I did run to the Post Office right after work this morning, and they are getting to know me in there now. I've been there three times in the past week, about the same time of the morning, and this morning when I went in we were all joking around since there were very few customers around. I like it when I start to get to know people someplace and they start to get to know me. I moved around so much in my 20s that I didn't have much of a sense of community, and I missed that after having lived in the same town for so many years as a kid/teenager. Now, I check out at the grocery store and they know me, I walk into Starbucks and they start fixing my drink without me saying what it is, and now they know me at the Post Office. It's a good thing. LA may be a big city, but most of my world here is pretty small!

Anne stopped by tonight as I was getting ready to leave for my meeting - she has a cold (again!) and wanted me to massage her back and neck for a few minutes. She's been coughing like crazy and her muscles were knotted up pretty well. We're going to the chiropractor together on Friday - when gas is $2.15+ a gallon, you share when you can! (And another benefit of having your best friend living in the same building as you!)

The actor's network meeting I went to last night was great - it was with a manager who I've met a couple of times before (see? that world is small!) at various events. He's delightful, and had some great stories to share with us, as well as some good thoughts on when to get a manager and what to look for in a manager. Well worth the time to go to the meeting!

Tomorrow morning I'll be up late - have to go register for another submission forum (to submit my headshot to acting jobs!) and then I HAVE to do laundry.

Still eating lightly today - it's been so hot here, I just don't feel like eating. I've got a salad with shrimp in it for lunch tonight. And I'm drinking lots of water. The lamb I bought last weekend is languishing in my freezer. Seems too heavy right now!

The Irish in me salutes you on this fine, fine day! My family is from County Cork originally, and I love St. Patty's Day! No plans to celebrate in any way, though - I have another meeting about acting stuff tonight, and then work, so no celebratin' for me. And I'm kickin' myself for forgetting to put on something green today! Grr!

Oh, well. I only slept about 5-6 hours, and hoped to sleep some more, but it just didn't happen. So I dragged myself out of bed, fed Anne's cats, did some Pilates, ate a banana, prepared food for work tonight, and cleaned my kitchen. I also accomplished several tasks that needed to be done at the computer, including three letters that I have been putting off dealing with for too long. It feels good to have gotten them all out of the way! I'll run to the Post Office in the morning and get this stuff mailed out.

I went to the PO yesterday morning, too, to pick up a box from my mother. It was my Christmas presents! She's a little late! She'd made a few little Christmasy door signs for me, and gave me a Ghirardelli mug with chocolates in it (all milk - I gave it away to a neighbor) and a little flat black round circle of pottery that is a black cat. It's about 4 inches in diameter and you can put a teabag on it. It's really cute. I laughed at her being so late with my presents. One year I received a 2' tall Christmas tree in February!

I'm tired tonight - wish I'd been able to sleep some more!

There's no logical explanation for today's title in this entry. It just was what came to mind when I was thinking about what to title it, and since Monday was a rather routine day, it seemed appropriate.

I got home from work and did a little Pilates and yoga, called the IRS to request some "tax return transcripts" from 2000 and 2001. I can find EVERY other piece of paper related to my taxes for these two years, but not the actual returns themselves. I know I e-filed, so I probably have the returns on one of my hundred or so disks, but I'd rather wait a week or so to get the hard copy from the IRS than spend countless hours trying to find them. I'm surprised at myself, too, for not having a print out of them with the rest of my information - I consider myself fairly organized in that department! The woman I dealt with was friendly, efficient, and we had a nice chat as she pulled my information. Who knew that the IRS had such good customer service! So I should have those within a week or so, and then I can file my amendments for those years. Yay!

Went to bed around 10am, and woke up around 6pm. I slept better yesterday than I usually do during the day, which was great. Woke up and went to an acting network meeting last night that was VERY informative and motivational. I am just ITCHING to get some real work in the industry now! I'm planning just how that is going to happen.....

Came home and talked with Mike about some acting stuff related to tonight's meeting, and we discussed some other acting-related stuff, too. I finally got off the phone about 10:15, and was bummed because I'd hoped to have enough time to call Brad tonight to see how his weekend skiing was, but I didn't want to call him that late. I'll try tomorrow night since I should be home and awake tomorrow night. So I did most of my Pilates workout before showering and heading in to work tonight. I haven't done any exercise to speak of in the last week or so because I was fighting whatever crud I had, so I'm trying to be better about it this week. I want to get back to the gym this week, too, but work, sleep, and acting-related events seem to take up all my energy, so to actually LEAVE THE APARTMENT to go exercise seems like a monumental task for some reason.

