It's been way too long

And I have been missing you all, dear however many readers out there! Life has been exceeding busy as they say (who "they" are, is anybody's guess). Life has gotten back to its usual autumnal quick pace and I have to admit, I haven't gotten to the point where everything is going at a regular rate just yet. I almost went to bed this evening before writing something down, but I couldn't go another day without catching up with you.

Let's see, whazzup since last I posted?
The colleague who now has more than fifty percent of cases in my office is on her honeymoon - and I am the one on call pretty much until the end of this month. In January, that may very well be an unfortunately permanent arrangement unless things pick up! This through no fault of anybody's really - just a series of unfortunate events that make up our corporate existence right now. I'm not exactly certain of anything myself, to tell you the truth, but there it is. I can do no more than to do my job as best I can until such time as I need to go in another direction.
In the meantime, things are moving apace -both at work and in my personal life.
K and D are expecting literally ANY DAY now. Thankfully, nobody in our families has ever had a precipitate labor, so even if she starts, I could technically finish out a work day and still have time to meet her at the hospital. But thank God, so far all is well!
All the practice nights as well as EfM are in full swing and I truly love that!
This past Sunday was our first bell Sunday - and it was a lot of fun! On the choir side, I am back to singing alto and can now return home after rehearsals sounding like a human and not E.T. with laryngitis, LOL:). Unfortunately, this Sunday, I woke up with the stiffest back and hip pain the likes of which I have never had before. I suspect it's some type of osteo-something or other, but I am living in denial, despite the fact that I cannot even lift my left leg to get into the car without a major "oof" of pain and effort. Hopefully it's just a muscle thing that will eventually go away. I'll know soon enough if it isn't. But don't trouble trouble....
Anyway, after church this past Sunday, I couldn't even get moving enough to do the grocery shopping. That's when I learned with gratitude the joy of having truly adult children. Armed with our usual bank cards, two of them separately raided grocery and liquor (we are, after all, Irish-Amurikan) and brought the goodies needed to prepare a festive meal. All the "kids," save B and J were there to give our son, D a nice send-off to his tour of Ireland to play in Of Mice and Men. This is the first of our progeny to cross the Atlantic, so it's sort of a big deal to us. We even invited Bill and Patricia E., our neighbors to come eat with us. I think they survived the general noise and revelry in one (respective) piece. Plus we got to talk about our other neighbors with them, LOL:)
Monday came all too soon, with a shelter hearing and a meeting at DSS (actually a meeting about meetings, how sick is that?). Afterwards I went home to study for EfM and then headed to a Stephens Ministry meeting. The meeting didn't last too long, so John and I had time for dinner together.
Tuesday, one of our grandangels stayed with us for a few hours so her mom could get some much-needed sleep after a night shift. Then it was off to the office then another shelter hearing. By the time I got home, I had enough time to do a little paperwork, then K and S arrived with goodies from her baby shower at work. They settle on a house this week, thank goodness! Hopefully the baby won't arrive 'til after then!
We had an interesting bell practice - a number of us were missing (back to school night and a birthday celebration and heaven knows what else), but it was fun. I tried to play two parts, so I was never bored, although my stupid back and hips gave me a fit for standing in one place for too long!
When practice was over, I stopped and helped Nancy put some music away. As we were going to our cars, we ended up having a nice long conversation about a number of things. It was nice. We hadn't had the chance to talk for a good long time and I really miss those conversations.
Today I had R again in the morning, then a firm meeting, then a training in Baltimore City - it was at the War Memorial in the center of town- a very interesting place. It was good to see everybody. It's funny, when you work so much on your own, you don't realize how much you miss the joking around with co-workers that an office provides. My co-workers know that I took these pictures, but I had to cut out anyone else. The blob of blue is that faux cable scarf I've been carrying around with me for occasions such as these. But it, too, wished to remain anonymous! After this, I headed home, checked e-mails and then headed for EfM.
And now I am BUSHED! I'm headed for beddy bye - but before I do, here's a clip of the Aestlight Shawl I am doing. The white laceweight organic cotton Pakucho yarn was nice, but for some reason it didn't want to be this shawl. So I used some Alpaca fingering weight and it's working out much better for some reason (who knew?). I think the dark grey makes a lot more sense to me-who-spills-everything- in-the-chest-region!
Well folks, good night! And God be with you 'til we meet again!
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