Thursday, November 3, 2016

Productive

Today I went in to work at 7am and worked until 11 on what was supposed to be a day off. It was overtime pay, and I could wear jeans and comfortable shoes because I was working at processing return shipments in the stockroom with the funny stock room guys. Getting to be that relaxed at work was a refreshing change of pace! I brought along earbuds and listened to 3 episodes of  This American Life with my cell phone. So for a half work day when I was supposed to be off, it was unexpectedly nice!  Getting off at 11am was pretty great, too. I got a lot of stuff done.

First I ran to Office Depot and got Gregg's main birthday present that I'm super excited about! He's been taking on more and more aquarium design and maintenance jobs....several school and hospital tanks, three nursing homes, the mayor's office, and a couple of individual family aquariums, like at his doctor friend Vinod's house. He still manages the aquarium section at a local pet store, too, and so people regularly approach him there and ask about aquarium services. All of his tanks in public places are beautiful and speak for themselves, and people ask about the person who cares for them. Until now, he's not had any business cards to hand out or leave, and he's mentioned that they would be helpful. So for his birthday, I designed and printed 150 business cards for him! They're a pretty generic template with a little stock drawing of two fish in the upper right hand corner, but I'm still proud of them. I think he's going to really like it that I got that done for him! I'll probably end up buying him an item of clothing or a book as well, but that's his main gift this year.

After getting the cards printed, I went by a store to exchange an item of clothing that didn't fit, then stopped by a little cheap-but-good Mexican restaurant for lunch. They make great taco salads and margaritas, so I had one of each. I really never have a drink at lunchtime on a weekday, so that was a special treat for my productive morning at work and getting the two errands done!

I did one last thing before heading home: I stopped by the voter registration office and did my bit for democracy. I voted early:

I love the sticker. The sticker is very important.

 Funny story: When I stepped up to the smiling young woman behind the counter who had to check my ID she said, "Reason for voting early? Vacation next week?" And I launched into my whole "I'm paranoid there might be trouble on election day" spiel and she was like, "NO, you're on vacation next week" and I was all, "No, seriously, people are being incited to make trouble at polling places next week, it's been on the news, and they're talking about voter intimidation....." and slowly I realized she was trying not to laugh  and nodding to a posted list of acceptable reasons you have to pick from for voting early. She was waiting to make a note in my file.

I felt like a total dumbass.  Ha!

So that was my day. How's your Thursday going?

12 comments:

  1. Funny encounter when voting early and your needing to pick an acceptable reason. Great idea for your hubby's birthday gift, and I like that you treated yourself to a taco salad and margarita, yes, a bit decadent but you deserved a treat for your productive day.

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    1. Thank you, and by the way...I love the latest card! 💕

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  2. My Thursday? Did some digging of our vegetable plot, had lunch then took a friend to hospital for an outpatients appointment. Then came home, did more digging before it got dark. Made the evening meal. Lounged about watching crap on the TV and soon I'm going down to the pub for the Thursday quiz. Not a bad day but getting cold now.

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    1. That sounds like a good day except for the hospital part. I hope your friend is ok.

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  3. I voted early also but I have a Mail In Ballot. Just walking to the voting booth is to hard.
    Then have a camera in the count vote room so you can watch them. So cool but too bad it is such a horrific election.
    Like the idea for your Husband's Birthday gift. Perfect.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. I'm so glad this whole sorry mess will be over soon!

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  4. I can't even remember what I did yesterday, but I was very tired in the evening so I must have done something. Today I go to the Doc's; he's not going to be happy with me as I've put on a lot of weight.

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  5. Glad you got an unexpectedly pleasant time at work! Right now, O.K. is working very hard, too; he works at a company producing and printing packaging for other companies, and you can imagine that the months and weeks leading up for Christmas (with Advent calendars etc. to print) are very busy. He's been working Saturdays, too, which means our precious weekends together are shorter than we would want them to be. But it's good to know the company has enough orders to keep going and his job is not in danger.

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  6. Good idea for a present. I'm worn out after listening to your day. You even got to vote. How exciting. Well it would be except for the choice you get.

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  7. So, you're going on vacation next week?

    We love aquariums and fantasize about having one. And it sure would be fun to have it professionally done (by Gregg). Unfortunately our cats would enjoy it WAY too much and would drive us insane.

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