Victory On TWO Fronts Or Secretly I'm Timid

By the time I went to bed last night I had completed all of the components of the Heroic Portrait request and figured out how I was going to put them all together, meaning that all I had to do today was actually put them together and perform a few touch-ups.
As this wouldn’t require the same sort of extensive use of my eyes that drawing all of the pieces had, I decided that after a week off of them I would give my Gentle Molding lenses another shot.
The lack of searing agony and vampire/mogwai/gremlin-like aversion to bright light meant that my eyes have finally sufficiently recovered that I can get back to wearing the lenses with regularity and be done with my glasses once more.
So that meant that I had achieved success on two fronts – finishing the picture and being able to wear my lenses again.
It’s weird; I’m not used to achieving success on even one front.
Calling the Heroic Portrait a success may be a little premature, though, as I’ve yet to hear back from the customer as to whether or not it’s suitable. Still, for good or ill, I did actually complete the picture, so in that regard it is a success.
(I’ll post the picture once I get an e-mail saying “It’s great!” or “You suck!” If it’s the latter response, I’ll post it so that you can judge my level of suckitude for yourselves, and if it’s the former, to show it off.)
I woke up early on Thursday morning, so, lacking anything better to do, I left work early, and, as a result, left work a little earlier than usual.
That night I decided to check my work e-mail and saw that I had an e-mail from my boss that had come in just as I was shutting everything down.
It was an invitation to a meeting on Friday. With his boss.
Given that there was no indication of what the meeting was about, I, quite naturally, got a little anxious. I mean, a meeting with my boss’ boss with no defined agenda is a little troubling.
Still, I clicked on the “Accept” button to add it to my calendar and to send a response back saying that I’ll be there.
A few minutes later I got an e-mail from my boss saying, “FYI – this is a cover meeting,” and telling me not to tell any of the other people invited to the meeting (I hadn’t noticed that everyone else on his team was also invited. If I had, the anxiety level wouldn’t have been so high in the first place.)
It turns out that there really was no meeting with the boss’ boss; it was a ruse to get us all together so that my boss could bring in this cheesecake he sometimes makes that the other people on the team are always complaining that he never brings in to share.
So that was a relief.
Friday was actually the first morning all week on which I didn’t wake up before my alarm went off, so when I heard music as I was lying there sleeping I was wondering why. It took a couple of minutes for me to figure out that the reason I was hearing Chopsticks was that it was time to get up.
And yes, I was awoken by Chopsticks, that piano lesson standard, playing on my iPod.
Sort of.
It’s actually a song by Liz Phair, in which she sings in a low monotone to the tune of a slowed-down version of Chopsticks, with a smattering of guitar feedback.
It goes like this:

I met him at a party and he told me how to drive him home
He said he liked to do it backwards I said that’s just fine with me
That way we can fuck and watch TV
It was 4 AM and the light was gray like it always is in paperbacks
He asked if I liked playing Jacks
I told him that I was good to sixes but all hell broke loose after that
I told him that I knew Julia Roberts when I was twelve at summer camp
We didn’t say anything after that
I dropped him off and I drove on home ‘cause secretly I’m timid

Rubbing It In Department:
In the Comments on a recent post, Scott mentioned that he misses Fables.
Just to be an ass, I’m going to rub it in and say that the issue I bought last week, which saw the conclusion of the storyline entitled “The Good Prince,” was awesome. Sure, it goes without saying – it’s Fables, after all – but this issue in particular was at even higher levels of awesomeness than usual. Like, way higher.
Sorry Scott, but it had to be mentioned, and you probably read the review on Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog anyway, which, among other things, says:

Let’s be real here for a second, folks: this is probably the single best comic book on the market today, and with “The Good Prince,” Willingham, Buckingham, and Leialoha have not only given us the happiest ending that the series has seen so far, but what might just be the best story of the run. Admittedly, it’s tough to beat Homelands (my reigning favorite), but starting with the shift in last year’s Christmas issue–and 1001 Nights of Snowfall before it–they’ve given us an incredible character arc that wraps up every bit as beautifully as it looks. It’s phenomenal stuff.

(Emphasis mine)
For a while now I’ve been posting little bits about Why I Love Fables, and there’s a reason that I do it: it deserves the attention.
If you read comics and aren’t reading Fables, shame on you. If you don’t read comics, you should start just so you can read Fables.
It really is that good.

That’s going to do it for this entry. I’ll be back later with a Keyword Kraziness post. (I promise!)
Oh, and for anyone interested, the episode of The Simpsons featuring, among other comic book personalities, Alan Moore, will be re-airing tonight on Fox.