Hell is Other People, but Squirrels are ok.

And even then, they're probably all inside my head.

It's ok. There is a tiny squirrel to cheer us all up in the end.

I run a bit hot and cold when it comes to the subject of "people". Don't take it personally. Individually you're all special snowflakes, you should know this, but when bundled together and taken as a collective, I can't always take it.

We're now on day 7 of a new 9-day fortnight thing my office is trialling. 

The early starts are gonna make or break me.

On paper, and probably in practise, I think it could be a really good thing, but it's going to take me some getting used to, I can tell you. The basics are this: I start an hour earlier and take a short lunch. I still finish at five or not long after. Then one Friday I finish at 3 and the next Friday I don't show up at all. That magic day ten hasn't yet arrived, so at the moment I just feel over-worked and tired and grumpy. This Friday I left at 3 and then spent the rest of the evening feeling spectacularly illogically guilty. I'm the first person to tell the people around me to go home on time and not think about work till they're back in the building. I know that it is good and proper and permitted to not think about work when I'm not being paid to be thinking about work. But then I saw that there were emails popping in to my inbox (I didn't read them, give me some credit) and I felt a little bit like I'd abandoned my 9-5 colleagues. I couldn't turn that thought off until about lunchtime on Saturday, when I found some new stuff to worry about.

This is not good, and this is not me. It's not going to get to me. Decision made.

It makes me tired and short-fused and a bit of a pain to be around. I would know, I have to be around me all the flaming time. When I'm like that I get all sweary and me-against-the-world. There's too many of you, and you get in the way, and walk too slow and breathe too loud. You get your damned phones out at the ballet! Why would you do that? This is life or death stuff! Grr.

Then you have the audacity to want me to do totally reasonable things like answer the phone and know the answers to stuff. Don't you know I just want to be a hermit who stays home drinking tea, reading Pratchett and not talking to anyone? Why was that not on the list when the School Careers Whatsit asked me what I wanted to do with my life*, huh?

I found myself laying in bed, being kept awake by the battle between the part of my brain that was trying to count its blessings**, and the part of my brain that was trying to tell the first part where to stick its blessings. There was a third part in the mix, but it just wanted to diddle this tune.

That's enough of all that nonsense. I'll go to bed really early tonight and it'll all be ok. Besides there is a celebration afoot.

This happened.

It's Squiggle's Birthday!

His Cuteness is 2!

He's been a busy little fella, those two years he's been in our lives.

Did I ever tell you the story of how he came to join our little family?

So tonight we're having a party. 

There is pizza, and bunting, and party food. This is a party. Yes, it's a party for a 3" tall stuffed squirrel, but's it's a party nonetheless. 

Did I ever tell you the story of how fell fell out of the tandem squirrel-carrier and got lost and run over, and we had to launch a Police Search and Rescue Mission to find him?

He has cake, and a card, and a packet of biscuits as big as he is. Best Squirrelly Birthday Eva!

I've even been allowed fizzy juice on a school night. That's definitely proof of it being a special occasion. And I'm helping with the pizza too. 

I used the blurry photo because all the ones that were in focus showed up the dark circles around my eyes. I don't think that's a good thing. 

Did I ever tell you about the time Squiggle was hidden by a small forgetful child in a caravan, and then there was an avalanche in the night, and how it was all very dramatic but worked out ok in the end?


*I wanted to be a Vet. Then I got fairly crappy A-levels, and became allergic to cats, and now I've got a broadly-speaking useless degree in Geography. Funny ol' world.
**Which are numerous and wonderful and I should me much, much more grateful for.