This morning, I was roused from a pleasing dream by an work-related phone call at 6am.   After taking care of the problem, I decided to just stay up, since this is the day the cleaners come and I wanted to get out of the house before they arrived so I wouldn’t be underfoot (or, indeed, under-dressed.) 

So I got dressed and out the door by 8, with a few hours to kill before I had to be at work.  (Since I currently live on the east coast, but cover the west coast support hours, my schedule is slightly off-set from everyone else.  This has ups and downs, but that’s another post…)

I sauntered down to the local barber shop for my bi-monthly shearing, then walked across the parking lot to the Original Pancake House, where I had three original pancakes, bacon, eggs, and grits.  (A hearty and calorically expensive meal, but a very tasty one, I must say, and since it’ll likely count for both lunch and dinner, it shouldn’t set me back.)  I then popped down to the North Point area for some idle shopping.   Went into Target first, because it was open and nothing much else was, and browsed around the clothing section and the media/electronics area, and I grabbed a copy of <i>The Hunger Games</i>, which I still have not read or seen.  (I may wait to read it until AFTER I see the movie.  Or I may not.  I haven’t decided.)

Once it was 10am, I wandered over to  Ken Stanton Music to inquire about the guitar strings I ordered, and noodle around in the acoustic room for a while.   Bought a nifty little electronic tuner, because while the one on my phone is perfectly functional, i don’t always want to have to haul it out when I just need to do a quick check.

I stopped by the Big & Tall store to look for vests.  I’ve decided that my summer look this year (yes, that’s a thing, shut up) is going to be a shirt and tie with a vest, rather than a jacket, because it really does get very warm for a jacket all the time in Georgia, no matter how good they look.    Alas, they were no longer carrying the cool casual vests they used to, which made me sad.  It’s actually very hard to shop for these on the Internet, because they get lost in the noise of all the very expensive 3pc suit vests or the outdoorsy fleece type things.  What I’m looking for essentially *is* a suit vest, only, y’know, cheaper. 🙂

My final stop before heading into work was CVS.  I needed to drop off a refill request to pick up later, and while I was there I picked up some caffeine laden beverages, because I got four hours of sleep last night and it might be required.  I had the most amusing conversation with the girl at the checkout:

"Picking up some energy to get through the day, huh?"
"Yeah.  Got woken up at 6am, so I might need it."
"I was out until 3am, went to bed at 7am, got up and 8 and was at work at 9."
"Wow, that’s pretty hardcore.  I hope you were at least having fun."
"Not really."
"Well., that’s too bad.  I hope you have fun tonight, then!"
"Nah.  I’ll probably go out partying again."

I thought about this for a moment, and said philosophically,  "If you’re going out partying and not having fun, you’re doing it wrong."  She looked perplexed and said "What?"  "If you’re going out partying and not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.  You should find a better party."  "I *like* that!" she said happily, having seen the light on the road to Damascus, or at the very least, the road to the disco, and thus I fulfil my mission of bringing profundity to the sleep-deprived.

And now I’m at work.  Time for some thrilling heroics.