what's been cookin'

* last week, i thought i wouldn't be back at work full-time until, probably, the new year. turns out, i was wrong, and i'll be doing the monday-to-friday thing for the next few weeks already. it's been busy. but i'm very glad to have the work. right now, i'm working on four stories -- one interviewing a slew of famous businesspeople, one about eating colourful fruits and vegetables, one about multivitamins and, my favourite for obvious reasons, a five-page feature on room-by-room spring cleaning.

* this past saturday, my parents' furnace stopped working. (thankfully, the weather was very mild in the two days it took before it was fixed.) watching my father work himself into an annoying, antagonistic stressball gave me some insight into where i get some of my own anxious behaviour.

* overnight saturday night, i had a nightmare. well, the dream itself wasn't scary, but it was distressing. i woke up crying and couldn't shake the feeling for most of sunday. i woke from the dream at about 4am and it took me almost an hour to calm down enough to go back to sleep. but, about 20 minutes after i woke up and when i was most certainly fully awake, a very weird thing happened: i saw a glowing blue orb in my room. the room is PITCH dark at night, thanks to blackout shades, but, as i lay there with my eyes open, i suddenly saw this blue dot. i opened my eyes wide, thinking maybe i was seeing things, but the blue dot remained. i moved my eyes around the room in the blackness but, wherever they'd land, the blue dot eventually appeared. i wondered if it was a ghost, or if i was imagining it (but i was WIDE awake) and then i thought maybe it was the start of a migraine (it wasn't). it only lasted about a minute, but it freaked me right out.

* the weather is supposed to be cold, crisp and sunny all week, so i'm taking advantage of the clear skies -- and dry streets -- to walk to and from work each day. i love starting the day with a brisk walk!

* earlier this afternoon, i handed off all my paperwork to the new broker. she figures it'll take a couple of days to get me pre-approved, and then i can relaunch the home hunt. i'd put it on hold between brokers, but the market has been bone dry over the past week, anyway. barely any listings. so, i'm hoping there's one last real-estate surge before december hits.

* the renovations continue at my building. the driveway to the parking garage STILL isn't finished or close to finished. i have no idea what people with cars down there are doing -- if they didn't get them out before the work started, they're stuck down there until it's done. the entire complex looks like a mess, and i maintain my theory that the new owners are trying to drive people out so they can jack the rent in the vacant units and rent them to new, deep-pocketed tenants.

* i love the christmas season. every last bit of it.