A Catalogue of Catastrophe

Or: excuses, excuses...

I've fallen way behind with blogging lately, and work is once again my excuse. The Peter Principle is unfortunately still in play - the very nice woman my company terminated three weeks ago has left an untold wake of destruction behind her. I discovered last week that something we do on a monthly basis for each client had not been done since November 2007 for one of her clients. Thus a task that normally takes into account thirty days of activity now had to cover approximately THREE HUNDRED! One day's work became three, and four days of other work subsequently had to be squeezed into one. I've dreamed of work every day for a week, and all that keeps me going is the prospect of a weekend ahead.

And then the heat wave hit, further stifling creativity. Or at least my willingness to spend an hour with a hot laptop resting on my legs. But tonight, dear readers, I have made the sacrifice to bring my marvelous musings to the world! Sorry. When uninspired, I fall back on pomposity. You know, like the Republicans.

It's somewhat amusing that this is the "catastrophe" post in a week when the stock market had the sharpest decline since the Great Depression and Congress passed a $700-billion bailout plan. Amusing only in that I'm complaining that I still have a job, and about heat and lack of motivation for geeky projects. Not really the level of tragedy that some people are experiencing this week, and I don't mean to belittle them with my irreverence. But weighty topics aren't really what this blog is about (we'll see if I can stick to that as Election Day draws nearer... vote no on Prop. 8!), and I was slightly affected. At the height of work-related hopelessness last week, my bank failed, which seemed like an appropriate cap to my day. Rest in peace, WaMu. Your "woo-hoo" campaign was condescending and relentlessly irritating, but you were a pretty good bank overall. Except for the subprime mortgage lending practices, I guess.

Heat, heat, heat. All I want to do is think about fall and Halloween - crisp weather, candy, sweaters and tights and boots, pumpkin patches, and costumes. Instead Indian summer has hit with a vengeance (side note to the Buffy fans - doesn't that phrase make "his penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe" start playing in your head?), and even my daily walk at lunch feels like a trip to the sauna. I freeze in my cubicle, then parboil at home. This had better break soon.

Or else what, I don't know. I'll continue working on all my Halloween projects - I'm up to three costumes, several costume consultations, a side dish, a dessert, and a drink to craft. And I still have no idea what to wear to my work party... I'm determined to win that contest. But everything seems to be progressing, if at a snail's pace, and I plod along through the heat. If it would just cool down, I could find some joy in the proceedings.

But for now, all is catastrophe - at least in the overblown sixteen-year-old sense of the word. So, you know, minor inconvenience accompanied by outsize pouting. What can I say? It makes me feel young. :)

As does the use of emoticons. :P

SemiGeekGirl's sanity will return with cooler weather... or at least her boyfriend fervently hopes so.