Cold and drizzly all day. Had a nice chat with my current manager this morning, who was giving me advice on how to get promoted in my new role. Shooting for a promo in 12 months’ time, pending my new manager’s support. My current manager has kindly offered to be available for guidance even after I move to the new team on the 15th (today’s gratitude: for my manager and a supportive team). I got another “exceeds expectations” in my latest performance evaluation, done twice annually. Of four total performance evals in my tenure at the company, I have 2 “exceeds,” 1 “superior,” and 1 “meets expectations.” Hoping this will help in future promos.

Contractors came to reframe the bathroom to fix an error made yesterday. The plumbers are nearly finished roughing out the new piping for the shower and tub—and stuck a drill hole through the new ceiling in the basement below the master bath. Add that to the punch list of things to fix. Looking so forward to this project getting finished sooner than predicted (not promised, just hoped for). Not sure how much more I can take of workmen tramping through my house and the disarray it causes. But if this is the worst of my problems, I’ll take it. I realize how privileged we are to be getting this work done. All things considered, it’s been tolerable, and this is a good lesson for me in two ways: 1) I’m learning to live in clutter, which typically I find paralyzing; 2) I realize that we have too much stuff. Granted, I already knew the latter, but now I’m more motivated to keep getting rid of stuff (pay no attention to the woman ordering couch covers and new area rugs online).

It’s Election Day in Virginia, for a new governor and all 100 seats in the House of Delegates. The races are close, and I’m not watching tonight but I am anxious about this state sliding backwards again. It’s not looking good for science, sense, or sanity. It’s also Plan Your Epitaph Day, so here goes:

Live, laugh, love
Wish I’d learned that sooner
Because stressing over home remodeling
And elections
Isn’t that