— पांच हजार तीन सौ नब्बे —
It turns out I misspoke in my first of two Birth Week 2023 "travelogue" emails I sent this year, saying this is the 20th year I've been actually calling it a "Birth Week"—I sent that out last Wednesday, detailing the first half of this year's 10-day stretch. But, I guess I need to learn how to go back to my very own records to confirm my memory is working properly. I just checked my LiveJournal archives, and I have "Birth Week" posts from 2003 itself! Why have I been so convinced for so many years that I started this in 2004?
For many, many years, in fact, I have been remembering—incorrectly—that 2005, being the first year I took the whole week off of work, was only one year after doing a "Birth Week" I actually worked through. I actually did it for two years before I actually started taking the whole week off of work!
I looked at the
first "Birth Week" entry I posted to LiveJournal in 2003, and it noted that the "Birth Week" idea had originated the previous year, after, by coincidence, I wound up celebrating with different people four days in a row: dinner with Barbara on Monday; Julie buying me a sundae on Tuesday (my actual birthday that year, but that evening would otherwise have been Seattle Lesbian and Gay Chorus rehearsal); Andrea taking me out for dinner Wednesday; and going to the Seattle Art Museum with Danielle on Thursday.
And here I had made some tentative plans for doing something special
next year as the "20th" Birth Week! This year alone was my 21st! The year 2024 will be my
22nd Birth Week celebration.
I do have a new idea for next year, though, something I think I might do going forward. It takes a page from both my 2020 and 2023 trips to Australia, which incldued a "buffer day" off of work at the end of the span of vacation days. In the case of Australia, I did this more to adjust to jet lag than anything, although in practice it doesn't feel like a huge transition—granted, that may be largely because I don't force myself to get up early for work the day after flying home.
Well, jet lag or not, my Birth Week has become a rather exhausting (if still fun and totally worth it) endeavor: what little spare time I spend outside of being out and about, I fill up completely with the written account work I do: processing and uploading and tagging photos; writing and posting daily blog posts; writing and sending "travelogue" emails. I had to spend most of my evening last night finishing all that up, after having worked a full shift at the office—both the final daily blog post, and the second of two travelogue emails. It would have been nice to have the day to work on that without also having to go to work.
I would still keep the "Birth Week" limited to ten days. No scheduling on Monday! But, I think I might start taking that Monday off every year from now on. God knows I have more PTO now than I know what to do with, now that PCC won't let me cash any of it out anymore. So, why the fuck not?
— पांच हजार तीन सौ नब्बे —
— पांच हजार तीन सौ नब्बे —
So anyway, that was the bulk of my time spent last night: finishing up the relevant Birth Week writing. I still need to transfer captions from the emails to the corresponding photos on Flickr.
When I was done writing, I watched Sunday night's episode of
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver with Shobhit. With season two of
Perry Pason now over, and this new limited series
White House Plumbers not getting good enough reviews to sustain my interest, I went back to the bedroom to watch this week's episode of
Somebody Somewhere, which is also wonderful. I bet Shobhit might enjoy that too, but he never watched season 1 of that either, so, whatever.
As for this morning, it's been kind of nuts how busy I've been just doing immediate-need work in response to emails steadily coming in since I arrived. I have other shit to do, people! Hell, I still have 283 unread emails from last week. It'll take me at least another couple of weeks to get through all of that, probably.
Otherwise, it's back to business as usual around here. I'm going to a movie tonight, for the firs time since April 17—two weeks ago yesterday. With SIFF coming up, I actually hope to average at least three movies a week for the next few weeks. I have lots of catching up to do, in multiple arenas.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ नब्बे —
[posted 12:53 pm]
