Happy Birthday to me, Parts 2 and 3

Yesterday started out as a bad day. There were continuous raised voices on the el -- someone felt disrespected by an invasion of personal space -- and it was very rattling. The tension in the car was sky high as we all worried about the confrontation becoming physical. ("Excuse me, Madam? Your tote bag does not deserve it's own seat! And you, Sir? Don't go out of your way to smash her belongings! We all have to share this confined space. Let's try to respect one another." One of these days, a silly conflict like this is going to escalate until someone gets shot.)

So I was already rattled when I got to work. And my plate keeps getting more and more projects

heaped upon it. It's always like this year-end. I'm not surprised, but I am anxious, because my boss seems alternately rattled and in denial.

Naturally I was surprised and very grateful when my most annoying coworker said, "Let's go to lunch for your birthday!" She took me to Wildberry, the breakfast-centric restaurant right in our office building and I got to have eggs benedict for lunch. It was a thoughtful and much appreciated gesture.

Then I went back to work-work-work and was surprise and happy when these arrived. My oldest friend sent them to my office because she knows I'm going to be gone this weekend.

I really appreciated this gesture, too. I knew she would remember my birthday -- hell, we've known one another since Kindergarten -- but this explains why she was so adamant about knowing my travel plans. She wanted to send the arrangement where I could enjoy them the most. (And after the flowers go, that's going to make quite the cosmo glass.)