Jungle life, I'm far away from nowhere, On my own like Tarzan Boy

I blame Patron Saint for the title. She mentioned the song in a Facebook exchange and it's been stuck in my head since.

Ahem!

So, it's been a while. I'd apologize and say I was too busy and all, but that really hasn't been the case - outside work anyhow. Work has picked up dramatically. And while I'm thankful to have 1) a job and 2) actual work to do, I'm bumm'in because I was planning on December being a quiet month. Hotel CaliforniaSoft will have none of that though. They're busy trying to spend Q2 funds. Which is fine by me, it just means that the next two weeks will be busy and fully of unnecessary stress.

Let's do a quick review since we last chatted.

Saturday I spent a few hours at Susan G. Komen helping plan for the up and coming Volunteer open house. I was asked to bring in my creative side to help decorate the volunteer area so it feel more welcoming. As I was spouting out ideas right and left, I realized I may have missed a calling in my life. Decorating. I love the putting of things together to make a big, happy, welcoming, warm environment. I'm not a pro at it by any stretch of the imagination - and people like the StaleMates put me to shame when it comes to Martha Stewart'ing up the place. But I enjoy decorating all the same.

Post Susan G. Komen decorating ideas (and consequently volunteering my time for a butt load of work after) BigBro picked me up and we headed off for the December PhotoGod safari.

We were meeting the rest in downtown Seattle, but opted to take the much talked about Seattle Monorail. Now the monorail has had a checkered past with it's reliability rate - so we weren't so sure we'd make it without at least some help from a fire truck ladder to get us down. And so while we were standing there waiting, I started my photo day.

Our theme was obviously holiday and lights etc. We walked the streets of Seattle and took hundreds of photos between us. Once all was said and done, we all agreed that this trip we didn't get quite the photos we thought. I, for one, had an issue with focusing my camera correctly. Ugh. Damn automatic focusing. I'm going old school now and back to manual focus. You can see all my photos by going to my Flickr site. Here are a couple faves.

So then Sunday...what'd I do on Sunday....? Ah yes. A BIG OL' FAT HANDFUL OF NOTHING!!
This morning on my way to work I was listening to NPR and all the stories were about the rising issue in Africa, poverty around the world, Governors of States called Illinoise who are corrupt - basically your standard depressing news. Each passing mile I found myself dropping further and further into sadness. I pulled into my Starbucks (yes it's MINE). Walked in the front door. Favorite Barrista greets me with, "Your regular?" I nod. I grab my "regular" and as I'm walking out the door sipping the goodness that is a Grande Venti Vanilla American all my depression floats away. Whodathunk that Starbucks had the answer to world peace all along? Give the world a cup of coffee!
Those weather peep are calling for a chance of snow this weekend, which means the Stang stays in the stable if white flurry stuff falls from the sky, which means I'll be doing nothing this weekend. And sadly, I have a fully booked weekend ahead of playing Bah Humbug the Christmas Elf. Maybe I can squeeze in a pedicure too.