Home is where the fur is

I'm back at work after a week away at the large exhibition and convention that my company participates in every year. I have so much to do and I am trying to tackle one thing at a time, but I keep allowing myself to become distracted. I have a new neighbor that moved into L's old office when she left to start a teaching gig. This new neighbor is not to replace her, oh no. It is, instead, another sales rep...another person who constantly relies on me as the sole sales and marketing support person for three separate companies. He has an annoying habit of kicking or tapping the wall between our two offices and it is starting to drive me insane. As if this job isn't enough to cause my dive into the deep end. I am trying to listen to Coldplay to drown out the tapping and help keep me on the task of entering the information for business contacts from the large pile of business cards collected at the trade show. I have discovered one thing I am terrible at: data entry. I think I'd rather smash my fingers in a car door than type out all of the information contained on these little rectangular pieces of paper. Data entry + intermittent tapping = one shitty Monday.

The trade show was held in Las Vegas and as much as I love seeing new places, I was really ready to come home after such a long time away. I was able to spend one of my days away visiting with a very dear friend and her new puppy, so that was my silver lining. On the last night in Vegas, I rode the rides on top of the Stratosphere and did not die, so that is also a bonus. I'm the one who suggested that craziness, thinking no one would be game. Boy was I wrong, and even trying to play the "I-can't-afford-it" ticket did me no good, since my coworker who was so gung-ho just bought my ticket for me. I need to learn to keep my fool mouth shut; it's forever getting me into trouble.

I spent all day yesterday watching movies and resting. I need about three more days of that; alas it is Monday and I am back at work and day-dreaming about my plans for the evening. I am going to try to force myself to take the dogs for a walk when I get home. I need to start exercising again and the dogs sure do need to let loose some of their pent up energy. They were plastered to me like a bad rash yesterday and I'll admit, I let them snuggle with me on the couch while we vegged out. I miss those numbskulls when I am away from them for too long.

It's funny how each of my pets reacts differently to my return. The two most affected by my absence seemed to be the eldest: Leo and Kaylee. Leo was meowing his fool head off, probably trying to tell me the bad things his siblings did while I was gone. And Kaylee is just so emotional; she takes everything personally and I think she was afraid that if she let me out of her sight, I'd vanish again for a week. Poor kids.

In other news, Dave is out of town until the end of the month. I love the quiet and solitude at first, but the loneliness starts to set in by week two. Luckily I have a lot of books to catch up on and I may just take a trip down to Florida one of these weekends he is away.