Maybe it’s this crazy weather bouncing up and down from 30 degrees one day to 70 the next… or humidity or allergens or lack of sleep… but I’m getting these crazy kickin’ headaches more and more often.

Another one is on the rise right now, so I shall try and stave it off with multiple Motrin and lots of water. And maybe I’ll get to sleep.

I actually sat down and watched a TV show tonight - like, at the time it was on and on purpose. The show? “The Riches”, the new show on FX starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver.

Many Americans are not familiar with Eddie Izzard. Of those, not many know that he has been on stage in several dramatic roles (both as in drama - the art of theatre, and drama - not comedy). And has appeared in dramatic roles in several films.

I’m pretty damn impressed with his dramatic acting abilities in this. There is an article in the Scotsman online that pretty much nails the show premise and feel:

[Eddie Izzard] and fellow British performer Minnie Driver co-star as Wayne and Dahlia Malloy, a married couple who belong to a clan of nomadic grifters of Irish descent in rural Louisiana called the Travellers.

In the biggest scam they have ever pulled, the Malloys and their three kids break from the Travellers, go on the run with a big chunk of the clan’s treasury and seek to blend into a gated, suburban community by masquerading as another family.

The show’s title, “The Riches,” comes from a well-heeled couple, Douglas and Cherien Rich, who die in a car accident during the Malloys’ getaway, and whose identity, possessions and house the Malloys adopt.

That sets the stage for a new life that will prove the ultimate test of their talents as scam artists and their very sense of identity…

…The show’s strangers-in-a-strange-land premise borrows from early shows like “The Beverly Hillbillies” to more recent offerings like Mafia saga “The Sopranos” and the polygamist family drama “Big Love.

Yup. I was watching it and thinking, “this has got a definite Soprano vein, but I actually ENJOY this.” And it reminded me of some “X-Files” episodes and some “Law & Order” episodes involved Travellers, and also “Big Love.”

Now I’m really tired. This time change is not having the expected effect. I can’t get up in the morning (which makes sense, since it’s an hour earlier than the clock says) but I’m exhausted at night (which doesn’t make sense for the same reason).

This morning, it was snowing up here in northern New Jersey. While I was waiting at the train station, the snow was light and lovely. I could see individual snowflakes against my black coat and gloves; I just stood there on the platform, staring down at my sleeve and gloves and marveling at how perfect they all were and how this is just how the weird science of water works. I got so caught up in that quasi-meditation that I didn’t totally realize that the train was REALLY late. They didn’t make an announcement on the platform, so that also kept me from breaking the spell.

Then one of the other “regulars” on the train line walked down to where I was standing with some other peeps and said that he had just checked the NJ Transit website and found out that the train was running 40 minutes late. That meant that if I waited for the train and then had the 45-50 minute ride in, I’d end up 90 minutes late for work. No thank you, thought I, and decided to drive in.

Oh, what folly! Silly me! Thinking that a TINY bit of snow wouldn’t make people into idiots… thinking that I’d get into work by my usual time like I normally do when I drive in.

There was no accident, no reason for going less than 5 miles an hour for a long stretch of three-lane highway. I started watching the clock and the odometer and at one point, it took 7 minutes to go 1 mile. It took an hour to make the 20 mile drive. I wasn’t stressing, but I was just wondering what was going on. And there was really nothing. At one point, the traffic just eased up and that was that. Smooth sailing.

I did get to sit in traffic behind one of the most Jersey things I’ve seen in ages. Also, one of the most motarded things I’ve seen in ages. A black Hummer H2 in front of me, with a huge Superman logo decal on the rear window, STRIPED in the colors of the ITALIAN FLAG. What??? Was I driving behind an NJ guido with superpowers of some sort? Could he have been a Catholic Republican who has no problem with conspicuous consumption and his car’s ridiculous fuel expenditure?? Sadly, I never got to catch sight of the offending driver in his mirror (though the profile and haircut indicated that it was male). That was just one of those things that threw me into automatic “overly-judgmental” mode. But everything was fine; I didn’t actually freak out over anything.

Well, except for the near miss. There is a relatively sharp curve on the road at one point. I was in the center lane and had cars on both sides. The road curves to the left, and the car in the left lane took that turn a little too quickly and a little too sharply, and swerved into my lane suddenly. I swerved to avoid him (not enough to go into the other lane, thankfully, but enough to scare the shit out of me) and felt the car starting to skid, so I hit the brakes (knowing that it was OK to do this since I have ABS on this car, thankfully… yay, extra safety package!) and felt the thumpity-thump of the ABS and regained control of the car and my stomach. That was fun.

My work day was pretty darn good and that was nice. Less stressful.

So much to do… so much to do.

Today was just craziness at work in that sort of snowball way. One thing + another thing + another thing… and more and more and faster and I finally got ahead of it just a little… and I foresee more of the same tomorrow. And tomorrow I’m reading to the kids in the morning and will get to work a little later than usual as a result, and then leaving early for wrist therapy so my day is truncated. Grrrr. I will feel stress. I already feel stress. My neck is so tight and crunchy.

The wind tonight is fierce. I got home and walked up the front steps and it sounded like something was chasing me to the front door since the wind was just whipping up at that moment. All the windchimes in the neighborhood starting tinkling at the same moment and it was actually a bit creepy since there was whistling wind and occasional tinkling in notes that weren’t quite “right.” Very M. Night Shyamalan… kinda.