Food-wise, I really haven't been hungry the last couple of days. I'm just not interested in food, which is good and bad given my recent blood sugar issues. I'm making myself eat periodically, but not forcing the food down, either. I think appetites come and go anyway. Some days I can eat several large meals and my tummy is still growling, and other days I'm stuffed with a single dainty snack. So far I haven't had any blood sugar episodes in several days, so that's good news. I had some mango for a snack a little while ago, and a smoothie for 'breakfast' when I arrived at work at midnight. I've got some blueberries, pecans, and yogurt for lunch, and more mango for later. BTW, in my smoothie I used the blood type O protein powder that I just got from NAP, and it's got 20 grams of protein in it! I like the protein powder quite a bit - it does blend easily, but is a little bit grainy in texture, though not so grainy as to be disgusting. I used it, the Harmonia, a little vitamin C, some grapefruit seed extract, some psyllium powder (I never seem to eat enough fiber, so every little bit helps!), a banana, and pineapple juice for my smoothie. The harmonia makes it kind of a disgusting brown color when combined with the other stuff, but it tastes pretty good!

Anne had two dates with two different men in the last two days - she said she was learning from ME! I still haven't heard her report though, so I am looking forward to hearing about them! : )

Well, things went very well with the accountant yesterday morning - made me very glad that I keep pretty much every receipt for pretty much everything I do! I'll be getting a very nice refund check, and we'll be doing amendments for the past three years, too, so I will be beefing up my savings account in the next few weeks. This is excellent news since it took a real beating after being unemployed for seven months last year.

I then headed home and talked to Mike for a few minutes before I headed home. I wasn't incredibly tired, but I had to sleep some because I had to babysit for a couple hours again today. I only slept about two and a half hours and woke up WELL before my alarm went off. So I got up to look online for a new W4 to fill out for work, because if this year's taxes are going to be at all like last year's, I need to change my withholdings! Couldn't find a 2004 one, but I'll ask HR here to get me one. Went to babysit, and the poor boy was so tired. I was only there 2 hours, and he was fussy and crying for about half of that, and then fell asleep on me about 30 minutes before his dad got home. It was so nice to have a baby fall asleep on me! His dad came in and remarked how cute the baby was asleep on me.

Headed back home, returned a phone call to Anne and left her a message. Then I tried to sleep, tried being the operative word.... It took me over 2 hours to fall asleep, and then I did NOT want to get up tonight! So I got less than 3 hours of sleep this evening, and I have to be relatively functional until about 4pm. I've got - get this! - a time management class in the morning (do I need this or what?!?!), then a singing lesson in the early afternoon. I'll also go to my PO Box and mail the hard copies of my tax returns. THEN I can head home and take a nap. Tomorrow evening is TV and girl time with Anne, and the weekend will be spent cleaning up my apartment and going to the movies, relaxing, and pulling my old tax returns out of my storage area so that I can amend them in the coming weeks.

Blood type diet stuff - there's not much to tell, actually. Somehow what I've managed to eat the past couple days has been BTD acceptable, even good for me, but I haven't been eating much. I'm still fighting the crud I had earlier this week, and yesterday I just wasn't very hungry, so I didn't eat much. Had a salad with goat cheese and turkey sausage and snap peas on it for lunch last night, and then had mango juice and trail mix in the morning. Mostly I've been really thirsty, so I've been pushing the water, which is good because hopefully it will flush out the bloating I've been experiencing this week. Hasn't helped so far, but it will. Got to work tonight and had a turkey sausage link, and will have some salad later.

Today was a long day - I dashed home from work, threw myself into a shower, threw clothes back on, and headed to the chiropractor. It's interesting that my life now is often dictated by what I have time for rather than what I'd prefer to do at that time. So I showered between work and heading to the chiro's office so that I'd have more time to sleep later in the day.

Chiropractor's office was crazy - they're moving their office starting TOMORROW, so there were tons of boxes around and everyone was a bit stressed. Didn't meet anyone interesting there this time! My neck and sacrum were way out of alignment, so we took care of that and I headed home for a nap.

I slept about 2 hours and had to get up to go babysit, and once again, this darling child did not sleep, which meant that I didn't either. He was very tired and cuddly, though, and I really enjoyed holding him while we watched "The Tigger Movie" (AGAIN!) and "Monster's Inc." His dad got home about 6:30, and I headed home to nap again.

I didn't sleep too well, though - my phone kept ringing, and I couldn't turn it off bc I needed to be able to take a call I was expecting (that never came, actually!). Mike called about 9pm and told me to go to my window - he was standing in the parking lot below my apartment (which is where he parks) and I told him I felt like Juliet with him standing down there! He asked if he could come over to visit, but I told him that I was trying to sleep and that we could talk this weekend. I went back to sleep and slept (uninterrupted!) until just after 11 when my alarm went off.

I am not very awake yet tonight, and don't know that I will be. I've got to work on my taxes some more tonight because I meet with my accountant in the morning. Then I get to sleep for about 5 hours, go babysit for less than three hours, and go home and sleep some more. Then one last day of work and the weekend!

I am not planning on doing much this weekend other than resting and taking care of myself. I need to be healthy!