2002-09-07 - 7:43 a.m.

Dear Diary,

Well.. this is the morning :oD

I'm pretty excited and it sure helped me to get out of bed. Last night was the first time I went over my bedtime because people were over. I had just gotten up from a round of cop chases on GTA3 when I noticed it just 10:00. I couldn't believe it. Usually the evenings proceed at a steady pace and I know ahead of time when 10:00 is going to roll around. Anyway, it's going to be different. I'm considering it stage 2 of my test, because I have to keep going to bed on time and keep waking up at 6:30. This time around, I'm accepting no compromises because I really can't afford to change my mind or slack off on any decisions. That's final.

So anyway.. I get to see Kris and Michelle today! :o) I've got the morning all planned out.. I'm sure the time will come before I know it. I'll finish writing this, eat breakfast... wait a second.. I'm not going to start talking about the coming day in my diary.. I still haven't talked about yesterday.. sheesh.

So yesterday.. hmm.. I biked to the office and I wore shorts although it was pretty cold. It turned out to be a really good idea by the time I came home, and I was warm about half-way there anyway because that side of town is usually hotter by a few degrees. For breakfast yesterday I made a rockin' omelette with tomatoes, cheese, chives and a bit of green pepper, and then instead of flipping it I put some ham slices on the top side and folded it over. Excellent idea and I'd recommend it to anyone :o) (especially my future self :o)

Work was really good yesterday. I got right down to it and by 9:45 when I'd been there an hour, I had already cleared off a bunch of loose ends. The downside being that none of those accomplishments equalled any checkmarks on my list of things to get done by the end of the day. But anyway, considering I used to get in around that time, or even later, I was ahead of the game.

I worked very well until lunch hour rolled around. Slow and steady progress, just like Sunday I think, the day I went in last weekend to catch up. Around lunch the guys started talking about going out and I said I wouldn't go cause I wanted to get the work done, but then they said they weren't going for an hour. In that hour I managed to get so far that I only had like 2 items to finish by the end of the day so I accepted Paul's offer of some of his onion rings on the patio of Players. The patio at Players turned out to be closed, however, so we started across town for another place.. I kinda should have gone back to the office but by now I was outside in the sunshine and it was soooo warm that I had to get more :o)

We ended up at Kelsey's where Paul ordered some cheese and spinach dip that came with these crispy spiced pita wedges. It was a nice snack for sure, and now I'm understanding a lot more how Paul eats so little.. I ate even less. Dan had a great looking chicken caesar salad but he should have got a half-size cause he keeps talking about losing weight. Oh well, we'll see.. he's German after all ;o) All in all it was a nice lunch cause we got to sit outside for an hour instead of getting our brains assaulted by radiation from our monitors.

After lunch it took a while for things to get moving again. At first I was trying to make up a manifest list of files to download by hand.. then I dropped the idea in favour of writing a small program to do it. But that idea got switched too - by a meeting! if you can imagine that - to getting Dan to write a perl script that did the same thing. Perl just naturally lends itself to these kinds of things so it was definitely a good idea. He whipped that off and we got a chance to test the whole shebang just before 5:00. Mistake.. another mistake.. more mistakes.. typical. I didn't leave until 5:45 but now, dammit, the whole thing works! I'm REALLY impressed about it because even the simplest software project usually goes way off the timeline but I accomplished what I set out to do. It's too bad I was only partially functional for the last two weeks of August. I think that's part of what makes me feel so good about it, because I lifted myself out of my depression and got to work when it needed to be done. Now all I have to do is keep it up, day by day :o)

So then I biked home, went to the bank, got a money order for Ramada, got cash for rent for the last month, drove out to Anja's place and gave them the cash I owed them. That was cool because they invited me in as usual.. they're really friend Finn people. They didn't remember me coming to visit but Michelle and I went there just before we moved in over two years ago. Man.. it does seem like a long time. Many happy days :o) After that I drove back and bought stamps at the corner store to mail my money order out. I'm so glad about that.. only 1 left to go and Ramada will be all payed off. I still remember the last email the guy sent me, he was thanking me for being so on top of things and said I was "a very stand-up young man". Well.. I have to say that at least for the last three weeks that definition applies. The idea is to just keep going the way I am now :o)

I phoned Stuart when I got home and got to cooking. I don't know why I was putting off making a stir-fry so long because damn.. sti-frys are GOOD :o) Stuart played Warcraft 3 and then we fired up GTA3 for a little violent entertainment. Hey, who needs tv? My living room got all the gunfire it needed to make it complete last night :oP Mark came home and joined us on that game. I think it'll be a success and Mark is already hooked so pretty soon we can have competitions to see who can get the best "Insane stunt bonus".

I went to bed at 10:30.. not bad considering I had to brush my teeth as a sign in front of everyone and then *still* say "hey, I'm going to bed". Believe me, I would have loved to stay up and play more.. but dedication is the key... Of course when I laid down I was kinda wired cause normally I would have read quietly for a while before bed and had a bath or shower. It didn't help that the guy next door was talking on the phone and making popcorn. It *sure* didn't help that the people upstairs were having sex. That especially got my mind very active, thinking of the woman I haven't touched in three weeks. I did manage to calm myself down and fall asleep before Mark came back home. I don't know what time it was, but I did wake up at least partially. Thankfully I feel back asleep quickly otherwise I might have lain awake for a while listening to rustles. I'm awful at getting to sleep when there are small noises. But.. this morning.. 6:30 rolled around and my first thought was "ughh.. " ok.. that's pretty honest.. but the thought *right* after that one was: "ooooh! Today's the day! Oohhhh!"

So now I'm on my way with Esso.. gotta do a bunch of things before I can head out. Right now it feels like 3:30 won't ever roll around but since I'm leaving the apartment at 11:00, there are only 3 hours left till that time and I haven't eaten breakfast or trimmed my beard or gotten together all the stuff I want to bring, including reminders of what to say and stuff.. all I have to do is get busy and the time will absolutely fly by :o) OoooooOOOooohhh! OOoooooo..........

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