Details for Monday, December 10, 2007

My alarm went off at 6:45 this morning. I was unwilling to wake up because I was still tired, my bed was warm, and the cat hadn't started begging for food yet. I got up at about 7 a.m. and felt like I was getting a cold or had allergies. I'm still not sure which is the case but either way it's not enjoyable. I took a shower and picked out an outfit. I settled on a nice, new suit that I just picked up from the dry cleaner on Friday. I blew dry my hair and left it straight (as opposed to putting it in curlers, which I do about half the time). I had already packed my lunch and my bag for work the night before, so the morning was not too hectic. Oh yeah, I did feed the cat. I walked out the door at 8:10 and caught the 8:18 light rail train bound for downtown. The light rail is about 2.5 blocks from my house. Train takes 6 minutes to reach my destination. I got off the train and went to La Bou for a bagel. I was starving. Although the scale told me this morning that I weighed about 4 lbs more than I want to, I still felt the need to eat a high-calorie, high-carb breakfast. Go figure. The office is about one block from La Bou and the train stop. Very convenient. I get into the office and see two huge platters of Noah's Bagels. Yum! How exciting. Even though I had a bagel already. Noah's is of much better quality than La Bou. I ate half a cinnamon-sugar bagel from Noah's (messy!) and then still ate the bagel I got. I also bought some chocolate mocha mix from Safeway yesterday, and I had two mugs of that. I spent quite a bit of time checking emails and doing personal work but now it's 11:18 a.m. and I have done some substantive work. I am leaving in about an hour to go home and get my car and drive to Oakland for a meeting. Afterward I plan to do some Christmas shopping for family members. So far, whenever I've attempted to shop for others, I only buy things for myself. That has to change. I'll have to continue this later. Need to call my boss and complete any preparation work to get ready for the meeting this afternoon. I also need to fill out my expense report for last month so I can get my reimbursement check.

(continued...) I went home and scarfed down some lunch, then drove to Oakland. I ran into some knarly traffic in Vacaville and thought I'd be late for the meeting, but luckily I arrived about 15 minutes early and everything worked out perfectly. Meeting went well. Afterward, went to get coffee with my boss and we discussed office gossip. My plan was to do some Xmas shopping. I stayed in Oakland and bought a gift (soup cookbook) for my mom. Then I headed for Walnut Creek but got a little lost in downtown Oakland, trying to find the 24 freeway. I called my friend Krista, who got online and helped steer me in the right direction. I went to Walnut Creek, which has a really beautiful downtown shopping area. It's especially nice this time of year, because the street are lined with trees, decorated with white lights. I was able to do some shopping for people other than myself, which was my goal. I left Walnut Creek, but first got lost trying to find the freeway. Of course. I figured it out on my own fairly quickly and wanted to be back home by 9:30 so I could watch one of my favorite shows, Notes from the Underbelly. I got in at about 9:35, so not bad. I watched the show, had some dinner (and ice cream), fed the cat, changed into pajamas, and was in bed by about 10:30. Pretty busy and long day, but mostly spent in transit, driving and stuck in traffic. At least I wasn't at my desk all day.