So, I am still at my computer getting a set of Board papers together at what appears to be 11.30 at night. This is a Bad Thing.

However, I am off up to Liverpool at the weekend to see the DS, which is definitely a Good Thing. The fact that he is around seems to be helping to keep me sane in what is proving to be a very trying week otherwise. I like that very much :)

So all in all, I am surviving even if I am quite brief and uneloquant (sp? is that even a word? you know what I mean ...) I keep telling myself that I am striving for balance in all things. A bit less work on one side of the scales would be nice right about now, but at least my head is above the water.

*hugs* you all :). It's still very good to be back.

*waves hello*

Just a quick pop in to say that I'm back, and that it was all totally delightful and really inspiring and it is possible that I may really finally have discovered the small creative bones that lie somewhere in my body.

However, work is now exploding so I don't have a lot of time to update and probably won't until the weekend. But I am thinking of you guys and looking forward to catching up with y'all then.

See you in a couple of days. *GIANTHUGS* all round :)

I am very bouncy today, which is a lovely feeling. I haven't felt this unencumbered for a while so I am going to revel in it a little bit. Some possible reasons why:

* I had my nails done yesterday and they are now painted with dark purple polish. W00t! The colour is called "Catherine the Grape", which also made me laugh.

* The sun is shining here and has been so for most of the week. So much so that Housemate Cat & I shared a bottle of wine in the back garden last night.

* Housemate Cat & I also booked a city break to Stockholm at the end of September, including finding beds in a little 7 room hotel in Gamla Stan. Jag er uppegad! (Or something - please don't laugh too much at that, dipsas).

* I am going on holiday for a week tomorrow. I'm off to West Dean again for a week of Summer School with RLBF Tory. This time I'm making felt and she's doing pottery. I'm really looking forward to it, and hoping that there will be plenty of cross-fertilisation with knitting.

* I made green bean and aubergine curry for dinner yesterday and it was delicious!

* I also bought myself this very fine dress, with which I am most pleased. I look like a slightly eccentric Russian peasant in it, but there's nothing wrong with that, right?

* My lovely cleaner, Margaret, is making my house spick and span as we speak! Yay!

Yes, life is pretty good today. See you all in a week or so - be good, now.

It's 1am here and I must go to sleep but just time to post a couple of things:

* I ran 5k this morning all in one go for the first time ever. w00t! Go me!

* The prom today was fantastic. More about this tomorrow, but really the soprano soloist was so expressive - the whole thing was fantastically beautiful.

* I was a bit more motivated at work today, which is good. I have been a bit aimless these last couple of weeks but that seems to have worn off now, thank goodness.

So, it's been a busy few days since I last made a proper post, but much fun has been had by all.

The parents' visit at the weekend was nowhere near as traumatic as I feared. It started off badly with me having an argument with my mother based around the fact that I would never have promised to be home by 5pm on a Friday to let them in the house, particularly on a Friday when I was interviewing! But it got better from there. My dad did a huge list of chores which I thought would take him the whole of Saturday while I was out at my yoga class, and so also mowed the lawn for good measure. Mum & I went shopping and found a really cool bead shop where we had fun making necklaces. We all went to see Wicked! on Saturday night which was super-fantastically brilliant. And I managed to cook lunch on Sunday which everyone ate without complaining so that was all good.

And despite my dad nagging me pretty much the whole weekend, he still managed to endear himself to me greatly with one simple sentence. RLBF Tory was also at lunch on Sunday, and she made some joke about how her expecations of me were very low so she was never disappointed in me, unlike my parents.

"Oh no," said my dad. "She mustn't think that. We would *never* be disappointed in her".

*squishes* Dad, even if he is an old curmudgeon most of the time.

And on Sunday the Boy and I went to the Prom. Have you listened to it, scieppan? You should at least check out the second half if not. The Strauss oboe concerto was a real revelation to me, and beautifully played I thought. And the Rosenkavalier suite was just fantastic. Off to the Proms again tonight for some late night Bach, which promises to be fantastic. I will let y'all know how it goes :)

This evening, happiness is making a courgette and basil frittata while singing along with Judy Garland, and then snuggling up in bed with my Violet.

What's making you happy today?

No logic to this post whatsoever, I'm afraid. Just a few things that have occurred to me in the last 24 hours:

* One unforeseen side effect of the running is that musclier calves make it harder to zip up my knee length boots! I guess I should have seen this coming but it was a little unsettling this morning when I put them on for the first time in a couple of months.

* In the "Why, oh why, oh why?" department I see they are about to release Bratz, The Movie. I imagine that it will be a triumph of subtlty, beautiful cinematography and poignant dialogue. Should any of you be unlucky enough to go and see it, please do let me know.

* My parents are coming to stay for the weekend. I am doing my best to look forward to this as a happy event, but I expect some degree of nagging and reverting back to my 15-year-old self will be involved. I will try not to vent in too lengthy a manner after they have gone.

* The Boy and I had dinner last night. Some weeks I actually seem to see him more than I did when we were going out. This is wierd. But probably a good kind of wierd. And so we proceed. We still seem to have so much to talk about that it would be a shame not to.

Have lovely days, my friends *smooches*

Just been to see The Simpsons movie with RLBF Tory.

I now have "Spider Pig" as the ring tone on my phone :) *is geeky*

So, guess what happened approximately 3 hours after my resolution to be less emo yesterday? I got home from work laden with food shopping, discovered that I had left my keys on my desk and had to phone The Boy to get hold of his spare set to get back in. So no run for me last night which has arsed up my schedule for the week and also an unnecessary couple of hours spent on the bus journeying across London to fetch my keys.

Le sigh. Positivity is a challenge sometimes. But, looking desperately on the bright side:

* At least I don't have to ask The Boy for my keys back now. Wasn't really looking forward to that one.

* We had dinner together with a friend of his at a very nice Mexican restaurant. And it was fun & margarita filled.

So, it could very definitely be worse :)

Well, I've started writing morning pages as an experiment, and I'm not sure that it's going to help me much as a writer based on my first few outputs. But all the exponents of it say that it takes a while to see the benefits of that part, so I'll persevere for a bit and see what happens.

However it is providing an outlet for a seemingly huge store of emo navel-gazing. Sometimes I think I am a teenager masquarading in the body of an adult woman. Be thankful my friends that you don't have to read this stuff. Based on my literary outings to date I should be striding across the windswept moors wrapped in a shawl looking tragic, yet strangely enigmatic.

So I'm going to try for a bit more positivity round here. I've already listed out the 10 things that I am grateful for today over on scieppan's journal and that was a powerful reminder that life is good, most of the time, and not emo-doom-and-gloom land. Yes, life is actually a good thing. And we will move forward from there. *nods*