Faerie Tales

February 28th
4:30pm
I must have a mad mad marathon session of writing tonight, no tiring myself out completely this time. And then I get to wank with swapping everything over to March, which I should not let myself put off; I've been writing too little lately, and Soula will kick my ass if I continue.

Currently, I'm all hyper, with only mildly aching arms, and will be leaving for the gym soon. Wai, wai, working out! Though I need to fill my water bottle too, so might not babble as much as expected, here. My brain is also broken into tiny little bits, much like the tiny little world I live in--yesterday, I discovered that Kat, someone I know as a shitajiki collector, is a friend of Ambar's. Two weeks ago, my brain tripped over the fact that Christopher knows Susannah, and I just now discovered that she knows Angela, too. I know an awful lot of people, it's kind of alarming sometimes. ^_^;

The review didn't go as badly as I'd built it up to be; adequate is, well, adequate, and the norm for people in the company. Greg said not to feel bad, so I'm trying not to. Still frustrated with myself over the NOC thing, but I'll work on that. Even if it is kinda gratifying to be thought of as fearsome.

I want this working out thing to start showing results Right Now, it's really silly. Though I feel stronger and happier already, if only because I'm finally doing it, and this time it feels like I'm going to stick with it. I love the gym, and the time of day isn't a difficulty, because of the earlier hour at work. Of course, I'm not sure what'll happen with chiropractor, because it makes things a lot more of a pain in the ass, but I'll figure something out. I want to be sleek and strong again, and this time will bloody well realize it and dress the part. At least sometimes; I do love oversized tshirts.

Right. I think I'll go fill that water bottle (I finally remembered one!) and take off. Then possibly stuff at SWM, or I'll fall over on the couch and write a bunch.

February 27th
8:30pm
This has turned out to be a very spare month, in terms of page updates. I don't think I'll get the roadtrip weekend up before it's passed, so am thinking of putting it up in a different directory, so not to spam March. Hopefully I can manage to at least babble about my birthday and Albuquerque before tomorrow is over, though.

Were I less utterly exhausted, I might have some hope of doing this tonight. But I'm turning into my workout-crazed self again, it would seem, and my body's not quite sure what to make of it. Leigh Ann and I made it to the gym on Monday (which immensely lifted my mood), and wow, was it great. Nice weight setup at Toscana, especially. Tonight, we went again, and being me, I pushed myself extra hard: 30-45 minutes on weights, eleven different machines, followed by a 25-minute elliptical trainer set, 5-minute cooldown, ending with 10 minutes on an exercise bike. Given how I'm feeling now, I'm thinking all of this may have been a bit much, because after the endorphin high wore off (all too quickly), I just want to fall over and sleep, and my right arm in particular seems extra tired. Moderation, girl. Yeah, like I'm so good at that. Just gotta make sure I keep up the energy level; I feel great, though tired. I worked off something like 400 calories, without factoring in what the weights did, and that's just a great damn feeling.

I'm also feeling a little down because I've looked over my mid-year performance review, and being generally hard on myself, am not happy with it. It's not bad, really (only area I'm noted as lacking is in communication, which is due to my snapping at the NOC a few times too often; patience issues, something I'm well aware of, and it drives me insane when they fail to learn things we've told them over and over again), and I know I haven't been very motivated to learn new things (and this seems to be necessary in the current environment), but being a bloody perfectionist, I'd prefer to be better than average. Going over the review comes tomorrow, so I'm trying to stop being so down on myself before then. Probably food and a good deal of sleep would help.

Speaking of which, I'm going to go get me some of that food stuff. Dunno if I'll manage to write any more tonight, but my roommate has overtaken the couch and fallen asleep, and the loveseat is not nearly as comfortable for marathon typing sessions. It'd be nice to finish reading another book, too. If, er, I can tear myself away from the dinosaur programs on Discovery Channel.

This entry may take awhile, between my non-sober state and the keyboard difference. Or else I won't write much, either's a good option.

There were many guns yesterday. My shoulder still hurts from the shotgun kickback, and my arms ache from the extra bloody weight of the FNFNL or whatever the hell it is; I'll get a proper list from Charlie when I have a chance of remembering it.

