No Devil's Playground

They say an idle brain is the devil's playground. Well, ol' Scratch better search elsewhere, 'cause there ain't no idle brains around here today. I feel like I'm working mentally on so many different things that I was more or less oblivious to what was happening in my real world today.

I'm doing one project that has been occupying my time for all this week. I'm lovin' it and will talk about it more when it's finished, but I spent all my time looking at it and changing and then changing it again.

I'm also trying to get together Christmas packages for the Compassion kids and looking for Christmas things in September is not easy, even though sometimes you can find Christmas stuff being put out after the 4th of July. Just not what I'm looking for specifically.

And I'm also still in the honeymoon phase of the postcard project, looking for interesting postcards to send, getting my first postcards from Belgium and Germany. I particularly liked this one from Germany.

I was so engrossed in my various projects that I nearly forgot I was going to lunch with Ruth. And then when I remembered, I called upstairs to tell Walt goodbye as I was leaving and when he didn't answer, I assumed he'd gone to work and I'd been so busy I hadn't noticed when he said goodbye (later I found out he was actually home and just in the shower, so didn't hear me call to him).

There were several errands to run after lunch, including getting a haircut. I had washed my hair yesterday and I was looking like Franz Liszt and decided it was time to get it all chopped off. So I went to SuperCuts and got the haircut. They never do it exactly the way I want it, but I figure if I can kind of brush it into the shape that I'm used to it's OK, and this was one of the good cuts, so I was happy.

I had more errands to run, but instead came home to the projects briefly. At 4 p.m., I was meeting the head of publicity for the Theatre and Drama Department to talk about what they have coming up on their schedule.

Just before I left, I had an e-mail from Erin XX about the parking ticket:

I discussed this with our Operations Manager, who has indicated that in order to honor a media business card for parking, that the card must have the person’s name on it. When I dismissed the previous citation (below), you did not attach a copy of the business card; I looked online to confirm your affiliation. When I responded at that time, I was not aware that the business card you were using did not have your name on it.

I have gone ahead and dismissed this citation as an exception, and there is no further action required on your part. For future parking, it would be best to display something with your name on it (perhaps you could display a copy of whatever credentials you use to get in to the event you are covering), along with the business card in the vehicle.

What the bloody f**k???

I discussed it with the Publicity rep, who is going to make a special placard for my car with their logo on it. But good God, when you think of it, it costs them nothing to let me park for free. I am giving them free publicity. When I do a story I make 3 or 4 trips to the university for interviews and rehearsals (none of which require "credentials") and by the time I write the story, it has taken so much time to gather the information that I don't even come close to making minimum wage for that story. So what's the big deal??? This is doing them a favor. I could just never write any story about university functions again, if their bloody $6 is so important to them!

I was still angry a few hours later when we had to leave to go review a show in Sacramento. Now it is 1 a.m. and I have spent the last 2 hours on my big project, have now written this journal entry and am just now starting to write the review. After that it is my hope that my brain will be idle for a couple of hours, but don't hold your breath, Devil.