One can never be too young to be audited.

I think I will use Pencil Pouch Audit Day to audit my team's office supplies.

some of the convenience stores here have fancy new-fangled automatic air pumps. Drive up, hop out of your vehicle, push the button to start it. Default setting is 32 psi, there are plus and minus buttons to customize your tire pressure experience. Then you unscrew the valve cap, put the nozzle on, and the thing checks your tire's current pressure, fills it up, and beeps to let you know when it's done. It's a dream come true for someone who wants to do it themselves.

ETA:Remember to put the valve cap back on.

Man, I'm emotionally fragile. My coordinator at the AMA just sent out an email announcing that she's retiring at the end of this year. And so I've been sitting at my computer crying about it. I just don't want any more change. (Except, okay, I'd be thrilled if the election results changed, although I don't think that will happen. But that would still be change I'd welcome.)

Things just need to stay put, damn it. For a little while, at least.

I am having Lego Set Audit Day. It would be more fun if I could find the missing pieces.

Pencil Pouch Audit Day!

I so love this idea.

My annual purge, scour, organize, file event has started early this year.

Not that I don't do this sort of activity routinely, but there is something comforting about resetting at the end of a year...especially THIS year.

I might just run out of stuff to nudge before the 31st.

Last weekend's yard sale helped, but not enough. More to go.

Though, I am really happy with my 'stuff.' Not minimalist, but less motivated by unnecessary influences.

Now, if I could just find that perfect place that is not here, but in a village I can love.

If wishes were horses...

Adventures in Teaching Autistic Kids:

One of my girls, L, is significantly autistic. Exceptionally high functioning, but has her quirks. One of them is that she has a hard time with group time. She has a hard time sitting still and not wandering off and paying attention. She'll do it for a little bit but then gets silly.

She also has this high pitched voice with the most awesome affectations. It's almost Valley Girl but little girl voice Valley Girl. With a little bit of New Englander thrown in.

She's honestly one of my favorite kiddos. I adore her.

Well, she almost killed Ms. Idrissi (her aide) and me the other day.

We were at group time and L was being silly and ants-in-her-pants-y. Her carpet spot is right next to the cubby shelf that holds our math supplies. One of the bins was out and right at head level SO OF COURSE SHE STUCK HER HEAD IN THERE!! Ms. Idrissi told her to get her head out of there and L did and sat for a minute and then went to put her head back in. Ms. Idrissi said, "L! Don't you dare out your head back in that cubby!" and without missing a beat, L responds, "But there's such a magical land in there!"

Ms. Idrissi had to leave, she was laughing so hard and I had to stop teaching and turn my head. Tears streaming down my face. So. Hilarious.

Bwah! I love that so much, Empress. More tales from school!

I like this new doctor a lot. My x-ray results came back, and they looked OK, but she's concerned about the pain in my ankle, so she wants me to get an MRI. This is the first time that a doctor has ever looked at my normal x-rays and said anything other than, "Everything looks fine." Even if I say that I'm in a lot of pain, if the x-rays look fine, then the doctor doesn't think there's a problem. This doctor thinks there's a problem if I'm in pain. That should not be as rare as it is.

Dear heavens I am so emotionally fragile the last few days. Crying over...pretty much everything. Someone says something nice? I cry tears of joy and thanks. Read an upsetting article about racists being racist in public? I cry tears of anger and rage.

Today started out as a very good day. I got a lot done. Made more phone calls early this afternoon than I have in the last month combined. Schedule PCP visit, vet, optometrist, furnace service, duct cleaning. Found a coupon for a free much needed car wash (the moss coating has gotten rather out of control.) Took 2 days of rest and planning to do any of that (my "weekend" is Wed/Thurs/Fri so today is the last day of my 'weekend' before I got back to working 12 hr shifts and getting nothing done outside work), but I got a lot done today.

Then I showed up for a committee mtg and ...no one else was there. And there was no record of their being a meeting, except on my phone calendar. Why did I do that to myself? Why did I go to work ON MY DAY OFF for no good reason? Well, two weeks ago I missed a (different committee) meeting because I hadn't gotten a reminder and didn't put it on my calendar. So even though I didn't get a reminder for today's meeting, I still showed up. But no one else did. It's clearly My Bad, and resulted in over an hour of uncontrollably weeping for so many complex and difficult to explain reasons.

Tip off that my new AD meds are SO not working: I sat in my car in the carwash honestly wishing that I were bipolar because those manic phases would come in real handy and be a nice break from the unrelenting depression. (And yes, I know that's fucked up and I would never wish bipolar on anyone....but the thought keeps running through my head.) It sucks to be so crippled by depression that I can't even find the name or phone number of the psychiatrist I haven't seen in over a year. Cursing myself for not entering her in contacts in a way that I can find now without remembering her name. Gah.