Went to a fighter's practice today, Charlie's first in awhile, and my first in several years. I didn't fight, of course, but stood around happily watching the heavy fighters and fencers, and oh do I miss the SCA sometimes. Dunno what I'll do about getting back in, as it's hard to do things entirely entirely on my own, and nobody else I know is interested in fighting, or even SCA at all, plus the current king of West more or less wants fencing ended, but hey. I'm missing it, an awful lot. I think my priority is still to sell stuff off, and I could maybe try to get back into it when I'm back in school, or before that if it looks like it'll take awhile. But mmm. Swords. I miss fighting, a lot. I miss being fit, even more, though, and really must do something about that.

Y'know, this drinking at altitude thing is very interesting; I've only had three bottles of cider (Hardcore Golden Apple, mmmm), but I'm really quite thoroughly gone. Though I"m doing remarkably well at typing, for all that. Must be my leet skillz, or something. But I'm already at the point where my eyes are so bloodshot that the irises are a bright bright bluegreen (normally they're a kind of greyish-blue, I think; my eyes change color often enough that I'm not always certain. They're practically glowing now, though; if I thought there was a chance of catching them properly on film, instead of the red devileyes I usually manage to get, I'd have someone take a picture, just because it's really quite alarming, the change they go through.

I need to pack, so should probably stop writing and do so. I had a pleasantly severe bookstore accident the other night, when we stopped by this faboo used bookstore; an amazing scifi section, plus a decent mythology case, and I found at least three of the books off my looking-for list. Much new fairy lore and suchlike, including a book of Scottish folk tales entirely dedicated to Selkie legends. That'll go nicely with my mermen book, I believe. Something on the order of 20 books, I believe, and if I'd thought there was more room in my luggage, there'd have been at least a few more. I have some restraint sometimes, really! But packing, right. Charlie has to be at a training thing early tomorrow morning (8-bloody-30-am), so I'll be at the airport way early again. I've got an awful lot of books to keep me company, though, and I can always sleep. Well, maybe not while waiting to get on the plane. But maybe on the plane itself.

February 22nd
4:45pm
I've somehow fallen out of the habit of updating, again. Though, work was very busy both Tuesday and Wednesday, and I spent most of yesterday on a plane. Even this (and anything else I post till later Monday) will be short, though, largely because Charlie has one of those split-angled keyboards, and I"m making way too many typos to keep at this for long. But I'm having fun so far, even if I've mostly slept and wandered around in a daze for lack of sleep. Mexican food last night, which was tasty--guac and sopapillas, both of which I adore. I don't get to eat Mexican nearly often enough. Not that it's at all good for the reflux, but hey. It's tasty, and some things will just make me deal with the discomfort.

I was utterly fascinated by the country I flew over yesterday, in all the stupid legs of my trip--SJC to LAX to PHX and finally to ABQ. Bah. But more about desert later--Charlie's just gotten home from the meeting he had to go to, and I"m very very hopeful there will be food in my near future.

I have to say again (I believe I mentioned this earlier?) that the day has come around remarkably quickly. Especially given how long the days seem as I'm living them.

Today was pleasantly low-key; I woke up far too early (this 8am worktime thing seems to be skewing my schedule more than I'd expected), something like 9:15am, but couldn't really get back to sleep. So I puttered around the house for awhile, doing some general cleanup, and I prepped the two packages for the orders that came in over the last two days. That's nice to have ready, so I don't have to wait or have time to get things ready, when payments arrive. I finally got myself out of the house mid-afternoon, to quest for a black silk robe; I usually wander around in a towel after showering while home, but that won't really do while I'm on vacation. There was nothing like success, sadly, as I wandered through every single store in Vallco that carried robes (both men's and women's departments), to no avail. Well, there were a couple, but being men's, had far too much sleeve by the time I had something to properly cover my hips. Bah. Luckily, I know Megan, and she's loaned me a lovely black silk kimono, embroidered with flowers. Only problem is, the flowers are pink, at which I must protest; I'm not much like a pink flower. Fire disagrees, saying both I and pink flowers share cuteness as a common trait, to which I also protest. Of course, any disagreement I make is also considered cute, so I'm in a losing situation arguing with him over it. Still. It's a wonderful robe, I just wish the flowers were red or something. I have nothing against flowers--on the contrary, I quite like them. But these are delicate and pink, and well. Too much pink my life as a child, or something. Though I approve of Gwen Stefani pink, the bright neon. Anyway.

