the winter blues...

...have hit early this year. every winter i go through the whole "seasonal affective disorder" thing, i totally hibernate once november hits. but this year i think it's already started. the past week or so, on and off within the fun stuff i've been doing, i've had these periods of, just, "down-ness". and in the past couple of days it's been much more noticeable. i'm bummed out, everyone's pissing me off, i'm tired, i don't want to do anything... i got up at 5am today to go to the gym (i've also gained back 4 pounds from WW, yay), and i'm sitting here awake and i just can't drag myself out to go. *sigh*. maybe i need to break out the light box early this year... it helped last year, and the days have definitely been getting shorter already. maybe it's the reduced sunlight, maybe there's just something about fall that hits me hard emotionally (leftover back-to-school anxiety?)... but this feeling has to stop, it totally sucks. grrrr.

in happier news, i saw "mystic river" last night and it was wonderful. the movie isn't happy, granted, but the cool part is that i know someone in it and they did a great job! a few summers ago i was in a regional production of "footloose", and one of the guys, andrew, got cast in the movie right after the run was over. for those of you who have seen the movie, (small spoiler! warning!) he's the kid with the bloody nose towards the end of the movie, in that big dramatic scene in the house. i was so proud! i made a list last night of all the movies where i know someone in them... i'm going to start buying the DVDs and having a little library of 'em. so far there are 12 on the list.

just a day and a half until i'm in philly for the weekend... and 3 days until i get to see 12thknight and swingdoc. i'm totally psyched. i have a few ideas for dinner and hanging out on saturday night, but if any of my philly friends have suggestions for something cool, i'm all ears...

and the fall's hottest fashion accessory is...

...braces.

i swear, in the past few months it seems like everyone i know has decided to get braces! a couple of months ago i ran into a girl who works for my company, i hadn't seen her in about 2 years... and as we talked, i saw a flash of silver. turns out she got them on last year, and her teeth already look totally different. since then, 2 nurses i see regularly got them, and today at lunch, i noticed that one of my doctors, who's in his 40s, just got them as well! wow... tom cruise bares a silver smile a year ago, and suddenly everyone realizes it's okay to have them if you're over 13 years old.

worked in chinatown today, in the pouring rain. on the one hand it sucked, because i always have to walk several city blocks to get to my offices, and i ended up completely drenched (and sweaty, because it was warm too). on the other hand, it was good because the rain held the interesting scents at bay. chinatown really is like its own world within boston... it's fun because everything looks so different from the rest of the city... but i'll be walking along, with the wonderful smells of roasting ducks and ginger and spices in my nose, and all of a sudden the stink of garbage or sewage will just slap me in the face. nowhere else in boston do you find that.

had a mild panic attack mid-morning... i didn't have anything planned for lunch, and a ton of work to do in my home office, so my plan was to work through lunch and then head back to finish out the day doing paperwork and reports. but at 10:30am i checked my voicemail and heard, "hi jennifer, this is dr. XYZ's office, we're confirming your lunch for 12 noon today." WHAT??? it wasn't in my PDA, so i hadn't realized. (this happened back in february too... i had set up several lunches with this same office and somehow they all disappeared from my PDA calendar.) so i had one hour to find a place that could cater lunch for 12 people and deliver it. thank god there's a great chinese restaurant i love that was able to pull through for me. but ugh, if they hadn't called, i would have looked really bad. stupid PDA.

off to philly tomorrow, i can't wait! i really need the break. (yes, i know we just had a 3-day weekend.) eek, i have to pack tonight...