I'm feeling overwhelmed with deadlines!
Every day is a new Countdown story, so there's always the pressure to do that (through the end of the year). It's fun, but it becomes the first deadline for me each day because I have always tried to stay on top of it when possible.
I have 4 books to go to reach my 100 book goal. Unless I stick to novellas (I think I have four of them somewhere), I'll probably be missing this deadline, and that knowledge makes me inclined to not bother.
I signed up for the Sisyphus challenge. It's not due until March, so I'm okay to chill for a short time, but I know how hard it is to write these things (for whatever reason, compared to a daily Countdown story).
I'm applying to two promotions in the lab, and they want letter of intents for both. I had one down (lab supervisor). I feel like that's probably the way I want to go because I love working in the lab and I'd like to be on a path of supervisor --> floor coordinator --> lab manager. But, after talking to the current QA coordinator (who's about to take another role), I'm not certain I wouldn't enjoy the other position, which is a QA position. There's a QA director opening as well, but they're not going to promote someone to that without some lab QA experience. But if they hire externally, will that position be a dead end? And will I miss the lab too much? It's weird to be in a place where promotions are actually possible after 12 years in a lab where the only promotion you got was a new number after your title and an extra dollar per hour, and it's hard to plan out the path I want because I'm unsure what will open up in the future. This lab has had a lot of turnover, but that doesn't mean positions I want will open up or will open up when I have the prerequisites for them. It's not something I've had to worry about before.
Anyway, because I decided to apply to both, I have to change my first letter of intent to still be enthusiastic without closing off other paths in that enthusiasm. I have until the 5th on these, but I'll probably send them this weekend.
I seem to enter every other year, so it looks like I'll be on track to enter this year. 
It's been a while because of doctor appointments and holidays and such, so I wanted to pop in to say hi, give an update, and catch up on the thread. After months of dealing with a bunch of medical issues, I'm having surgery next week. Hopefully that will help. If I'm not too out of it, I'm hoping to get work done on revisions. That POV character is still being difficult, so I've decided to skip his chapters for the time being.
