Is It Morning?

Or is it night?

I'm up at 3:30.....and I'm sad to admit that actually, I've been awake since 12:45.  Finally just gave up on getting back to sleep and came downstairs.  Chloe is ecstatic - early breakfast and she's back in her daybed sleeping.  I think H. arrived home from work shortly before I came downstairs...so she's been up a lot last night, too, I guess.

I will head in very early today which will be fine 'cuz I need to drive to the county office planning department and submit some paperwork for our construction projects.  Getting in early will let me get meeting prep out of the way and some stuff organized for the day/week.

Happy to report that it's been a fairly 'good' week and that feels good.  Getting into the groove with my new boss.  There's been some humor and fun and we've been plowing through some ideas and things we want to look at doing differently - and while it's work and there's still/always too much of it at the moment, it's 'fun' to have new things to dig into and learn about.

There's also a fair amount of drama most days and that's hard to deal with - but it will all flush out in time.

H. got the job at the wholesale grocer!  He's working for the company - NOT a temp agency.  Ecstatic is his current state of mind.  He more than doubled his hourly wage; the job has lots of potential for salary growth as well as lots of room within the company to move and grow.  This could be his niche - the company has been around for 90 years and hiring people who become long term employees is the sign of a successful business.  It's also union - so the dues out of his check will be 'new' but then again, organized labor has it's place.  We are really happy for him and proud of him!  He starts on Monday and his last day at his current job will be tomorrow night.  He did take Sunday off but he only decided to do that when he found out his reporting time Monday was 8AM.  He couldn't work until 1AM or later and still be at work the next day to drive equipment.  So the day off will be fine -

B. is getting ready to travel to Ft. Bragg in North Carolina for some training.  Three weeks there and then back to Ft. Bliss - then home for the holidays, we hope.  He fessed up to J. yesterday that he needs monetary assistance in paying for a ticket home for Christmas - something that didn't surprise me much since I see his bank transactions.  We'll figure it out.  At the moment, the challenge is:  the Army doesn't tell him when he will officially be released for Christmas - so we can't make reservations or purchase a ticket.  That's a huge problem 'cuz the price increases about $5 a day between now and Christmas.  I'm not going to worry about it - 'cuz we will get him home.  It would just be nice to know so we could buy the tickets well in advance.  Oh well.  It's the Army.

Can't really think about Christmas yet - let's get through Halloween.  I'm attempting to get my team on board with dressing up as a group this year.  We are the only building that doesn't do something - and though I try every year, it's like pulling teeth.  I'm totally fine with wearing my standard - black slacks, black T-shirt with "Happy Halloween" in Rhinestones, orange jacket and a pumpkin necklace that lights up.  But every year we try to come up with a theme - and do something.  I currently have 10 umbrellas in the house for an idea we had - but now no one wants to do that idea.  It's like when the kids were little and I'd order the cutest costume - letting them choose as they got older.  And inevitably, they would change their mind a zillion times - it's so frustrating....

We'll figure it out - and the umbrellas are returnable.