I'm finally feeling better (more energetic and less severe cold symptoms) since I came down with this cold last Friday.

I've been working at home all week but after my boss made the comment, after I informed her I'd be staying home for the 3rd day in a row, "Oh, 3 days...that's a lot...feel better!" I took that as a maybe not-so-subtle hint that I should return to work tomorrow.

It irks me that she said that since she knows I've been just as productive at home as I would be in the office; I have not been slacking off.

Not to mention that I have a coworker who has worked at home every day now for the past few months due to feigned "morning sickness" from her pregnancy. On the few days she came in previously, usually about once a week, I noticed that shortly after arriving, she'd go down to the cafe in the building and return with a big breakfast; a few hours later, she'd come back with lunch. Not once did I see her hesitate to finish everything or complain about morning sickness.

Ideally, I'd like to stay home one more day as I don't want to risk this cold lingering on into next week, and the holiday, as sometimes happens when you go back to work too soon, BUT I will since the bigger picture is, this is a pretty decent job that I only need to last 5 more years. So might as well play nice and do what she wants.

I haven't especially been looking forward to Thanksgiving since it's me, my mother and my sister and my sister always has such a bad attitude that get-togethers can be painfully uncomfortable as she answers most questions with a "yes" or a "no" but not much more. She doesn't try to share parts of her life with my mother because it requires lots of explaining to my mother, and lots of repeating, and it's probably easier for my sister not to bother. But not very nice to my mother.

Solution: I decided today as i balanced my laptop on my lap in bed with the covers pulled up and a box of tissues at my side that I would invite my friend Dave to our dinner. He was never a close friend but we sort of have kept in touch and he's always been a super nice, upbeat and kind person to me. And I remembered that he took care of his mother, who lived with him, for several years before she died of cancer, and that he is not close to his 2 brothers, who are married with children. Dave is divorced, no children. He seemed very happy to accept the invitation and he will be the PERFECT addition to our now group of 4 since he is very talkative, congenial and pleasant. His presence will force my sister to be on her best behavior and my mother will surely be charmed by him. And it will make the whole dinner thing a little less dreary for me.

Although the price fixe restaurant menu includes dessert, I think I will make an extra dessert anyway (I have the day before and after TDay off) as a reason for my mother and Dave to come back to my place and linger for a bit longer, like people usually do for Thanksgiving. My sister won't be interested; she usually uses her chickens as an excuse (she has to put them in the coop for safety at night) but truth be told she still wouldn't be interested even without the chickens.

AT&T recently sold a bunch of their landline phone and Internet customers to a company called Frontier. I noticed only by chance when looking at my bill that I will very soon have to renegotiate both plans as one of them has a monthly discount that expires this month and the other plan in March of next year. This was always an excruciating process and you could only really get anywhere by threatening to leave them as a customer. Right now I'm paying $56 a month for both Internet and unlimited voice, which i consider reasonable, but I don't want to pay anything more. I'm worried the new company may be less interested in keeping my rates low and may use this opportunity to jack them up.

I'll have to put this on my list of things to do on the day before Thanksgiving as that's my next day off.