I stayed home from work today. Did I get anything done? No. I'm sick. A whole day wasted on an ordinary cold. True, the left side of my face is throbbing from sinus pain, and I've gone through a jumbo size Kleenex box in three days, and yes, I did sleep about 14 hours out of 24, but is that any excuse for not doing the dishes? I don't think so. What makes me maddest is this is the third cold I've had this year. Formerly, I went years without one. My immune system must be on the fritz.
Gee, you think stress has anything to do with that?
No, no, I'm not going to talk about stress. How dull. How ordinary. And what a simple solution there is, anyway. I could just quit. There's a ton of jobs advertised in the paper. Some are offering signing bonuses. Travel agents are a highly desirable commodity right now. Weren't you under the impression that travel agencies were a dying breed? Me, too, but I was wrong. They're not. They're just adapting. And no one wants to book their own corporate travel, so many of the advertised jobs are for corporate agents. I hate corporate travel. That's not the life for me. I like organizing vacations, not sales meetings.
I like taking vacations, too, and mine is only a week away. Burglars, beware: we've hired a live-in pet sitter while we're gone. We meant to have the normal twice daily visit sort, but no one was available to do it. This way, my plants get watered and we don't have to stop the paper or mail, so it's actually worth it to me.
I've bought a new map of Tokyo (bilingual! I can get lost in two languages!), and a Zagat's Guide to Tokyo. There's nothing that makes me crankier than being really, really hungry in a foreign country where I can't read the menu. I'm pretty easy going about lunch food, and I never eat breakfast outside the hotel restaurant, but dinner often poses some problems. The food guide will allow us to plan a little, and that's always easier on the old pocketbook, too.
So now it's midnight, and because I've slept so much today I have no particular urge to go to bed. Instead, I've dallied away the evening reading everything at Rob and Beth's forums about the Diarist.net awards. Good golly, some people have strong opinions. You notice I'm not in there swinging my opinion around. I'm a shrinking violet who doesn't like disturbing the status quo. Well, except when I do accidentally, and then I'm not sorry about it, okay? If the quo is that easily shook it deserves to tremble a bit. But really, I do shy away from rabblerousing at forums. I hate arguing. Hate it. Don't mind discussion, don't mind raising my voice a bit as long as I'm sure we're all going to stay civil, but the minute the claws come out I'm history.
Reading all that opinionation reminded me I haven't caught up with Columbine in a couple of weeks, so I popped over and enjoyed a nice, long visit. Her comments on Hayao Miyazaki reminded me of how much I want my very own plush Catbus someday. I know I could get one here in Japantown, but I just may seek out some Totoro-related items while I'm on vacation. It's good to have goals, and I really love My Neighbor Totoro. It's one of only 10 pre-recorded videos I own.
If you want a postcard from Japan, send me your address.
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