You see? You guys are magic.

Thanks for the good thoughts and suggestions.

PLUS, as I was writing a response outlining how I'm going to put the suggestions to use, the phone rang and it was the director of training for the gym.

Turns out, he's a professor and a marketing guy who totally understands what I want to do and is completely on board. He understands the limitations of his staff and has strategies for working around that, and has great energy for using what I'm doing to help his people better understand how to market their services.

Phew. Someone who gets it goes a looooong say to keeping my fire burning.

Now. This does not get my but on the spinning bike, but it DOES create a center of competition and pride that will help me to overcome my current state of self pity.

This was definitely a case of 'ask and ye shall receive.'

So thanks!

Go to bed, Shir.

I am in the midst of another grand plan for reorganizing the office. I believe there is a magical configuration that will make me organized and not threaten to fatally entangle me in cords. I'm also on the look out for a leprechaun with a pot of gold.

This plan requires drilling a hole my desk for wires. There is already a hole I drilled as part of an earlier effort at organization. Somewhere in this house is the hole saw I used. Where? I have no idea. The odds are I'll find it after I go to Home Depot and get another one.

Recommendation request:

So, I'm going to the gym. Yay! Unfortunately, my trusty back pack is, after 10+ years, giving up the ghost. I got it as a free-be from the Sierra Club, and I believe I got its predecessor the same way. Before that my backpacks were gifts from family members, for school.

At 42 years old I've never had to buy a backpack. Where's a good place to get one, please? It needs to be a) under $50, b) long-lasting, and c) not butt-ugly. I poked around Zappos for a while. Apparently you can spend over $200 on something that will hold sweaty socks until you remember to empty it and put them in the wash. Good to know. Suggestions on brands that won't fall apart as soon as you drop them in a puddle on the dressing room floor would also be appreciated.

I am in the midst of another grand plan for reorganizing the office. I believe there is a magical configuration that will make me organized and not threaten to fatally entangle me in cords.

Hee. I am contemplating a massive office reorg for this very reason. I am sure that if I just angle my desk differently I will become immediately productive and effective. I will let you know how this works out for me.

Probably what I really need to do is just basic cleaning. Since I've been sick, it's just a mess and not a good place to work.

I bought a hole saw just to cut the entry hole for the birdhouse I made. I broke it on the first of two birdhouses. I have replaced it, and yet, is the second birdhouse from two springs ago built? No. No, it is not.

Calli, if you're okay buying online, LL Bean or Lands' End are almost all under $50. I was just looking at Lands' End backpacks because my BABY BOY is going to school in two months.

In stores, JanSport is widely available (like, at Dick's Sporting Goods.)

Thanks for the good luck for getting this (or any) job, guys.

Oy. I need to step away from an argument about Helen Thomas on another forum. There is no point in arguing with people who have already decided what my opinions are before I've actually stated them, right? (Someone just told me that people like me think that all criticism of Israel is antisemitism.)

I had a Classic Continental Rucksack from LL Bean for many years through hard wear (fieldwork, etc.), and it only died in a tragic washing machine accident (my fault.) [link]

REI has backpacks, and duffle's. [link]

Lots and lots of ~ma, Hil. And I prefer to think of your current status as being Primary Understudy. If either one of the two people cast has a conflict or a crisis or just washes out, it's all you.

Not that I want to wish conflicts or crises or washouts on anyone else, but if the universe wanted to gently and nonviolently nudge one of the other two in a different direction, that would be lovely.

Not entirely unrelatedly, the editorial assistant position I applied for last June was just posted on the uni website--I have no idea if the person who got it flaked or got a better offer or what, but I just applied, again.