Watching the leaves change

The cat likes Gilgamess, which I find intolerable. We've compromised. I've named him Gilgamesh (yes, I'm a nerd) and I've promised to slur the end sometimes so that he feels validated.

A few days ago he pulled my french press out of the corner where I had thoughtfully jammed it when I got him, and smashed it on the ground. Fucking thumbs! So maybe I've been so ornery with him because there is a distinct lack of coffee going on now-ish.

Or I'm overwhelmed from doing a billion things. Whatever.

Last night I drank an overdiluted tablet of generic-brand Airborne and went to be early. The cat only woke me up twice, both times trying and failing in a wet way to jam his head into the cup (not glass anymore I've learned my lesson) of water near my bed. (Don't ask me why, his water dish was full. It's in the same part of his brain that makes him carry my dirty socks around and stash them with the rest of his prizes.) So, I feel generally well-rested and certainly much healthier than I did a few days ago. Vitamins! Sleep! These things are great! Now I'm behind on everything else!

Research/education/work etc. is proceeding in a general forward direction, although not as quickly as I'd like. I've been sort of checked out since the beginning of September, when I was suddenly required to tack 25 hours of lab construction on top of my as-usual over-packed schedule. I look forward to reducing that by about 15 hours next week, and resuming life at a slightly less over-worked pace. It really has made me wonder what the bottom limit is; how little personal time it's possible to get by on. I literally work from 7:30 am until midnight, and come home just to crash into bed, sleep for a few hours, and shower. No wonder the cat and I don't have the best relationship.

But relief is coming. I am looking forward to a family get-together this weekend; my sisters, mother and I are going apple-orcharding, pumpkin-farming, leaf-watching and other generally autumn activities. I'll bring my knitting. If someone (hint: Jessi!) ever tells me how to post pictures on this blog, I'll post some of the scarf I've all but finished (I just need to bind off, which I expect google to be teaching me about soon), as well as whatever I get a start on this weekend. You may have picked up that I like autumn a bit, and it's getting lovely here in Madison. The leaves are probably 50% changed, which means the oranges and reds are going to start going soon. The only down-side of this is that anything north of us has probably already changed. I hope I make it for a leaf-drive soon. One of the few assets of living in this politically ass-backward chunk of the continent is that it has beautiful, full expressions of each season (usually). Long, crisp autumns; cold, snowy winters; wet, blooming springs; and hot, windy summers. For an urbanite-turned-small-town woman, this is something I treasure.

(A note for fellow would-be wine-drinkers: At a wine tasting on Saturday I tried a good bottle of Zin that I would recommend to people who don't normally drink reds. The memorable (albeit corny) name is Earth Zin and Fire. Just google it or something.)