Big Monday

Hi everyone,

My word but it's been a big day!

It got underway with me being on my feet a bit before 6am.  I didn't get a bunch of sleep.  Despite being really tired, it took me till about 2pm to get to
sleep.  Anyway, I had a powerful motivation to be on my feet: skypage with the Rachel and Grace and Joni before the munchkins' birthday party this afternoon (over there).  Joni had them down for a nap so to be refreshed for their party, but I happened to come online just as soon as Grace woke up and Joni was dressing her for the party.  Their Aunty Sabrina had had little shirts made up for them with their names and "2" on them.  So cute.  Grace is just a beautiful kid, golden haired and a look of sweet mischief on her face.  And lots of new words: "I'm two" among others!  I'm so proud of her.  She and Rachel are just the best things in the world.  After about 20 minutes Rachel started to wake up, and people started to arrive for the party, so we really couldn't get skypage up again until later when Joni was driving the girls back to the new place.  She held the phone facing back so the girls and I could see each other.  Rachel is as cute as ever, although the poor little munchkin surely got my hair: A cute little mop (in her case) of unmanageable curls!  I did have some competition for the girls attention though: Joni had the car's DVD player on playing "The Princess and the Frog".  Maybe I should learn to play the trumpet.  Or put on a Cajun accent and learn to play the accordion (or maybe not: last time I tried to do a Cajun accent - while reading the girls a "Clovis Crawfish" story - Joni gave me a look that said "please don't ever do that again"!).  By that stage her phone battery was dying, so we called it quits and said "I love you"s and I headed off to work.

I went direct to the Magistrates Court so I could pick up the ball from my boss for the matter on foot this morning.  We had some unsuccessful settlement discussions and went to the limit of the insurer's instructions and, having no other options, started running the matter.  As of this moment the worker is giving evidence.  It's probably best if I don't talk too much about the case itself.  All I'll say is that the lack of sleep kicked in about 12:30pm, at which point I began to struggle to stay awake.  Shamefully I was falling asleep at the bar table!  Anyway, coffee and lunch perked me up for the afternoon session.

There was one other development this afternoon to do with the case and another matter the government authority we act for has an interest in.  I was going to write about it, but on second thoughts I'd better not (confidentiality issues).  Suffice it to say one word: stress!!!

I was later than I planned to be at the office, but productively so so that's OK.  It was 9:30pm by the time I left, and I was fairly hungry.  I knew it'd be well after 10pm by the time I got back here, and I really couldn't face cooking up rice and warming up soup, so I decided to say screw the budget and got dinner at Hungry Jacks on the corner of Russell and Bourke Streets (whence the photo).  Fries, OJ and a Whopper never tasted better!

I had a call from Sonia the psychologist this evening.  For various reasons (long story, involves Medicare) the session we were going to have tomorrow morning has been rolled over to Wednesday next.  Which was a bit of a shame as I was interested in running my own recent better spirits past her and getting her take.  We had a bit of a chat by phone and I explained about the "breathing space" conversation and how I've been since then.  Her view was essentially positive: Things with Joni had been left in an objectively good state after the flowers incident, and my own better frame of mind seemed encouraging.  I like Sonia's approach: not everything has to be overanalysed and not everything has to be pathologised.  At the risk of spoiling a good thing I'll try and get some time between now and next Wednesday to do a quick synopsis of my own mental state, essentially to be able to present it accurately.

OK, I guess that's it for the day.  Hope all's well with yourselves.

See you tomorrow.