On the go

It has been a busy week at the House of Bradshaw, but an extremely productive one. In addition to the family luncheon, the cookie baking, the cookie giving, the Christmas menu planning (and subsequent hyperventilating), the gift buying, the gift wrapping, and the *attempted* blood donating, I have been doing a fair amount of freelance work in preparation for returning to the office.

Plus, I FINALLY made it to a professional luncheon on Thursday. There's a local group of folks in my field who meet once a month to listen to presentations by industry speakers and network with one another. (You know the drill.) Though I did have the foresight to continue my membership in said organization for the year I was out of the office, the planets never seemed to properly align so that I could actually attend meetings. Well, at last, I made it to a meeting, and it was such fun! There were so many people there that I hadn't seen in ages, and I motormouthed my way through the whole hour or so that I was there. (No surprise there.) It really made me realize how much I've missed being at work.

Then, last night, I met up with Sandi and Stace for dinner at Broad Street. I had the yummy broccoli and cheese soup plus a green salad, and we stayed there, gabbing about an extremely wide variety of topics (politics, household finance, the media, organized religion, hair flipping), until they kicked us out at 8 p.m. or so. (You know it's closing time when they start upending the chairs on top of the tables, kwim? Subtle. But, hey, they gave us free bread! Score!) Then, we headed over to Cups for a holiday latte (OMG. Delicious. I meant to buy some of the beans, but forgot it by the time we left. I'll have to make a trip back.) and some biscotti, continuing our conversation on Internet searches fraught with peril. ("I'll see your 'sex while pregnant' query and raise you a 'bellybutton fetish' search return!") I don't know why, but when the three of us get together, we talk about everything under the sun. I find our discussions extremely satisfying, and I laugh so hard that my stomach muscles sometimes hurt the next day.

Today, I braved the mall (the MALL, I tell you!) to finish up the last of my gift buying and grab a few things to complete my professional wardrobe (which has been sitting in the closet, untouched and slowly lurching towards being out of fashion, for 14 months). And may I tell you that I make this business-woman-in-a-suit thing look good? I forgot how darned competent I can appear when I have on a navy blazer, matching skirt, and pumps.

Lastly, though he was bearing bad news today, I did have a wonderful catch-up conversation with Boyd, one of my dearest college friends. We have known each other many, many years. What can I say? He's smart, but he doesn't use that as an excuse not to keep thinking. Plus, he's just a nice guy. Next time, Boyd, maybe our conversation will be a bit cheerier, eh? Here's to 2009 . . .

After letting booger try out his new booster chair at dinner tonight and wrangling him into the bath and the bed, I'm beat. But with little sis coming in from Oregon tomorrow (if her flights aren't delayed), there will likely be no rest for the wicked.

Here's to a restful Sunday.

Comments

Supermom said…
There is no better time to go to Broadstreet than close to closing time. Talk about scoring with the free bread! Woo-Hoo!

Watercolor and I went awhile back and we made off like bandits! :)