Just thinking.

It’s one of my non-half day Fridays and though I am trudging through my final few research papers to grade, I am feeling bored. And also, nostalgic.  Pandora keeps playing James Taylor’s Christmas songs and I absolutely love and recommend them. I don’t know what it is about them but the tone makes me want to be home with my family, around the cozy glow of the Christmas tree, drinking hot chocolate (or coffee 😉 ).

I have an iced latte (salted caramel mocha; mmmm) and I walked across campus to get it, to revive me.

Sunday through Tuesday, I promptly fell asleep on the couch by 8:30 PM. It was beyond my control; I sat down after making dinner and getting Isaac in bed and the cozy glow of the Christmas tree and the drone of whatever TV show Elliot was watching just lulled me into my comfort zone. (The warm fleece blanket didn’t hurt either.) But then I awoke somewhere between 10 and 11 and felt groggy but not ready to crawl into bed. So I had this weird in-between time that I simply wasted. And this was depressing me.

Finally, on Wednesday  night, I pushed through that tough sleepy time and once past the hump, I was able to stay awake. In fact, I transferred a bunch of songs to my ipod and did some other online things. While I wasn’t all that productive, I was much happier doing SOMEthing at 9 PM rather than sleeping.

I hate that my circadian rhythm seems to want me to sleep from 9 PM until 5 AM. It doesn’t suit all that I need to get done in a day.

Thursday is usually my rough run day. I don’t know why, but it’s always pretty excruciating; long and painful. Yesterday’s run was the polar opposite. I ran 4 miles, two at 10 min/mile and two at 9, which is my goal half pace. I don’t know how I did it but I was flying and feeling just fine. That run energized me and I stayed up again past my slump. We also watched Transformer: Dark of the Moon which, compared to the second piece of crap, was pretty darn good.

Did I mention that I named my new laptop Swoop?

All our computers have Transformer names. My old comp was Grimlock, the server was Omega Supreme, and the old laptop was Bumblebee. Yes, we are geeks.

I think I’m going to get Elliot an Angry Birds shirt for Christmas; my friend told me that Walmart has them. That boy loves that game, though he wins by sheer luck. He has gotten better at say, some of his skills but he still haphazardly attacks the bird and fires. He likes it that way.

The department Christmas party is this evening. I’m dressing up but it’s nothing fancy. I will, however, wear my hair down and put on make-up. It should be pretty fun; I vow to only have two drinks. That’s my max if I don’t want to get tipsy and if I still want to drive home.

Ash’s boss’s Christmas party is tomorrow night.  I probably won’t drink much there either because I know Ash will. That should be a pretty good time though.

So I know I mentioned the merit bonus I am getting in my next paycheck. My friend, who mentioned it to me, is upset because she did not get one. Honestly, I didn’t expect it at all but now I feel bad. She works just as hard, if not harder, than I do. I think she deserves it. But it was all the decision of the college. Totally out of department hands. But still, I feel kind of guilty now.

I shouldn’t though, I know. I beat myself up way too much over stuff that isn’t my fault. Perhaps someday I will get over that.

Well, that’s all that I can think of for now; my mind is constantly coming up with little bullet points and I just felt compelled to record them now. I’m off to change my background color, now that it’s Christmastime.