He was really nice. We've talked quite a bit over the years, and we had a nice conversation before I went into my pitch. He listened, and asked a number of questions that I thought were spot-on, regarding my current schedule and the schedule I'd have to take on in order to consult for the company. I'd be starting at the bottom, but the possibility to move up is much higher than where I am now.

Afterwards, he said that he'd talk with someone in allocations about what the next step was, and actually went over to her office as I was leaving his.

I had a meeting to attend right afterwards, but once I got back, there was a voicemail from him, saying that he talked with allocations, my idea to move from administration to consulting wasn't that far-fetched (other people had done it before), and gave me the name of the person who I should call next.

I left her a message (it was after 5pm at this point), and hope to hear from her tomorrow sometime.

I really feel good about this. It's the one-year anniversary since I started in my new department, and I'd be more than happy to spend another year here. However, with so many new things happening in my life, I feel it's time to take steps towards doing new things, facing new challenges, and just maybe making a little bit more money.

Today was another busy, busy day at work. Everybody and her sister was sending in case summaries, which is great for the department, and great for making the time pass quickly for me.

I basically had my nose buried in my monitors all day long (except for the two meetings). By the end of the day, I really felt like doing something active. I've been bringing my gym bag to work every day, but I haven't worked out or ran for a good number of weeks, and considering the fact that my weight is about to hit 180 if I don't do something about it, I decided to go for a run.

I was about 3/4 of the way through my run, going at a pretty good clip, when my intestinal problems reared their ugly...intestines. I couldn't do anything but hop off the treadmill and make the seemingly-endless run to the men's room. After I finished up there, I considered just bagging the last 15 minutes of my run, but a little bathroom break shouldn't stop a real runner from finishing a course, so I got back on and ran an additional 2 miles, for a total of 5.

I feel great, even though I've scarfed down a bowlful of spaghetti and more than my fair share of desserts tonight. I figure I get some points for cooking in my own kitchen while another couple of loads of laundry were running.

I may convince myself to get up early in the morning again to go work out with weights sometime soon, but I've been having a lot of trouble with sleep lately, so I may just do the running during the afternoons/evenings for the time being. I want to keep my weight down. I don't have any backup fat pants to wear, since I put them in the Salvation Army bag when I moved out of Mom's house.

I haven't gotten the office to where I want it, but I sat down at the desk for a bit tonight, just to get used to the feeling. I'm still in the outline stages on the new play, but I really like what I have so far. I have bits of dialogue floating through my head right now, and I just need to know where in the story they fall, and who says them.

Hopefully by this weekend, I'll have the outline complete (and ready to print onto index cards, which I can then mix up at will) and can start writing scenes to see how the play fleshes itself out.

I don't really "see" a play when I'm writing it. To me, it's more like a puzzle, where certain pieces have to fit in certain places in order to make a cohesive whole. Sometimes I can see what characters look like, and sometimes, they don't have a physical form at all, they just exist to give the play another level. The "Skating Man" in my last play was never anything other than a concept to me until the play was entirely written, and then I had to go back and turn him into a human being.

This play is very "clockwork" to me. It's all mechanics, with just enough emotion behind it to keep me interested. The ratio of mechanics to emotion will change as I write it, but I like the setup and I think the themes I'm trying to cover (as well as the basic story) are going to resonate with an audience.

If I could just find a decent way of shelving my books, I'd be able to start this in earnest.

Of course, if I go the consultant route, I'm going to have to get used to writing plays in hotel rooms in other countries.