It's sometimes the little things that make the difference. This week has been a tough one so far. I've been running myself ragged trying to stay on top of everything and when I get tired and stressed like this I also get irritable. So a couple of nice things that came out of the blue made a bigger difference to me than they would have otherwise. First, I got into work today to find out that I was getting a new office. And woohoo if it isn't a fabulous, fabulous view - the whole of downtown San Francisco and the bay spread out 34 floors beneath me, from a floor-to-ceiling window! They're still finishing it, but in two weeks it's goodbye to my crummy bunker of an inside office!

The other good news in a similar vein came when I opened my car insurance renewal - suddenly the "incident" that has held my wallet at ransome each renewal time has dropped off the horizon. In other words, I had a little "misunderstanding" with a minivan on the Golden Gate Bridge a few years ago while I was too busy ogling another guy in a jeep, and that's kept my insurance rates way high for the last few years. Now it's all gone and my rates are almost half what they were before!

So what has been keeping my stress levels high? Mainly just trying to get everything done. I want to move this Spring, so I have to start looking into that. In the meantime there's a possibility, just a possibility, that I could maybe afford to buy instead of renting if I ever manage to balance my checkbook and pay my taxes. But to get those taxes done means going through all my expenses for the last year and ... well, procrastination is a terrible thing isn't it?

Today we finally got some rain! San Francisco has been dry for six weeks or so, which is unprecedented for recent winters. This afternoon I came home at lunchtime from work because our network was down. The idea was that I would "work at home". Did I do any? What do you think? :)

I feel as if I still haven't even recovered from the jet lag of my Austin trip yet. On Sunday, I played a long game of tennis with this lovely guy I'm slowly getting to know, and then we ran around visiting his favorite parts of Palo Alto during the afternoon. When I got home that evening, what I really should have done is lay up on the couch and take it easy. But instead I was totally driven to write that little short story that's on the main page - the tribute to Patrick O'Brian. It's been over ten years since I last wrote a short story. But this one wouldn't keep from being written, and I stayed up past midnight finishing it.

And I've been on a roll ever since - getting up early for a work meeting on Monday, working late on Monday night, not getting enough sleep. Still, I'm not complaining. I enjoy pushing myself like this. It sure beats watching television.