Schreiber

Scheduling for P's visit is starting to resemble the planning for my grandma's funeral in complexity and number of people involved.

(Yes, this is hyperbole, but still, whooboy. OTOH with this, the drama potential is pretty much confined to the teenager.)

So this next week is going to be very interesting!

I mean, it was going to be interesting anyway. At work, our VP&Director, my immediate supervisor, and our...effectively CTO, even though that's not her title...are all going to be on vacation from my department, even as we all grapple with a Massive Proposal Deadline, a sudden spate of new projects from the NSF, the fact that we're moving to the other end of the building in a month, and the assorted fallout flow-down effects of all of this.

But that's just a small bit of what's gonna make it interesting for me.
Because, while I am officially in the office next week... I'm not actually gonna be in the office for more than about 60% of the time. And even when I am, my brain's not going to be.

Because next week is BellsCon! OK, technically that's "The Annual General Meeting of the North American Guild of Change Ringers", but let's face it, it's a whole bunch of people with the same somewhat obscure interest getting together for a long weekend to Do That Thing A Lot and hang out together.* ** So basically, a con.
(With a business meeting thrown in.)

( So: Scheduling! )

1. Written on a series of public transport options,* on the way to see my mother off home from Logan
In happier news, I now have a bike! Bought Friday off "the sketchy guy by Shaws" (as my roommate refers to him) at a comparatively low price. Consequently (well, consequent to that and to what happened to my last two bikes) I am now being paranoid about all the things that might be about to go wrong with it.
However, while having a bike again is something I have wanted for some years, my more immediate purpose--using it for exercise in lieu of jogging until my knee heals up--is not working as well as hoped. The inevitable stops and starts and periods of coasting, among other less identifiable factors, mean that it doesn't work as well for either exercise or loosening up the joint as does an exercise bike at the gym.

And also, I am left wondering whether I literally had testicles made of metal back when I used to cycle regularly. owwie.

2. At the airport, Mom presented me with her old computer! Yay, thanks Mom! I now have a computer with an actual battery!
She was also planning to pass me her old smartphone. While I like this idea in theory, I'd need to replace the SIM Card (since hers is British), and I doubt whether (a) my stupidphone uses the same type of Sim Card and (b) my ability to locate and remove it, given that my phone is so old that I'm not even sure what the model is. And finally, my PC phone company will just GIVE me a smartphone if I put myself in hack sign up for a two-year contract avec data plan, which would also save me the trouble of explaining to them that I'm switching phones and...
So yeah. Now all I need is an hour to spend on the phone with them.

3. Things to do:**
* Job applications (constant)
[Inc.: Mem. to keep checking the BC website]
* Bleach the shower
* Look up the benefits on (cruddy) website of (cruddy) insurance, to find out whether I'm paying for glasses frames out of pocket.***
w Buy said glasses
() Put on some KUEC and actually put my laundry away
w Bake bread for families with newborns (Sunday?)
() Schedule some time off Friday Sept. 30 and Sunday Oct. 3 DONE
() Look up train times for this purpose DONE†
On a related note, find out how much time on what day I should take off to help Sovay move.
* Order smartphone
w Get watch(es?) fixed
() Find out what we're always looking across at from the Silver Line††
() Re-learn Persian alphabet††
w Car inspection (Sat. Sept. 17? Or find a place in Waltham?)
() Look at CoJ website?
() Fulbright website (et sim)?


*Unrelated footnote written at the time: Why is the African-American woman across from me on the train reading Ann Coulter? PLEASE tell me this is for a class or something.

** I'm writing this up because I've realized that I frankly suck at adulting, and I might as well write this here as anywhere.

*** For this: Get out both insurance cards, and check the info on the websites. Or find the paperwork--that might include it. (See above)

† OK, so there's a train that leaves Porter an hour later than the one I usually take. Even if, in the best/worst case scenario, I wake up hungover in someone else's bed, I think I can probably make that. Possibly even with my trousers on over my underwear.
And for Friday: 3:59 out of B/R. Take an abbreviated lunch and an hour of Personal Time: check.

†† Mostly just for the heck of it

In the mail today: three things with a Post Office logo on them!
The first was a small PO mailing envelope (which I mentally categorized as machinable, first-class, probably wouldn't quite fit in Universal, unlikely to be a problem) from 'sirus, which proved to contain a late Hanukkah present: one of the large stock of board games he was getting rid of! (Or, in my case, the sequel to my beloved Give Me The Brain.)

The other two actually WERE from the USPS. #1 was my W-2 tax form, of which I'd also received one from MECA; the other was an actual check. For less than I'd been expecting,* but still, hey, money.

This evening also featured making money: in this case, by inventorying a Nordstrom. Coulda been worse.

And this weekend is going to feature some combination of the following: possible acquisition of new ski boots; possible lunch at Silly's with Squigamunk and partner; cosplay dancing; running with the local running/drinking/exhibitionist club. So things are moderately looking up. Now all I need is for one of the job/housing possibilities in Boston to come through...!

* I think this is *probably* me miscalculating, rather than them trying to screw me over.

[with apologies to Harper's Index, Susan Townsend, and Margaret...
and really, to everyone reading this ;-) ]

Days until I leave for Germany: 15 (eep!)
Of these, number that will be spent driving to Maine, moving everything out of old house, and coming back: 4.
Days until Great Big Sea is performing at Toad's: 17 (grr. Everybody go, dance, scream along to the lyrics, and think of me. Fulbright orientation is unlikely that much fun)

Boxes of books stacked in my sister-in-law's bedroom: 6.
Additional boxes that will be joining them: 3 (large).
...that will be shipped across the Atlantic: 1
Papers, miscellaneous, to be sorted and boxed or thrown out: depressing numbers.

Library books waiting to be returned on bottom shelf of smallest bookcase: 15
Number of these that I have more than skimmed: maybe three.
Current year in my current Civilization III game: AD 1575.

Pages of notes on Maurer's Konstanz im Mittelalter: 33 and counting.
(not counting maps, diagrams, and bibliography)
Days until it's due: 1
Days until I meet Maurer: 70 (est.)

Number of students from my TA sections last semester who area still in town and keep bumping into me: at least 4.

Things I would like to know (random):
--where I am going to sleep between Sept. 24 and Oct 1.
--whether I should pack my dinner jacket.
--bibliographic information on guides to the archives of the Thurgau, Konstanz, and Freiburg, and of private collections in the region.
--German words for "cell phone family plan"
--ideal number of people to consume one Downside Watson.