Thu Aug 17 - Second Wind: Remember how last night I said I was going to sleep at a reasonable hour? Hmm. I meant that around 10 pm, but around 1 am I was finally climbing into bed. I had finally finished my on-the-clock work, my email, and all I had left were "just a few things to pick up around my room" before sleep. Sounds good, right? Well, this included doing my ironing, hanging up all the clean clothes, putting away my shoes, clearing off the piles of things strewn about since I'd been sick, putting the bathroom floor covering back together, re-packing my purse and backpack (remember the strewn items?), putting away all the SCA event items (strewn about, originally), and generally righting things. It is more unusual to think that I "sleep in my office" than to think that I work from home in my bedroom, but being healthy again gave me that second wind to put things to right again.

Tonight was no different. After a day filled with "ah ha!" moments with my work-work, I ran errands for a few hours when all the traffic was gone. Then when I got home around 11:30, I wanted to "just finish a few more records in my project tracking database" for work. It's now 3 am, and I fixed the database, finished all the new data from today's phone conference, cleaned up the out-of-date tracking information to match the newest Project Coordinator reports, and used several advanced Excel tricks to consolidate all the work I'd done before today with all the new tracking I solved this afternoon and evening. *poof* Voila. The tracking database is reliable, no data was lost, the newest reports are collated, and I even know which 48 new forms I have to fill out starting tomorrow morning. The priority levels are set, and I even understand the data. Ah, my Excel-fu is strong tonight. And I can *definitely* count these last four hours "on-the-clock" for the level of work I did. This wasn't just "oh, it would be nice to straighten the papers on my desk" kind of work. This really was "they pay me the big bucks for this kind of analysis."

I don't feel as guilty about tonight's second wind. The sleep-deprivation, or maybe just sleep postponement, was well paid for.

Now if I can only remember what commitments are on my calendar for tomorrow (today, tonight, whatever)... you know, for Friday. Hmm.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Greg and Craig. I miss our church, and I miss you two a lot. I hope to see you after November.