affairs. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

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Not too far off the mark, except that no one who knows me would consider me either introverted or wise. :-)