All over thoughts

I know I promised an update from the weekend away for work, so let me start there:

I drove (well, actually, Mom drove, and I was a passenger) through a blizzard to make it to the city the conference was being held in.  The weather wreaked havoc all weekend.  We were very excited that Carolyn Arends was to be providing the entertainment for our Friday night banquet, but her flights were affected by the weather too.  So, maybe next year.  We had a banquet (very good) with a program (also good) but no entertainment.  No big deal.  Little hitches with the hotel can also be partially attributed to weather.  I worked a 14 hour day on Friday and probably a 10 hour day (once you add the drive home in) on Saturday.  But I'm really pleased with how things went, barring the little unavoidable hitches.

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Last night did not hold any stupid little dog incidents.  I have, however, concluded that old people are strange.  Rather than closing her bedroom door to keep the dog in, grandma has decided that the best plan of action would be to put something across her door.  Why she doesn't close it, I'll never understand, but hey, as long as there are no more incidents involving a little black dog pouncing on me and scaring me awake from a dead sleep, I'm okay with it.

I did actually sleep last night, and just now was thinking about how I shouldn't complain that I feel tired, since I had a rare nearly 5-6 total hours of sleep, sans nightmares.

And then I remembered that one night doesn't make up for years of poor sleeping.

And that I worked like a crazy person for the last couple weeks, including through an evening and a weekend day that I usually have off, and maybe I'm entitled to be a little bit drained.

And I am drained.  So tired, in fact, that I'm having that "I just want to sit here and cry" feeling.

I'm thinking, too, about a number of prayer requests.

About 2 different friends, one old and one new, whose mother's have been diagnosed in recent months with rare cancers.

I'm pondering, still, the intense juxtaposition of life and death that I experienced on Sunday afternoon.

I'm praying for a very dear friend who travels today to a place on the other side of the world where we shared some intense experiences together a few years back.  Praying for her trip, and her time in this place, and for the others who shared those very shaping experiences with us as well.

And I'm thinking about the random practical things, like the fact that I need to leave the office early today to go to the auto registry and take care of registering the car I recently bought.  And trying to figure out when I can get said car inspected, before the insurance company deadline, because of it's elderly age.  And remembering that I need to pick up mail from my mom and dad's tonight, and also make a stop at a bank today or tomorrow to deposit some cheques.  About the fact that I need to remember to bring some breakfast foods to work with me again to replenish my stash, and about how I could really use a bright sunny day instead of this dreary, cold, snowy weather, just to perk me up.

And that, my friends, is the random conglomeration of things filling my brain just in this moment.