May 14, 2001 — A dreadful routine

Today was my first workday of the summer. It was the sort of day that had me counting the number of workdays until September on my trusty "Date/Time Properties" (Windows98, where would I be without you?) calendar. With only seventy-nine days to go, I am officially 1.25% done work for the summer. In an alternate universe, an alternate version of myself is comforted by this fact.

Meanwhile, I was forced to arrange the computers in my room in such a way that my new one is on the floor under my desk. Being rather fidgety by nature, I've found myself absentmindedly resting my feet on the case and playing with the power and reset switches with my toes. To say that it's only a matter of time would be an understatement.

But I digress. Today.

I ended up going to bed at 11:00 pm or so. I didn't fall asleep until around 1:00 am. And then I woke up at 2:30 am and proceeded to thrash about for a couple of hours. All things accounted for, I ended up with around two-and-a-half hours of sleep for the night. When my alarm jolted me into consciousness at 5:30 am, I remembered my dream, but I've forgotten it now. Still, it's a nice feeling, this business of dreams.

I went to work with a list of things to do for the day: I had to get my pager service transferred to Ottawa, email Grand Royal with my new contact information, and, most importantly, call the Merrill Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation, and Fantasy to reserve my spot at Neil Gaiman's reading in Toronto on July 23. I'd considered adding a paragraph to my journal yesterday proclaiming my excitement at seeing the date of Gaiman's reading in Toronto finally announced in his journal, but a wave of paranoia washed over me as I pictured an evil antigreg reader getting the last ticket after reading my journal. Admittedly, this was a completely ridiculous thought to have, especially since, as it turns out, the tickets aren't even available until a week or two from now. But it made a lot of sense at the time. (And I've emailed to reserve my ticket, just in case.)

I managed to accomplish everything on my little list while waiting for my work computer for the summer to be set up.

Still without a computer by mid-afternoon, I decided that I needed a bus pass and left early. I also decided that I wanted to pay high school prices for said bus pass. It's surprising where a bit of lying will get a person these days...

Little else happened. I found a copy of this months Chart Magazine with Bran Van 3000 on the cover (almost too much excitement to bear, to be sure), and I bought yet another collection of The Sandman comics (we each have our addictions, I suppose).

When I look out my window now, I see little more than trees, one an apple tree in blossom. I consider this to be a step up from having the logo of the Hyatt hotel burning its way into my mind each time I make the mistake of looking out the window while lying in bed. Admittedly, I can't play pinball anymore, but I'll do my best to take my victories where I can get them. (Very uncharacteristic of me, isn't it?)