Sonata in C Major

Thursday Sonata in C major? ... Teasing, teasing ... Well, I think I’m up this time. Think we were up and down about four times during the night. Too late, we’d figured out we’d forgotten to take our evening medicine ... that’s not so good. We do love to have a good morning chat first thing of the day ... now that is all accomplished, it’s on with the schedule.

Today’s the day we see Dr. M. ... Yes, and we have Chinese. Sigh ... These be the good things of life. I’m pretty sure ... Maybe today, we’ll get a chance to settle some thoughts and feelings we were so overwhelmed with particularly on Tuesday. Maybe it will be something new, you never know. I don’t remember what I dreamed of, but don’t have a sense of having nightmares. Hmm, take that back ... I remember now about our parents as inheriting a small and very old store. We were left in charge. Remember trying to clean out zillions and zillions of roach type bugs, then the place became a broken down fishing cottage and we were being forced to live with another business partner of the family. He had kids too and everyone was hungry and the place disgustingly dirty. There was some problems in getting dressed due to others’ invasiveness, but we spent the majority of that dream trying to either cook with very poor rations and tools, or the effort to wash dishes. Pretty yuck!

Ok ok ... ‘nuf said of our terrible nocturnal life!

Yesterday wasn’t quite as bad as imagined ... After we got to work, we quickly made it back to our office. Then it seemed as if we were being visited by a few of our more friendly peers. Always some catching up to do professionally, and there are those who needed to catch us up on their long weekend. It’s a welcoming thing to happen and kind of presides over the first hour or so back. Ahh, maybe we were a little missed :). After that we were a little shaken in that we couldn’t remember what it was again that we were really supposed to be doing. Fortunately, our friend IM’d and reminded us that we kept a schedule. I was like, "Ohhh, ok - I got it." We worked then on finishing a couple of Qnotes and a history report for the person being staffed on Friday. That took up most the day ... Except the part that I was grumbly, because the other Q and two of the DSPs and the secretary were all holding up reports I needed. I wrote Sr. a note and we’re pretty sure she’ll say today ... just take care of it. *Sigh*

So, that was that ... and then there was the return home :) ... On the way out the door from work, we’d stopped by at our mailbox and discovered that a new book had come in. We’d ordered it after listening to a radio presentation of the south-side neighborhood of Chicago where our work is located. In particular, we are called the "Back of the Yards" neighborhood which is attached to the "Stockyards." Stockyards was created like in 1865 as one of the US largest processing places for hogs, cattle, and sheep. It had survived the big Chicago fire and operated up until at least WWII. I’m not sure exactly how it goes, because I just started the book. But the book is primarily about our neighborhood which had been a young urban ghetto where immigrants lived who worked at the stockyards. Hehe - that’s all I can tell you so far :) Maybe we figure that after working five plus years in the area, and in general living 24 years in the Chicago area that we’re starting to finally accept our identity as a Chicagoan. Stranger things have happened! Growing up in Minnesota had also had a strong affect on our life.

I had a chance to watch and listen to some PBS type news ... and I had a chance to talk a little to my oldest and youngest sons. The youngest one is preparing the tickets so we can see his game on Saturday. He also told us that he’d gotten 7 stitches under his eye from the elbow of one of the pretty cheerleaders. No, he didn’t affront her, just caught her poorly. He’s the cheerleader son who throws pretty girls up in the air! Hehehe. The other son had a lot on his mind. Most importantly is that his Grandfather, my ex-father-in-law, might have cancer. They will know that by today. My boys are close to their Grandfather, especially my oldest so this will be a pretty big deal to go through with him. On the brighter side, he thinks his three year old daughter is finally toilet-trained ... YahOO! Poor kids, they’ve been battling this one out with my Granddaughter for quite some time. Hehe. He had other great news of work progress and such, but he said he’ll save it for when we meet to go to the game on Saturday. He’s pretty excited though to have broke $125,000 for the year at work. All of a sudden he’s thinking $200,000 over the next 2 ½ months. He works down at the Chicago Board with my middle son and naturally the amount earned for the company affects the take home pay ... He really deserves his share :) He’s really happy, because this year he’s earned enough to go down with the company to the Bahamas in November. Way to go kid!!

The rest of the evening ... we watched the debates. I don’t know ... they were saying on PBS television that Bush was his best ever, but we thought, "Eh ... wasn’t impressed." For the record, we are one of those middle people who haven’t decided who they would want to vote for. I found myself leaning much more toward Kerry, but I’ll go over again the transcript ... Washington Post does a nice job at presenting the tape and written transcript and in their written transcript they offer a little officiating guy like in football to check and confirm all the facts and figures that were being thrown about by both candidates. I think the early polls have Kerry leading Bush by about 6%. Lately at work we’ve been listening more to Chicago PBS than Ohio or Philadelphia. Chicago has much more in the line of news stories and features. We’ll most likely stick with that throughout the day. Our staff training meeting has been canceled due to a big field trip to the zoo today. Be a good day to stay in the office and catch up with things. Yeeks, ‘bout that time! Take care!