Many jobs

   Today was busy. REALLY BUSY. After I finished my job as animal caretaker, I went to work and hammered through a bunch of Christmas, Easter, and Valentine's programs. And led a recording session with two adorable little girls to get voice overs for a fox and seal. (I have the weirdest-slash-awesomest job ever.)
   One job I did NOT have to take on myself today was driving to work. And as I was in sleepy-eyed mode on the bus on the ride home, I realized what a huge relief it is to leave the driving to someone else. If it were possible to give up my car entirely in Kansas City—it isn't—I'd gladly make public transportation my only transportation. Taking a train to work every day would be a dream. 
   After work, I came home and took care of the pets again, then played the role of groundskeeper, mowing my quickly-becoming-overgrown lawn. Then I switched into lumberjack mode and chopped up the 20+' limbs that fell off my tree in the last storm. I bundled up all the wood and hauled it back into the back yard, thinking that I might build a quick fire pit this weekend, so that I can sit outside and enjoy burning off the wood over Memorial Day. We'll see what I have the stamina for this weekend.

   I will say that I am very lucky—and thankful—to live in such a great neighborhood. As soon as I arrived at home, I fed the animals, let them outside, then ran upstairs to change clothes in preparation for the barrage of yard work. I heard a rumbling in the driveway, and peeked out the window in time to see Loren dragging my trash and recycle bins up to my garage for me. I ran down to meet him, and he said he wanted to stop by to see if I needed any help disassembling the huge tree limbs. How sweet! Later in the evening, his wife, Edna, walked over to say hello.
   A few minutes after Loren and his dog, Champ, headed back up the sidewalk to their house, Steve pulled into his driveway across the street, and came over to see if I needed any help. This is Steve with whom I bonded during the very snowy winter last year, when he brought over his new snowblower and finished off the second half of my driveway in minutes, relieving me of the rest of the shoveling.
   Abby and Scott have been the most fantastic neighbors, too, sharing home cooked food and letting my dogs out on those occasions that I get stuck at work unexpectedly. My pets have all taken a liking to them, and especially to their one-year-old, August. Kismet is entranced with him, and even Aki follows him around with a goofy smirk on her face, kindly licking his face to remove any traces of food. This, the dog who was formerly terrified of anyone shorter than me.
   So blessed and happy to have such wonderful neighbors!
   The last couple weeks have been nuts, between a surprise case of the flu, and between completing the Dog-n-Jog t-shirt designs and being immediately thrown into starting and finishing the Art Unleashed logo. Being sick was a blessing in disguise of sorts, as it forced me to cancel my trip to do Divemaster training at Beaver Lake, which allowed me to do the artwork, in between bouts of running a massive fever and having the entirely uncontrollable urge to sleep it off. Taka will be in town for Memorial Day, so I'm looking forward to several days of having fun and doing very little in the way of anything productive. I've had that overloaded feeling a lot lately, even with the stuff I enjoy, and am beyond ready for a break.