The Marci Rating System

Predicted high temp next Tuesday: 88F

Predicted low temp next Thursday: 32F

Me, looking at those numbers: so, I guess it's time to put my winter boots away?

(*"away," lol -- I moved them about six inches to the right, so that instead of being NEXT to the storage cube, they're inside it)

(the REAL question is 'should I put away the long underwear and get out the shorts,' and the answer is probably yes, but that seems like a LOT of work somehow, even though again they are actually IN THE SAME ROOM. I think. Like, 80% sure the summer clothes are here somewhere)

Yesterday I was out for a walk and I saw a shrub starting to leaf out! (Okay, it wasn't quite leaves yet. Some kind of buds? idk I'm not a botanist, and I didn't look it up to fact check anything.)

My first thought was: huzzah, the plants are back!

My second thought was: oh, I'm probably allergic to that

This week has been an interesting case study of 'flexible interpretations of the in-office rules.' No one wants to get fired for not showing up on a required office day, but also no one wants to get in a car accident driving on icy roads because they were trying to drive in a snowstorm.

Today I'm testing out the 'what if I worked from home for two hours, then drove to the office for the rest of the day' strategy. I have not checked with my boss about this. (But they're 100% remote, and generally they don't care what we're doing with our office time as long as we're getting our work done and no one is complaining to them about us. Also someone else on the team did a similar thing back in December, so there's a precedent.)

Audiobook update: I started listening to 'The Long Game' (Rachel Reid, aka the hockey boys book 6), and I'm currently about 5 hours in. This one is the longest book so far -- nearly 13 hours, which puts it well above my personal audiobook sweet spot of 7-9 hours.

[Note: Is there a fandom consensus on spoiler tagging? Like, the book came out in 2022, but the second season of the tv show hasn't happened yet (2027, maybe?). Are there people waiting for the tv series and trying to avoid spoilers?]

It's fun to learn what things that pop up a lot in fanfics are accurately from the book, and which things are general fannish agreement. But I wound up taking a break yesterday and listening to the start of Alessa Thorn's 'Ink Sworn' instead. The comparison is basically this:

*The Long Game: characters are stressed because they're really great at the sex part of their relationship and not so great at the part where they talk about their feelings or what they actually want, also pro-sports is dangerous and a pressure cooker even at the best of times

*Ink Sworn: characters are stressed because they're really great at turning into giant fuck-off dragons and doing magic and not so great at the part where they talk about their feelings or what they actually want, also there's a dangerous evil wizard or something

So, not that different, really! Crucially, 'Ink Sworn' is only about 8 hours long. I KNOW WHAT I LIKE.

Time to go have an outdoor adventure!

*Good news! I made it safely there (the car spa) and back again, and now my car has snow tires!

*Less fantastic news! I'm definitely going to need the snow tires, because I'm supposed to go to the office today, and the plowing situation in the parking lot here is currently 'the driving lane was cleared at some point, everything else we'll do later.' Which is fine! It's just that I'm gonna need to drive through that 'everything else' to get to the driving lane. (lol so many memories of the apartment parking lot after a snowstorm...)

*Anyway, work is work. Our team just got moved to a different team (temporarily?!? I guess?!?) for reasons unknown. The reasons we've been given make very little sense, and it's hard to know if that's because they're untruthful or just, you know, corporate.

*We're supposed to be doing our year-end "self-evaluations" immediately, which means I've been sorting all the stuff I planned to catch up on in December into two piles: 'hurry up and do it before the evaluation so I can say it's done,' and 'safe to say it's on track to meet the 2025 goal.'

*Yeah.

*But coffee!

*Yay!

Time to get serious about prepping for November writing!

Haha just kidding, it is never time to get serious. It IS time to re-listen to 'Exit Strategy,' so I have more than just a vague recollection of what happens.

Other things it might be time for today:

*using the office lap blanket

*wearing the hat that keeps my ears warm

*COFFEE (two coffees??? in-office days always have the option of TWO COFFEES, just to keep things exciting)

It's Monday! A work day! How did this happen??? All the things on my 'looking forward to today' list are non-work things, but surely I can fit in my 'I get paid for this so I definitely want to keep doing it enough that they'll keep paying me' work too.

[SPECIAL WEATHER NOTE: We've had enough 'rain is predicted but then doesn't happen' days recently that I genuinely didn't expect it to rain today. But when I stepped outside, it sure does smell like it's going to rain! It hasn't yet, but I might be convinced!]

The time for the autumnal furniture rearrangement has arrived! Late this year, compared to last year, but weather is weird. Last weekend was HOT, and I was wearing shorts, and Tuesday night was so hot I had the fan on with all the windows open, and then Thursday night we had a freeze warning, and I spent a good twenty minutes yesterday looking for my warmer long-sleeved shirts (still haven't found them, but they've got to be here somewhere).

Anyway, last year's post was very accurate about the furniture rearrange motivations. I have five lights in this room (that sounds like a ridiculous amount of lights, I know), and in the summer I only use two of them. One of them isn't even plugged in. (Two of them, maybe? They're decorative.) But in the darker months, it's nice to have more lights.

Also, where is my stuff? Where are my warm clothes? I have NO IDEA. If I'm going to go to all the trouble of looking through my stuff, I might as well also get the fun part of moving it around some.

Perhaps MOST IMPORTANTLY it provides excellent enrichment for the cat! She usually chooses not to participate in the actual moving, but enjoys checking out the new arrangement once I've figured it out. And I have a chance to find at least SOME of the toys she's stashed under/behind things over the last six months or so.

I went searching back through past entries to see if I've talked about pumpkin spice coffee before (answer: sort of), and found that I pretty much have a similar experience every September, and it goes like this:

1. yay it's september!

2. melancholy

3. 50% existential dread, 50% I LOVE AUTUMN LOOK AT THESE COOL LEAVES

Also a lot of posts about cats and coffee. (I had pumpkin spice coffee yesterday! I add a lot of half and half to my coffee, so it mostly tasted like hot milk and cinnamon. The cat was unusually interested in the mug once I was done -- usually she ignores it, but yesterday she wanted to lick it and also stick her paw inside. No idea why. Maybe she likes cinnamon?)