Random Bits

I took the red-eye home last night but we were delayed two hours on the California end which means it took me an hour to get home in morning traffic and not the 25 minutes in pre-dawn traffic. It was a fairly uneventful flight - I put in my earplugs and put on my eyeshade and pretty much dozed the whole five plus hour flight. It was not restful, and it certainly was not peaceful, but it was as comfortable as an uncomfortable place could be.

Besides being uneventful, the flight home was a little stinky. Someone near me had gas. And the young man next to me needed a shower (ETA - although faint BO is far preferable to cologne of any kind - there is so much cologne out there I am allergic to. BO is just the human condition). I was a little queasy by the time we landed. "Fresh," cold, tarmac-tainted air never smelled so good.

Had a conversation with CoWorker A before I left the office on Thursday. She got engaged in October, and is getting married in April. We have a mutual work trip the last week of March. She'll get back to her home in the DC area seven days before her wedding which takes place in Texas.

She isn't really freaking out at all. She is actually remarkable sanguine about the whole thing. The venue has its own caterer so she doesn't have to vet a caterer. She is not all about the long white dress (and she isn't sure if "white" would even be part of it) - she was looking at dresses from JCrew (yes, they have a wedding and party line) - and they ship in five days. She said she did boutique shopping and hated everything she saw (plus with her timeframe they were all like - uh, possibly not possible).

To her, it is NOT "all about the dress" - to her it is more about standing up in front of friends and family and being married. And by the time our work trip to Paris happens in March she hopes to have all the details for the wedding taken care of. She was contemplating that she might fly direct to Houston from Paris, but I pointed out that Paris in March is much different weather-wise than Texas in April. And she'd need a change of wardrobe at the least.

She said both her and her mother wouldn't know what to do with themselves if they had more than six months to plan the wedding. They'd likely wonder what the hell they were doing taking so much time and energy and making it not what she wants it to be (she really wanted to do it in her parent's backyard but they nixed that idea, which made her sad).

Also spoke with CoWorker S about her want of a dog. She and her intended just bought a house (as in JUST - closed at the end of October) and she wants a dog. First they need to put a gate up at the side of the house - they have a fenced yard, but it opens to the driveway, and they want to install a gate so the dog has the run of the yard. I don't think it should be difficult to do, but then I don't know how handy L, her intended, is.

CoWorker C and I spent the week in one of the small conference rooms. I enjoy the way C doesn't require conversation. We can work separately but together, and only speak when needed.

Ah well. I am going to have dinner with my folks tonight since I am working on the Nutcracker all weekend. Can you also say "not finished with holiday shopping"? Yeah. I've got a few things to pick up. But it totally does not seem like the holiday season even with the xmas music all over the place.

Hacking up the Tylenol you just took because your throat is so sore and swollen it didn't actually go down the first time HURTS. Don't do it. This is why you *have* the liquid children's Tylenol. For the sake of your poor aching throat, suck it up and take the kids stuff, OMG.