Even my hair wanted to shirk its responsibility this morning.

Soft morning light, filtered through the white mesh canopy above my bed, fell on my eyes and I woke up enveloped in a cloud: my feather bed below me, my down comforter above me, and my boyfriend next to me. It was perfect... And then I realized it was a Wednesday and I had to be at work in - check the clock - oh God: 45 minutes.

I sat up and immediately understood it was a bad idea when my head took a minute to catch up with me. I sank back down into bed. Alex rolled over and caught me in a bear hug. "Call in..." he mumbled. "I can't," I whined. I reached over to the nightstand, picked up my cell phone, and dialed my supervisor's number. "But I can sleep some more..." I said, as the phone rang and Mary Ellen's voicemail picked up. "Mary Ellen, it's Ali, I'm going to be about an hour late today... I'll just work through my lunch to make it up, if that's ok." I flipped the phone closed and rolled back under the covers.

I woke up an hour later and realized that I was still going to be late to work. I fell out of bed and stood, disoriented, in the middle of my room. "Ugh... Head..." Alex moaned. I shuffled out to the kitchen and brought him water and Advil. "Thanks..." he grunted as he downed the pills and then immediately fell back asleep. I stood looking at him for a moment, snug in my bed, and then pushed away any lingering thoughts of calling into work. I finished the water as I walked down the hall into the bathroom.

I did not like the reflection in the mirror. She looked tired. And hun-gover. Perhaps I shouldn't have had so much wine last night. But I was so excited about my success at Weight Watchers earlier that evening (lost another 2.8 pounds for a total of 10.6 in five weeks!) that when Alex suggested we go to Ruby Tuesday's, I couldn't resist... And the drinks there were two for one, so of course I couldn't refuse a free glass of wine... And then when he asked if I'd like to go to the Ginger Man after dinner I was in no condition to resist. I didn't have to get more wine there, but the Ginger Man has these nifty little wine samplers with three, 3 ounce "tastes" of wine and after I was done with my "Sweet Tooth" collection I was pretty drunk.

I didn't know where to begin to fix the girl in the mirror, but I did know that I didn't have enough time to shower. Luckily, it was my day off for washing my hair, so I figured I'd just pony tail it and go. The hair did not want to cooperate. The hair, in fact, wanted to go back to bed. No matter what I did to it, it would revert back to its sleeping position: sticking out at all angles. I'd get the bulk of my hair back into a pony tail, and the hair on the sides would stick straight out. It was actually incredible. I almost just gave up. It was like my hair was telling me to give in and go back to bed.

But I fought it. I tamed the beast that was my hair and I fought the sluggishness leftover from my wine indulgences and I made it to work. (Eventually.) And I had a productive day. (Mostly.) And I've learned my lesson and won't get drunk again on a work night. (Probably.)

Horoscope Round Up - 2/17/04:

"You'd love nothing better than to stay inside all day, but duty calls. You have to go out and do your part in the world, but you don't have to like it. Coming home to a comfortable chair and a good book is your respite." How true is that?! I totally did not want to get out of bed today and even though I got nine hours of sleep, it was still a fight getting myself out of bed at 7:30!! But I don't think it'll be a book and a comfy chair tonight... it'll probably be my broken sofa and Sex and the City or the Style Network... ;)

"You've been coasting in neutral for long. Pick up the pace and keep it moving. Live up to your potential. Your boss and coworkers are rooting for you. Welcome back to your career, which is already in progress." Guess I better stop blogging. But that's sort of true. I'm finally pretty much caught up, but the past few days I've been getting minimal done. So that's kind of a kick in the pants. I should start being good again and not let myself get lazy again...

"Romantically you're likely to be in a good space right now, dear Cancer. If you're single, you're in no hurry to change that, and if you're involved, you and your partner should be getting along very well. However, you might experience a little doubt when a current or potential partner becomes rather incommunicative. Your friend, however, probably has money worries up to the eyebrows. Let your partner know you're there to listen, then back off. Enjoy your day." This horoscope also rings pretty true. I am in a pretty good space right now. :) Also, this week Alex is working a lot of nights, so I'm thinking that we won't be able to hang out too much, and I'm sure he'll be trying for some OT as well, because we were both complaining on Sunday that we'd both just got paid and were already poor.

