I slept late, and found I had nothing to do after all.

Last night, I must have been exhausted.  Normally, I get to sleep around 2 am or so, and wake up between 8 and 9 am.  Today, I woke up a little before noon, and didn't get moving until about 1 pm.  This got in the way of me driving to Mavis in time for me to get a needed oil change and tire rotation.  But if I get up and out early enough tomorrow, this won't be a problem.

But first....

Given how tired I was yesterday, sleeping late this morning was a great blessing.  Getting 10+ hours of sleep is very important, and I felt very rested when I got up.  However, I realized that I had to check on things.  The first thing I did was to check the status of a meetup being held tonight.  The organizer had cancelled it due to a lack of interest.  It's no great loss.  This person has organized and disbanded several groups in the past, and never seems to keep one open long enough to gain a loyal group of followers.  (I attended one of the two women's groups she organized, and didn't feel as welcome as I did with the Fun Time Friends in Connecticut.)  Next, I got showered and dressed (as Mario), and visited Mavis to see about getting my car service done.  As I mentioned earlier, this wasn't possible today, as they had cars double parked in their parking lot.  But I did have a great chat with the desk clerk, a 21 year old fellow with much of his life ahead of him.

Going home from Mavis, I had to stop by the bank and get some money from the ATM.  One big problem - the ATM's card reader was having problems with my card.  Since this is the second time this happened on the same machine (worse now than before), I decided to inside the branch to report a problem.  Getting to the teller station, we checked my card by putting it in the reader there - no problems.  Hopefully, they will fix the problem with the outdoor ATM, as I don't like the headache of being unsure of my card's usefulness to me.

As much as I wanted to change and go out again as Marian, I couldn't find the energy to do so.  Instead, I stayed at home and took care of some little things before packing it in for the night.

Lunch with my Ex-Boss

Today I had two things on my docket, and both of them had to be done in my male presentation.  First was lunch with my Ex-Boss, and then my monthly Co-Op Board meeting. And I was wishing that I could have put on a dress and gone to a museum....

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Normally, I don't fully wake up until sometime between 8:30 and 10:00.  Today, my journey to full consciousness started a little before 10:00, and I wasn't really moving until 10:30.  This gave me about 2 hours to get dressed (as Mario), pick up my iPad (with its new battery), then drive to Rockland County to meet my ex-boss.  And I barely accomplished all this in time.

Lunch with my ex-boss is always interesting, as we talk about the past, present and future.  The past is usually business talk, and today was no different than usual.  But today, I had job interviews to tell him about (without mention of going as Marian).  And this was pleasant news to relate. Then we got into our usual political conversation - and we both have the same fears about the present and future.  Neither of us like our president, and we both have concerns about what would happen if he stays in office, or is replaced by the vice president.  We can't wait until 11/03/20, when we can exercise our right to vote....

Since we were expecting winter weather, we ended lunch a little earlier than usual.  Luckily, none of the bad weather arrived before I started my drive home.  And I was inside my apartment before 4:00.  This gave me enough time to take care of some things and get ready for the co-op board meeting.

As usual, I won't go into details about the board meeting.  But, compared with this time last year, everything was better than we expected.  Everything was in order, and we were very happy with the way things had developed over the past year.  Yes, there are some headaches that we (and other co-op boards) need to address because of New York State law changes that took place this summer.  But we can now give them the proper thought required, an effort that would have been impossible at this time last year.

Half and Half - It's not just a dairy product

Long before my most recent cruise, I scheduled both lunch as Marian and a Co-Op board meeting as Mario.  This was going to be a busy day, as I had to prepare myself to go out as Marian, then change into Mario - all before 5:00 pm.  However, things changed when I received a message from my lunch date that she couldn't make it today - she had a basement flood to take care of, and would be waiting for her plumber to come during the day.

So I was now free until 5:00 pm.  What should I do?

Yesterday, I started cleaning out some of the clutter in my bedroom.  Since my cleaning lady is expected to be here on Thursday, I figured that I'd stay in Mario Mode for the day.  (I'd have rather gone out for lunch as Marian, but one has to adapt to changing times.) So I cleaned up a little more of the mess I had in my bedroom during the afternoon.

Around 4:00, I started to get ready for my co-op board meeting.  This was an event that I always attend as Mario.  (I'll admit, that if we were to call a second meeting for the month for reasons I won't go into here, I'd have mentioned that I'd consider attending as Marian.  That would have shut down the calls for a second meeting.)  Luckily, there was only good news to report - all was well with our financial status, and we're in much better shape than I thought we'd be in about a year ago. (I can't go into any more detail than that.)  Just before the meeting ended, HWV said for me to call her after she got home.  HWV wanted to see what my availability was for Hudson Valley Restaurant Week, and suggested that we go for dinner.

Later on, I finally got the chance to talk with GFJ.  She's home after a long weekend in North Carolina, and she's getting back to the daily grind again....