The State of Ashley - Mid(ish)-November Report

Was I the only one who didn't realize Thanksgiving is next week?  Because holy shit when the hell did that happen and where the fuck did my time go?!

Now that's out of the way...

So, I'm alive.  Barely, and I think my stress levels will take care of the pathetic pieces that are left of me, but for what it's worth...at least enough to put up a blog post!  Work has gotten absolutely insane, and I basically work full time (on minimum wage!  Totally fair. Sarcasm).  I actually even worked overtime today.  I don't discuss work in depth on here, but I work in the financial industry (let's all laugh about that since I had to cry in my AP calculus class in high school to pass.  That's real, y'all) and a good 90% of our clients' fiscal year ends sometime this month.  Therefore, they're all scrambling and stressed and getting all holleration yelly screamy shouty, and it, in turn, makes my life murderous super fucking awesome.

In addition to that...a second job is on the horizon.  Sort of.  It's mine if I want it, but...I don't think I do.  I'm not sure.  It's all really up in the air and I can't make decisions, so we'll leave it that last week, I worked a grand total of 70 hours.  And I felt like I was dying.  I was literally falling asleep anywhere I was, no matter the time or place or if I was standing or sitting or leaning.

So, naturally, NaNoWriMo was a bust.  Or at least...so far.  I stubbornly steadfastly refuse to admit defeat, partially because I have busted out mass amounts of word counts in a week, and mostly because I still think I actually can complete it.  But I currently sit at 5,894 words--and those were all done the first 3 days of November.  I still may try for something during the holiday break, but...it may fall to the wayside.  Which is unfortunate, but necessary.

Despite the fact that I apparently don't know how close it is to the holidays, I am super duper excited for Christmas season!  I am that obnoxious person who has Christmas carols already, and why yes, I have in fact watched Elf already.  I have yet to buy my first Christmas gift (Target was sold out of what I was going to purchase :(), but I have thought about how I'm going to decorate my house.  And my room.  And my office.  And I'm trying to plan my office holiday party...I just can't help how much I love it!

One thing that's been happening is a loooot of baking (which those of you who follow me on Twitter have found out)!  I've gone kind of cookie crazy, for some reason. It started that I saw a recipe that I really wanted to try, and then I found out I am going to be baking a lot for the holidays, so I figured...why not start now?  I've had two go-rounds with pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and one with mint chocolate chip cookies.  Both of which were mighty successful with my office men, which made me astonishingly happy.  It's just nice when someone tells you your baking is "delicious" and you notice that they come out to your office for cookies.  Makes me feel all warm 'n snuggly (is that sad?  Don't answer that...).

I wish I could have blogged more this month, but I feel like I'm slowly making my way into a routine.  I'm going to attempt the #reverb10 prompt-given reflection on 2010 that's happening in December...we'll see if I can find the time to commit to it, but it's nice to have something to look forward to that will make me be around here more.  Especially since I miss all you wonderful bloggy friends so!

I have work in the morning, so I am off to bed...but more importantly, how are you all doing?