Final horoscope for the day, my chinese horoscope for the year of the goat: "You'll feel rather nervous, emotive, anxious. If you don't take necessary precautions, your affective life could very well be perturbed, especially if you live in a couple. You'll imagine that a rival puts you in the shade or that your preferred one turns his/her eyes elsewhere; doubtlessly your fear will only be imaginary. Beware, you'll have a strong tendency to live above your means! Don't think that you can always get away with it; you may very well find yourself this time in a blind alley." I think they just took a bunch of words and strung them together. Or maybe they wrote something that would make sense, but then took out a thesauras and started to randomly replace words. It's like reading a bunch of fortunes from fortune cookies all strung together. that's funny.

just had to gush... ;)

last saturday i was upset. i was being a big, self-pitying baby. i'd convinced myself that i had no friends and that no one wanted to hang out with me after my saturday night plans with beck and dodi never happened. the whole week had been building up to it though. i'd been depressed that week before because other than tuesday and friday nights when alex and i had hung out, i'd spent every night alone in my apartment. and, i mean, i like my apartment. and i like having alone time. but only when i'm choosing alone time. i wasn't choosing to hang out with myself all those nights, it was my only option. so then when the saturday plans fell through the lonliness from the week before came back and spiraled into a bad scene. in fact, i even called alex crying. and i don't like to be crying girl. but that night i was. and he made it better.

and this week he made sure to try and be with me every night this past week. last sunday night he had to work, but he was partners with Foster, so they came over to my apartment for dinner. i made them boboli pizzas: one was a "healthy" one with fat free ricotta cheese and roasted veggies, and one was a traditional pizza with sauce, cheese, pepperoni, peppers and onions. i'd wanted to make my own dough, but there wasn't enough time. i made enough of a scene even just using pre-formed crusts... i managed to cut my thumb and my index finger on my left hand while slicing up veggies for the "healthy" pizza and then just before they walked in the door i took a large chunk out of my left thumb and it bled. a lot. i'd been slicing zuchini and suddenly i realized that i wasn't cutting veggies anymore, i was cutting my thumb. i answered the door with a bloody paper towel wrapped around my thumb. mmm.. appetzing. anyway, the pizza came out ok (i have to learn how to take a compliment) and it was awesome to have the company :) then monday i got home from the gym after work to find alex asleep on the sofa waiting for me. and tuesday he met me after my WW meeting... Wednesday evening found us hanging out again. Thursday, i thought for sure that he'd had enough of me, and was pleasently surprised to hear from him during the day... he'd called to let me know that he'd taken an extra shift and wouldn't be around that night but would call me the next day so we could hang out. Friday we went up to Saratoga to hang out with Foster and his girlfriend, Amy.

And then Saturday was Valentine's day. We had 9 o'clock reservations at Saso's in Albany for sushi. When we'd decided on Valentine's plans earlier in the week, Alex said that he'd take me out to wherever I wanted to go for dinner. So I figured that he could buy dinner and I'd get the drinks and dessert afterwards and that would be our gifts to each other. I didn't think we'd really be exchanging gifts because we didn't even do that for birthdays last year. So when Alex showed up at the apartment to go to dinner and said that he got me something I was pleasently surprised. He held out a dark green and navy blue box and i opened it up to reveal a claddagh necklace. it's absolutely beautiful. it's yellow and white gold... yellow chain and ring portion with white hands, heart, and crown. i love it. as he helped me put it on he explained that he remembered me saying a few weeks back that while beck and i were in ireland i didn't buy myself a claddagh ring, even though they were abundent, because i thought that you should really be given one by someone special. so he recruited Foster to help him pick out a claddagh for me at Celtic Treasures in Saratoga. He said that he picked out the necklace because he liked that one much better than the rings they had. i think it's amazing. it's so delicate and elegant and just perfect. he's so sweet.

sigh. :)

so the evening was amazing. We had an excellent dinner and went to the Ginger Man for martinis afterwards and we just had a fabulous time. really, it was my best valentine's day yet. :)

so yeah... just had to gush...