This morning, I awoke to a not so pleasant sight as I checked my bank account: I was not paid for my Ta-ship. The paperwork – or so I thought – had been processed. I had filled out a dual compensation form so that I could get paid for both jobs. What I am being told is that it had to be routed through a couple departments and people and then come back for my payroll person to enter it into the system. At this rate, I won’t get paid for that until the 29th! This is ok, seeing as how September is a three paycheck month. I make enough so that this next pay period and the one will get me through the rest of the month just fine. But still – I was counting on this, dammit. The next two weeks will be tighter than ever.
I’m going to leave early today, even if I have to lie about why. I need to get out, I need to go home. We have a six and a half hour drive ahead of us and I need to prepare. This has been a very long week and I am ready to see my family and go to the beach.

I am glad, however, that I successfully watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in three nights. I dozed off only once during each movie. In fact, it’s sort of funny that for the second and the third one, I managed to wake up just as my favorite scenes were coming on. For Two Towers, it was the big door scene – where Aragorn comes back from, well, supposedly, the dead, and enters Rohan all triumphantly. Then in ROTK, the scene where they must go into the final battle with the Orcs and Aragorn gives his litle speech and then says,”For Frodo.” It’s a very emotional moment there. Yes, in case you were wondering, I totally geeked out while Ash was gone.

But he has returned! He got in right at midnight and was more tired and out of it than ever before. He drove – or rode, rather – from here to Bartow and then the next day, on to Miami and then Ft. Lauderdale and then on to Orlando. He had a very busy two and a half days. I feel kind of bad that we have to drive right back down to where he was but we’ve had these plans for quite some time. I don’t know if I mentioned this before but my grandparents bought a new house over three years ago and I have yet to see it. And I used to see my grandparents about seven or eight – maybe more – times a year.

My stomach is sort of gurlgy this morning and I feel really dizzy. I think it may be the lack of sleep or eating. I appear to have lost three pounds this week, which I highly doubt could be from one day of physical exertion. Although I did run on Sunday, it’s probably not that. So I leave you now, with dreams of white sandy beaches in my head and glad tidings to you on this happy Friday.