rainy tuesday.

What a day. It has been raining nonstop since this morning. A good day to stay inside, though I'm really just glad it's not snowing. There's not even snow in the 10-day forecast. The Midwest is getting it, though. And New England. Another reason I love the South.

Regions has yet to satisfy me as a customer. Long story short, they charged me for my free checks. Called them at 6 a.m. today and I got my money back, but I've made so many calls to Regions customer service over the past six weeks, it's giving me a headache. Once more and I'm done.

Spent the day with the preteen team. Pretty awesome. Abbey served up some wonderful food ... which is precisely why I am not taking cinnamon rolls to the department brunch on Friday. I'm smart enough to know I cannot (and will not embarrass myself by trying to) compete with Abbey's cooking, so I'm bringing a crumb coffee cake instead (which I admit isn't even homemade; it's a just-add-eggs-and-water mix from a box. I'm not ashamed.)

We played Dirty Santa where you draw numbers for presents and can steal other people's presents ... I happily walked away with The Holiday DVD which is definitely a wintertime chick-flik. And I very much enjoyed getting under my covers this evening and watching it. I also made it over to the Red Cross; last week I went to donate blood and my iron was too low. (It's supposed to be 12.5 minimum. I had 11.5; this time I had 13.3!) I worked hard this past week to get my iron levels up, which meant eating iron-rich foods like meat and oatmeal and green veggies, and laying off the tea, eggs, and caffeine (which block your body's ability to absorb iron!) So I gave a pint and surprisingly it didn't really hurt much at all and I didn't even feel like I was going to pass out when they pulled out the needle, which usually happens.

I've been in a mood this week and I absolutely do not want to do my dishes! So much so that I sometimes find myself standing back, staring at the sink and wanting to shout, "Aauurrggh! Clean yourself!" (An emotion I feel more young women should make themselves aware of as it serves as an accurate indicator of one's not being ready to care for a small needy creature; namely, a baby.)

I baked cookies last night and things have been piling up in the sink. I suppose I need to get in there tonight and do some cooking so I have something to take for lunches the rest of the week. Also just remembered that tomorrow is trash day. I didn't set my trash out last week and probably won't this week. My recycling bin fills up much faster -- I wish it came weekly instead of once a month! I'll probably just start sticking my trash out there on the 4th Wednesday when they do recycling. Gives the trash guy one less can to dump, I suppose.

Pretty good day. Hard to believe in just about two weeks I'll be driving back to Kansas. Excited to be going home. Can't wait to see Jenn and hopefully Lindsey; and I bet little Marley is getting all grown up -- it'll be tough not to want to hurry back to Nashville to adopt a little kitten of my own. :)