All right. Finishing up. Needing to sleep. Setting the alarm for a number that no self-respecting night-owl and insomniac ever sees (both too late and too early for us night peeps). If I were a morning person, I’m sure I would consider it sleeping late… but I’m not. So there.

I’ve already been reprimanded for lack of posting lately.

This morning, I write in semi-anger since someone registered me for Classmates.com yesterday. It wasn’t me because I didn’t touch the computer all day. But I had the confirmation email in my inbox today and had to go ahead and cancel that membership (”if you received this message in error…”). Grrrr. I opt out of any mailings that come with any other membership and use a separate email account for signing up for things that might end up spamming me - and this had my high school name listed. So it seems that it was a sentient being doing the dirty work.

Yesterday, I spent the bulk of the day with my friend Theresa. We went looking for a few things, not the least of which was a dress for me to wear to her wedding. I found one - a medium brown shade called mink (her wedding colors are blue and brown, and I’m the minister, so I can sort of coordinate with the wedding party), cut on a bias with some little fluttery sleeves and a little bit of beading near the neckline to keep things interesting. However, the only one they had left in my size (or any size larger than a 4, for that matter) had a few beads missing.

I figured I could get it online or at another store location; well, online they’re sold out of most sizes since I guess it’s a slightly older style (not old enough to discount, but not new enough to reorder). Now I’ll have to drag my ass into another store and see if they’ve got it. Otherwise, I might go back to the original store and see if they’d give me any % off since I’d have to go buy beads and resew them onto the dress for it to look good and not like I’d worn it to five other weddings and never bothered to care for it.

Also in the category of suckage, I got up kind of early yesterday so I could FINALLY go to the lab center and get the blood tests that the endocrinologist ordered up for me. I went to the one that has Saturday hours. I walked in and there was a line out the door, into the hallway and down the stairs. The waiting room (which could seat about 40 people itself) was also totally full. I looked at the sign-in sheet just to see if there was an error, but no. There were about 55 people ahead of me. So I turned around and decided to drive to another location slightly farther away. I fired up the navigation system in my cell phone (since I had a street address and a general idea of where this place was) and headed on up. I got to the address. The lot wasn’t empty, but it wasn’t full. I walked over to the directory of where the different offices are located and looked for room or suite 3, which is what my piece of paper said is the address of the lab center. #3 was a cardiologist. Hrm. I walked around, looking to see if there was another side to this place, or another wing. Nope. I called the phone number on the sheet of paper. No answer.

So, I got back into the car, pissed off as hell, and drove home. Theresa came by and we went out for brunchy/lunchy yumminess and then did our shopping. That made things much better, but the day started off in rotten fashion.

On Friday night, I watched a really great documentary called “Wordplay” - about the New York Times crossword puzzle, Will Shortz and his puzzle constructors, famous puzzle fans and the national crossword tournament. I watched about five minutes and thought, “This is great! I think my sister would want to watch this.” It wasn’t easy to sell her on the idea, but when she realized there was nothing good on TV, she relented and said, “OK, fine. Turn on that crossword thing.”

About five minutes into it, SHE was asking me to pause it while she went to get something from her room and then settled in on the couch to watch it. And when people walked into the kitchen and started talking, we were both shooshing them and pausing and rewinding to catch what we’d missed in those two seconds. It was good stuff; of course, one of the things I used to sell her on the idea was Jon Stewart’s appearance in it. But that’s the hook - the whole thing is really well-paced and engaging.

To catch up some more, on Wednesday I took the day off from work as one of my comp days for working last weekend. I had no idea what to do with myself after my planned things were done, so I drove around for about an hour, trying to figure out what to do that wouldn’t require me to spend too much money or tempt me to spend too much money out of boredom, and that I could do for several hours. The answer?

Hang out at a bookstore.

I’ve never actually done that by myself. I worked in a bookstore for 5 years. I’ve shopped in the bookstore that my sister works in. I’ve gone to bookstores with friends to help them look for/research things, so we’ve sat down with a few books and chatted while looking. But I’ve never gone into a bookstore by myself, sat down with a book and a cup of tea, and just read books for a few hours. And that’s what I did.

I read a book about marketing (the one on the left here - “Punk Marketing”) that was really interesting and entertaining, and that I might also buy for work since it was not like the usual marketing book one finds and would be a good tool and resource, I think, for when we get stuck in a rut of thought.

The Borders I went to had a mini Paperchase store inside. Paperchase is a British stationery and gift company. Borders has partnered with them and they sell a decent selection of their products in selected Borders stores. Which is AWESOME. I have their journals and pens and planners and stuff, and on Wednesday I bought a really cool totebag/shopping bag that’s great for carrying stuff to and from work. It’s PVC coated canvas, and I got it in this fun colored stripe pattern. I went back on Friday and got a matching mini-cosmetic bag AND an ID/train pass holder. I absolutely ♥ that stuff. I want to go back and get the lunch box, but that’s just overdoing it. They’ve got awesome iPod cases, too. If you want to see if there’s a Paperchase location in a Borders near you, they’ve got a store guide/locator.

I had some more interesting contemplative thoughts yesterday, but I’ll write about those later once I remember what the point was.

I’m going to go eat some breakfast. Maybe I’ll make some cinnamon and brown sugar french toast if we have the appropriate bread. If not, cereal is fine.