Happy Jelly Bean Day!

Some celebrate Easter, and if you do, Happy Easter to you. For me, not being a religious person, this is one of those cultural holidays where, if I'm lucky (and today I am!), I'll get to see good friends and eat delicious things. (I will still say Happy Easter to them, of course, just the meaning is different, though if you want, I can belt out a strong, out of tune "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" with that fun ten-syllable "Alleluia".)

And as well as a delicious dinner, I celebrate thusly:

My Easter includes jelly beans, of course.* I ate far too many of the intriguing little Jelly Bellys yesterday. You never know what flavor is coming next: have another! (The bunny is not new: he's been around since November. But right now, he seasonally appropriate, so he snuck in the photo session.)
*No peeps for me so far, but I bet I can score some marked down tomorrow.

In addition to eating them, I also packaged some up, to give as little tokens to the people I have Easter dinner with.

In all honesty, I will not deny that I wasn't sorry that the jug at Costco was larger than I needed for this little project. Also, yes, that's a Jelly Belly tin I'm carrying them in. Not new: I got it when I lived in Charlotte, which makes it 11 or more years ago.

It was too cute not to keep, and I've used it for various things over the years. (The top's around somewhere too.) It's not an oval, either, though it's hard to see in these photos: it's jelly-bean shaped. Of late, it's been in the knitting area, holding knitting pins. No, not that kind of pins; this kind of pins.

Today, like yesterday, is a sunny, decent-if-chilly day, and to Carlos' relief, that allows for a partially open window. Carlos is a founding member of the Windows Should Be Always Open, All the Way, All the Time Club. He is highly disappointed in me when I close the window, or when sometimes I only open it a little way, not as much as a guy would like. However, he's good at making do.

Are you mocking me? I think you're mocking me.

Never!

Friday Night, All Right

While this is true:

I have found that a peaceful, accomplish-y evening, with the prospect of getting back into that bed, redeems much.

More tomorrow, perhaps. Sometime when 11+ pounds of orange tabby are not draped, purring, over my right arm.

Wednesday, aka Still Not Friday

The cat-and-hockey game plan Monday night ended up working out all right: lots of scritches for Carlos, and after initially spotting the Leafs to a 2-goal lead, the Bruins came back to win in the shoot-out. There was a moment when Carlos was sitting at a distance, trying to move me with the power of his mind to get up and give him the good stuff, and the Bruins were down 2-0, when I wasn't sure how well I had made my plans for the evening, but then I lured Carlos over with scritchy fingers* for an extended forget-about-food,-señor-itchy-head session, and my boy Patrice Bergeron scored a beauty of a goal, and things went better from that point on. Phew. I hope they can play a good one tonight; a 60-minute effort would be most welcome, no matter the outcome. Montreal played last night and then had to travel, so they should be tired**, and if the Bruins press, good things could happen. Could.
*He tries to pretend he can hold out against the lure, but he can't.
**More tired. Every team is tired this season***. The Bruins have Thursday and Friday off this week, and it's over a month since they had two days between games.
***In the lockout-shortened season, the league crammed as many games into a short period of time as they could. Usually, a four-game week is unusual, and is balanced by the occasional two-game week. Not this year.

Last night I had a headache; it didn't get awful, but it was bad enough to rouse that fearful feeling I hate, that it will get that bad. It's hard to explain, if you haven't been there, and I hope for your sake that you haven't. My head felt fragile and tender all day today. I was between reports at work, and it's hard to maintain any sort of keeping-busy focus with a head like that: not bad enough to go home, but distracting. Plus, if you spend down time at work poring over your to-do list, you can't help thinking about how you could be working on your to-do list instead.

I ate lunch out yesterday with a few work friends, and while it was good, I fell victim to the classic problem of high expectations. We were going out because it's restaurant week, and unfortunately it turned out that the menu I'd looked at online was the dinner menu, not the lunch menu. So instead of getting a little filet mignon and creme brulee, two of my favorite foods ever, I had a little sirloin and a slice of flourless chocolate cake. And they were good, really, just not great, and not what I was expecting. Key to happiness, folks: low expectations.

Soliciting Opinions on Actions in a Work Environment
Those of you who work or have worked in an open office setting, I would love to get your opinions on this one. The subject relates to personal, ephemeral items on a desk.

On my desk at work, I have a box of tissues and a bottle of hand lotion. I have lip balm and gum/mints and various OTC meds (tums, advil, excedrin).

If I'm at my desk and someone asks if they can have a tissue, or if a general question is asked about whether anyone has some aspirin, I share cheerfully (and if I'm not at my desk and someone takes a tissue, I have no problem with that). After all, I would hope that if I were the one in need, someone else would help me out. On the other hand, if you come by a lot, I'll start to wonder why you don't bring in your own whatever-it-is.

So that's the general background. Now the specifics: when I was out sick, my work friend C told me that D, my new manager and least favorite person in the office, was stopping by my desk to take some lotion. Which is a little odd, you know? I mean, she never asked for any or helped herself while I was sitting there, why would she suddenly start doing that when I was out? There's nothing stealthy about it, it's a very open office, so apparently she didn't mind other people seeing her do it ... odd.

This morning when I came in, there was an e-mail from C, sent after I left yesterday, telling me that D had just come over to my desk to take some mints. What the? Again, she's never asked me for them while I was there ... what the?

It sort of creeps me out. Partly because I don't like her, but also because of the behind-my-back factor, which just seems so odd. And she is an odd person, I've used that word to describe her from the start, but really? Is this normal office behavior?

Of course, I'm asking this question about a person who the other day was clipping her nails at her desk (ew), so I'll only be surprised if you disagree. But honestly, what do YOU think?

After thinking about it this morning, I ended up moving most of the items to a desk drawer. The tissues and lotion are still out, and the lip balm (which I have to believe no one else would use ... gag), but she'll have to search for the rest. And hopefully it won't come to that! Because I think we can all agree that you don't go into someone else's desk drawers without permission, or a really good reason ("Where are the papers for the Fleegleman report? I know she just had them..."). Right?

Quickly--off to scritch cat and watch hockey

Yup. Don't think the thought hasn't crossed my mind.

This is What Hope Looks Like

I am far from alone in feeling that winter will never end here, that the snow will never stop, that warmth and light will never return. You know that it will, that it must, but then it snows again and it all seems impossible.

Today, in an attempt to remember what not-winter is like, I went to Wellesley College to visit their greenhouse, as I've done before. There's nothing like a good greenhouse to help you forget what's outside. The warmth, the humidity, the green, and the flowers, oh, the flowers, so beautiful and sweet-smelling and colorful. It was fantastic. I walked around beaming, taking pictures to help me remember. There's no snow in the forecast, and temperatures are supposed to get into the 50s next week, which is better than it has been, but first, I hold little faith in forecasts, and second, I'm afraid to believe. We've had snow in April before.

So here is all the pretty. I took A LOT of pictures, and I'm throwing them all up here, in case anyone else needs them as much as I do. Because wow, do I.