Gripes and Grumps, with a Cute Cat Chaser

I'm really glad that February is a short month, because it has kind of sucked in a bunch of ways, and I'm ready for it to be over. I'm already planning the celebration.

February for me has been the convergence of two main things:

1. A lot of high-pressure work reports (this has to be published in February! No, this has to be published in February! Everything has to be published in February! Including the 132-slide PowerPoint that we sent in at 2 PM Monday), several of which were very very badly written.
2. All the work that's being done to the condo: roofing, painting, power-washing, and window replacement.

What it's meant is that just when work is being stressful and requiring extra focus, the noise and disruption levels have been extraordinary.

The worker-noises have gotten to the point that it's almost funny, if by funny you mean it's not possible for this to get worse--oh wait, it's worse! This morning there was the banging from the roof, and power-washing* outside my windows, and a painter scraping outside the other window, and did I mention that someone in the building behind us chose this week to rip out their lanai? And that they were jack-hammering for the second day?
*And they're supposed to do the front of the building today, so we had to close the shutters on the lanai, leading to a very unhappy cat, who usually sleeps out there much of the day.

I tried playing music to distract myself, but it wasn't really working, so I thought, well, pack up and go to the library, and I did. It was quieter there at first. But then a woman and five kids sat down at the table behind me for some sort of tutoring or mentoring session, and while they weren't precisely loud, it was distracting, and then a group of women sat down at the next table over and started playing mahjong.

Chatting and bidding and the click-click-click of the tiles, on top of the 'science test is next week, and what did you do for you birthday'... And I'm supposed to concentrate on biosimilars in immunology? I didn't think to bring headphones; the library hasn't been that loud the other times I've gone recently. I know that these days, libraries aren't expected to be silent, but this was a bit much, and I came home again. Where it wasn't quite as loud as it had been, but the quiet didn't usually last long, leaving me on edge, wondering when it would start up again.

I'm only slightly insane, thanks.

I don't know where else I could go that would be really quiet. Maybe I do need to get noise-cancelling headphones, though I don't like the idea of wearing them all day long.

But the work is supposed to be done in a few months*. It's not forever. Supposedly.
*They keep telling me it will take months, and that the noise and disruption are only going to get worse. Both these things may very well be true, but I don't see how dwelling on them now helps me at all. It's not like I can prepare myself. Other than moving out, which seems a bit drastic.

I really hope that March will be a bit less insane at work; I hope so, I do. It would help a bit.

Your reward for getting through the griping: Miss Adorable Cat, last night and today.