Wow, it's been a whole week since I last wrote - this is probably the longest gap in my journal since I began writing in May last year. The reason is that I'm stretched rather thin right now, and, for the first time in months, I don't have any free time at work to absorb the activities that I don't have time to do at home.

It's been one of those weeks where I come home late or tired, drop my clothes on the floor, read the newspaper while falling asleep, and leave it unfinished in a heap of other papers by the side of my bed. It was only this morning when I managed to make a start on getting things back into order. Mind you, I made a start on it two hours ago, and the newspapers are still inch-thick by my bed. I guess I'm too easily distracted to focus for long on mundane chores like tidying up.

That's why I have a cleaning lady, who comes twice a month. Of course, I always tidy up for HER. She does the hard stuff - scrubbing the tub, pretending to dust and so forth. This new lady, Sally, came on the scene only about a month ago, and she's beginning to go astray already. Her first peculiarity is that she never answers her own phone, nor calls me, but prefers to spring a surprise on me by ringing my doorbell while I'm in the shower first thing in the morning. And moreover, she's unfazed when I answer the door wrapped only in a towel.

I thought I'd found a bargain, though, when she said she'd do my laundry too, for only an extra ten bucks. Jed, my boyfriend (that term still doesn't come lightly off my tongue) wondered how I could bear to have someone pawing through my clothes like that. I didn't think about it until after I came back from work on her first visit. My clean laundry was neatly stacked on top of my bed, and atop the whole pile was my jockstrap. I'm sure she did that on purpose.

This week she rather excelled herself. First, she didn't show on Tuesday. I called, and, of course, received neither an immediate answer nor a subsequent return phone call, but I returned home from work on Wednesday to find her in my bathroom, scrubbing away. This gave me an opportunity to ask her about the scruffy old vacuum-cleaner she'd left behind two weeks earlier. My fears were confirmed when she announced, in a harsh voice that echoed in the confines of the bathroom, "I got vacuum cleaner for you.". As nonchalantly as possible, I replied, "Oh, that's great," while I got my stuff ready to go the gym, and hoped I'd be out the front-door by the time the punch-line came. But I wasn't quick enough: "For you, 50 dollar." I told her I'd think about it.

There are many reasons that I'm stretched so thin right now, most of which I've mentioned here recently: I have a lot of homework to do for the process I'm going through with my career consultant. Then there's my screenwriting class, and homework for that too. On top of everything, I've had strep throat for a couple of weeks now. More often than not, all that I've wanted to do when returning home from work or the gym is to flop down on the sofa and fall asleep.

Something else that's been taking up my time is preparing for my sister Kirstie's visit on Thursday. I'm so excited that my favorite sibling is coming for a few days, and I want to make sure she has a great time while she's hear. I've donated my apartment to her and her boyfriend for the time they're here: I wish I'd be here to see their faces on the first morning when they wake up, open the curtains and see the view spread out around them.

Of course, I have a boyfriend now, and he takes up time too (though I don't begrudge that :) I wish I could put into words how it makes me feel to have found Jed. I know it's only been a couple of months now, but this already feels like it's something that is going to last for a long time. I've been single for so many years; now, all of a sudden, I have someone with whom I can share a life. That thought creeps up on me unnanounced many times through the day - a feeling that here's a guy whom I can trust, with whom I have a natural rapport, and with whom there are no mindgames: a guy who's adding so much to my life, just as I hope I'm adding to his. I can't help but smile every time I think of it.

This Sunday, we spent most of the afternoon over in the Marin Headlands across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a warm gorgeous day, with just enough coastal fog to keep the temperature comfortable. We ate lunch sitting on top of an abandoned gun emplacement, looking out at the Pacific, several hundred feet beneath us. We could hear several different foghorns, each playing a different note: deep bass to our left, a tenor trumpet closer still on our left, and a shrill peep way over to the right. And filtering through the breeze, we could hear the distant noise of tens of sealions barking on the beach. It was a moment!

San Francisco's Air Conditioner in action

Jed says this is the first shirtless photo of him since he was a kid.

You know who :)

View from Sausalito - the City of Oz floating on the horizon.