Tuesday ended up being my last day of work thanks to a management (ahem) decision wherein I was told that I didn't need to stick around the rest of the week. (I had given a full two weeks notice, so that my last day would be August 11.) After the initial shock (and anger and disappointment etc) wore off, I found I really wasn't surprised. This department has a very poor track record of allowing people to finish out their notices, a habit that will someday bite them in the ass when a dismissed person goes back and files for unemployment after being terminated early. (Actually, my mistake was probably in finishing up the last of my reports last week. I should have hung onto one of them and not turned it in until Thursday. [g])

But it all ends up being for the best, even though it gives me a break in my income that I had not wanted. This way I have several free days to finish up my preparations for the Writers of the Future workshop. Not to mention I get to enjoy some free time, since with a new job it will be a while before I can take any kind of extended leave. Also, as my dear husband told me the evening after I was told to cut my time short, that action definitely erases any doubts or regrets that I might have had about leaving the Sheriff's Office. Just seems a shame that seven years of commended service had to end that way, but then again, that's part of why I am leaving in the first place.

Okay, I could go on and on about THAT whole issue, but I won't.

So, no less than three people called me this morning to tell me about the new issues with flight travel that have arisen in the past day. I've been following it as much as possible and it seems to me that so far it primarily affects international travelers, especially those flights coming in from the UK. However, I must say that I am extremely glad that I managed to change my departure flight. I had originally been booked on a flight that left at 5:30pm on Sunday, arriving in San Diego at 11pm. Unfortunately, I had not looked closely at my itinerary until just a few weeks ago which is when I realized that I was booked on the very last flight of the night--something that always makes me quite nervous, especially when it for travel to an event that is just a little important to me. When I first tried to rebook the flight to something earlier, I was told that it would cost me over $500 to change it, since fares had gone up in the intervening time. Therefore, I spent the next week haunting delta.com, and finally chanced on a fairly cheap fare out of Baton Rouge which only ended up costing me about $100 to change to. This one leaves at 7am, which should give me MORE than enough time to deal with any flight cancellation disasters that might strike.

I am beginning my packing today, and slowly checking items off of my various lists of Things To Do, and Things To Clean, and Things To Buy, and Things To Pack. I'm also having to pack a suitcase for Anna since she is going to spend the week with her "TeeTah" (AKA her Aunt Sherry), which includes various legal forms such as power of attorney for my sister in the event she needs to obtain medical care for the kid, or travel with her (if a hurricane or some other diaster comes along), or if she just gets sick of her and decides to sell her into white slavery.

I'm also getting my various Girlie Things done this week. Yesterday I got my hair cut and recolored, got my eyebrows waxed, and got my toes prettified. (2006 marked the beginning of my addiction to pedicures and brow waxes. I'm almost 40 years old and I'm just now discovering these joys of girl-hood. Why oh why did I ever wait so long??) I've spent a healthy sum of money on clothing, which was actually kinda cool since the reason for most of the purchases was the fact that I have lost a considerable amount of weight since the beginning of the year and am now fitting quite nicely into a size 8. However, it was very easy to justify the clothing purchases, since I am about to start a job that requires me to wear "real" clothing instead of a uniform.

And, fortunately, the tropics have been nice and quiet, for the most part, which means that there should be no risk of a hurricane to threaten my departure. (I don't really care if one comes along to delay my return!)

I'm hoping to maintain this blog during the workshop, so if you navigated to this site looking for WOTF info and insights I hope you end up satisfied. If you came here looking for info and insights into powerlifting, you're going to have to wait a week and a half until I get back.