I guess April just isn't a journaling kind of month for me. Still busy, what with paging for pilots and helping bro Bob.

Not too mention a two-day sales meeting which lasted from 8am to 11pm with lots of speakers and presentations, breakfast, lunch and supper spent with the same thirty people, most of whom I met for the first time though we'd spoken on the phone many times over the last three years. Cliche though it may be, it really was nice seeing faces connected to those names and voices.

It was also wonderful hearing the account execs and coordinators say how much they appreciate my work and the way I help them do their own jobs.

Still doesn't make me want to stay, though.

Easter was fairly quiet. Since bro Randy is a work-aholic and it's been next to impossible to get together with him to give him his birthday present, Mom and I decided it might be best to combine his birthday celebration with mine and roll it into Easter.

I got Randy a nice pen and pencil set, since that's the only thing he mentioned he wanted (the man's impossible to shop for), and the folks and sis Teresa got him a really nice trackball (turns out he already had the same one) and two nice t-shirts to show off his buff chest (Randy loves working out, when he has the time).

Me, I hit the jackpot. Savage Garden's two CD's from Teresa, a gift certificate from the Wherehouse and the Star Trek Concordance (very difficult to find) from Randy and a Craftsman rotary tool from Mom and Dad. I was one happy camper.

Because bro Bob is almost always working, he decided to spend his precious day off with Gloria and the kids, so we didn't get a chance to see them. Of course, we all understood their feelings, but it still would have been nice if they could have come over.

Then again, I get to hang out with them at least once a week, so I really shouldn't say anything.

I think I'm becoming a morning person. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

As long as I can remember, I've been a child of the night. Way back when I was five or six I would sometimes stay up late with Mom and watch old movies. When Dad wasn't overseas he'd be in bed early, since he usually had to be out of the house by 5am. The rest of the kids usually stayed up a little while, but tended to conk out by 10pm.

Not me. I could easily stay up until midnight or 1am. It made it hard for me to wake up for school the next morning, and I suppose Mom should have insisted that I be asleep by 8:30 or 9pm, but I think she enjoyed the company of another night person, even if it was her little daughter.

So we frequently stayed up late, watching movies like GYPSY and DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS. (When watching the latter, I was usually hiding behind Mom's chair and peeking out. Hmmm, Sondheim and English vampires. Any wonder I ended up a fan of both?)

My late habits continued through my high school days, only to be slighty curbed by my 1 1/2 years spent working the 12:00am - 8:30am shift at my second job. (Talk about screwing up your internal clock!)

Ever since I've been taking my vitamins every night (and exercising five times a week - into my third week, yea!) it's not only been easier to get out of bed (though still not easy), but I've been getting tired by 10:30pm.

10:30PM!!! Something is just not right! But I still feel healthier and more alert most of the time, so I probably shouldn't complain.

Sometimes I still miss my noctunal habits. *pout*

Well, tomorrow at 4:09pm CST exactly I'll be 34 years old. Wow.

It's going to be a quiet birthday, with no real plans. It bums me out a little, but it's kinda my fault. I haven't really broadcast it to the world, mainly because I've been kinda bad about keeping up on other's birthdays this past year. I didn't think it would be right to be all grabby for attention and gifts if I didn't do my own share.

Still, being someone who likes attention the way I do, it's still sorta sucks.

Actually I do have one thing planned for tomorrow, during my lunch time. It's a birthday present for myself, but I can't go into details right now. I'll let you know tomorrow. Suffice it to say that it's something I'm a little nervous about.

I promise, I will write about it. (I know how bad I've been in the past about following up on statements like that.)

It's now time for...

Rob's cat Bloo is sick. Think good thoughts for her, ok?