I've begun to notice a pattern with business trips lately. As the trip approaches, I get increasingly worried about if the clothes I have to fit the venue fit me. This can be in the least, a subconscious stressor, and in the worst, outright panic. Each time I manage to get through the business trip, but it often takes a toll.

This weekend went too quickly. Pazi and I waited at home for a new piece of furniture to arrive most of the day, but accepted it wouldn't arrive. We burned the day moving books and disposing of a large bookshelf. Late that afternoon we met up with friends for some food and gaming. After a few rounds, we settled in to watching a movie. The evening ended too early, no thanks to my perpetual fatigue. 

Work has been more than exhausting as of late. The project I'm currently working on is such a huge priority for the company that we've bypassed many of the expected procedures and timetables in order to complete it. The result, for me at least, has been writing two classes cocurrently in a third of the time usuall given to create one. I've been putting in extra hours many days of the week, and donated most of my weekend to making some modicum of progress. 

I've never been particularly good at taking vacations. I've become particularly bad at this in the last two years as my job and private life have become hectic. The last week summerizes this well.

It's been several months since I had been on a business trip, and the first time to a new location in over a year. The combination of a new location and a week of solitary time have conspired to make me introspective.

While it's nice to be on the road again, things are certainly not the same. For one thing, I need a better work wordrobe. Since I work from home, I've grown accustomed to T-shirts and jeans as my daily attire. While it's nice to dress up once and a while, I'm beginning to realize just how much it no longer suits me. For one thing: Skirts.

Trying to sit down and write in a noisy cafe. It's difficult, despite how hard Akisa is poking me in the back of the head since this morning. This was the second Akisa-related dream I had in the last week. At first, it was a wondering dream in which I was late for something. Eventually, however, I found a group of adults and children that found the story personally significant. It wasn't that I had written a good story, it was that many found Akisa has important to themselves as she is to me. I woke to her asking, over and over again, "Why haven't you told my story?

Having difficulty concentrating this morning. It could be that I didn't sleep altogether well. It could, it could, it could...

I'm finally starting to work on labs for the advanced topics product class. After several weeks of research and fighting product glitches, it's nice to return to writing material. Measuring my productivity seems so much easier when I'm producing material; I only need to count the pages. The amount of pages I expect to produce in a day, however, is changing.

I usually don't write much about what I do for a living. In previous years, I considered such public discussion taboo. My previous job didn't have an Internet media policy, and no recommended code of conduct. My current job, however, is more enlightened.