Progress! (It's almost football season!)

It's been a while! I feel like everything's been absolutely nonstop—and nothing's happened the way it was supposed to! I should've had two pretty big work-related meetings by now and neither of them have happened. I should've also caught up on my sleep (and I haven't) and Matt and I should have drafted our Fantasty Football teams (but we haven't). Instead, I'm being super social! And when I'm not social, I'm working. It's seriously exhausting.

And expensive.

Freelance work got the best of me this past weekend. A proofread about how to hunt and kill white-tailed deers took up most of my free time—and then some. Matt and I did a decent amount of laundry (see also: all) Saturday morning and I had a pretty good meal with Andrew on Sunday. There's been so much going on, and I don't want to recap it day-by-day because that could get boring, but I can highlight some stuff:

• Last Thursday — Work party was tons of fun. I talked to a lot of people I never get the chance to speak with in the office and my group of friends (colleagues?) were the last to leave. I even came away with a bottle of champagne!
• Last Friday — Shooting at the Empire State Building. (Thanks to everyone who texted to see if I was okay!) My office is two avenue blocks away from the ESB, so we weren't in danger at any time.
• Saturday and Sunday — Calling, rattling, and decoying whitetails. Almost all day. Plus laundry, grocery shopping, and brunch at home made by Matthew! No date night/cooking because I had too much work to do and we didn't have enough food in the apartment (at the time) to do much with.
• Monday — Is it sad that I can't even remember what happened yesterday? I think I finished up my deer murdering proofread and that was about it.

That brings us to today! I put an entire book about rabbit hunting ("Wabbit season! Duck season!") together and am still pretty ahead of the game in reference to my own work. I have four proposals I need to read and was thrown a few compliments from my editorial director today about my "eye" for what the company needs.

Then it was happy hour! Something we'd been planning for a while, but weren't able to execute until tonight. A decent amount of people showed up; people I hadn't really ever talked to. It's so weird to think that I was able to make my rounds and talk to everyone tonight, rarely feeling uncomfortable or without something to talk about. This time last year, I was struggling, like I had been for years. I remember going to a happy hour with a group in which I knew two people and I was so uncomfortable that I shut down completely. I barely spoke to anyone and I ran out of there pretty quickly. That just doesn't seem to be the case anymore. It's not because of the move to NYC or my new job; it definitely has something to do with the way I grew as a person while Matt and I were apart. I learned to fend for myself in more ways than one.

The rest of the week includes researching NFL players for the office's fantasy football draft on Sunday. (I made the team!!) I won't be able to participate in the actual draft, but Henry's going to sign in as me and pick my players for me since my parents will be here and it's pretty time consuming. We'll probably split the prize if I happen to win (which I doubt I will).

I also plan on cleaning some more (Matt did a wonderful job with the guest room/office/man cave today!) and getting everything situated for my family's visit! I'm super excited about it; I hope I can be a good tour guide and I don't send them home too tired/annoyed. Manhattan can be overwhelming.

Can't wait for Friday!!