2Pm - Either soccer refreshed my supply of patience, or I’m resigned to this week.

I’m taking my laptop into the shop in about two hours… I had a similar issue with an iPod once, so I’m pretty sure they are going to send the laptop into the factory. Nothing I can do about it, so I’m just backing up everything I can and working on holiday cards in the meantime. I’ll find a library or such place with internet access so I can keep working until I get it back, not much else I can do. Didn’t even freak when a disc jammed in the laptop an hour ago, just found directions to fix it.

Even when my laptop is having issues, I’m willing to enter a flame war with my friend in favor of Macs vs. PCs. Lol.

In any case, as I told a friend…. this, too, shall pass.

4:30PM - Soo…. today was a big waste of time. I spent the whole day backing up files – didn’t even work on next week’s article other than to convert it to a Word file in case I had to give up my Mac- and all Apple would tell me is that they didn’t see the problem(s) happening.
But I got a lot done on my Chanukah cards, and I’m not overly upset. I figure I’ll work hard tonight…. and if I have to, post a backup article. Have an interview for a p/t temp position tomorrow morning, and a phone interview for a f/t position near D.C. next week. So all in all, I’m not upset with today.

5:45PM – My secret weapon for writing in the house: Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name”. It blasts out the Rock Band upstairs but is so familiar that I can tune it out and focus (Anne Marie claims this is “very New Jersey.” Is hearing your 13-year old nephew crooning ‘One Way Or Another’ upstairs also very New Jersey?). I did mention that I had to work tonight, but apparently that wasn’t deemed relevant… and I don’t feel like making an issue out of it. So, hello Bon Jovi!

9PM - I’ve never been so grateful for homework. Music works for blocking out noise while I’m writing, but reading through what I’ve written is more difficult with the background music. At about 7:15 I reminded my sister that the boys probably had homework… they are supposed to start homework at 7. Rock Band went off and it was suddenly easy to concentrate….