Hm. Something in my speech tells me I've watched rather a lot of British period films recently. At least this doesn't effect my spelling any; apolgies to those who use UK spelling, but I've always found it terribly pretentious in anyone who's entirely American.

But anyway, really. No luck on the robe front, though I was able to exchange some stuff at Vicky's Secret, and returned the failed bustier to Lane Bryant, which made me happy. And I spent my latest point-won gift certificate at Waldenbooks--finally picked up a copy of I Capture the Castle, which I'd been meaning to get for ages, and succumbed to Eccentric Circles, a novel I'd heard about awhile ago. It's urban fantasy/magic realism, and seems to be highly regarded by Charles de Lint, given his quote on the cover, so I could hardly resist.

I returned home to fall over on the couch briefly (regardless of how early I've been waking up, and how bloody late I've gotten to sleep lately, I was quite tired through much of the day), and then heard from Megs that she'd returned home, so I headed to Avalon to see the rest of P&P and to swoon happily over Colin Firth. And there was more fondue, this time oil with sirlion, turkey, shrimp and potatoes, all of which was quite tasty. Though it's alarming to have the steak turn white because of the whole boiling thing. And Cindy made a lovely chocolate fondue afterwards, and there were strawberries and bananas and marshmallows and pound cake and even cream cheese balls. Delightfully decadent. Plus, Colin Firth on the television, all wonderful and broody and intense and I've been here already, I'll stop.

The end of the series was quite wonderful, as anticipated (he smiled, how splendid), and I was all happy and swoony, much to everyone's amusement. Not that Megan wasn't too, hmph. I'm just more, er, vocal. Uh, right. We all sat around and chatted for a bit after this, with much discussion of LotR, both movies and books, with a sideline of various period films, because they're just such fun. I'm quite happy to live when I do, all in all, but I do love movies set in ages gone by. Especially with wonderful intense men with delicious accents. *^_^* Speaking of period films, we put in Emma at some point, though Stuart and Amy took their leave about then, not wanting to get sucked into another movie. I still enjoyed the flick, although not as much as when I'd first seen it, back in Minneapolis. I much moreso wanted to smack Emma, several times, though perhaps that's because I'd just been watching Lizzie Bennet, whose character I really liked, and the two are quite different.

Despite my best intentions, this has made my night quite late again, I'm afraid. Somehow, I have got to teach myself to go to bed earlier, because I'm just not going to survive like this. Although it's supposed to be most healthy if you only get 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I'm not sure this counts if you wake up several times and toss and turn a lot during those few hours, however. All the same, I don't like being sleepy, and have absolutely no time for getting sick, so must keep my guard up.

That said, I get to sleep in at least a little tomorrow, before a random FLtD geek session, and then dinner at Kingswood. I'm terribly excited about dinner, because there will be a great many people there, all of whom I'm quite fond of, and I haven't been out for a true birthday dinner for quite awhile. Certainly not on my actual birthday. I hope they'll bring out my special banana with a candle or something, because it'll just feel more right. But I'm for bed, really!

I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night, partly because I tossed and turned an awful lot, especially between 8am and 11am, and then my parents called close to 11:30. I blindly grabbed at the phone, was briefly by my earplugs, and finally managed to whimper, "Uhm, I'm really tired. Can I talk to you tomorrow, please?" Not that this did me any good, because I utterly failed to get back to sleep, and finally staggered downstairs. There was a package from my folks in the office, with a brightly-wrapped package inside, along with my christmas ornaments, and a doll stand. A largeish doll stand (I'm a figure collector, I know stands). Befuddled, I called them, and stated I was both curious about and scared of the present. Particularly given the plastic bag from a doll store that was inside the box. Mom laughed, and I could practically see my dad shaking his head as he said he didn't know what she was doing. They said I should go ahead and open it, which was all I was really waiting for (I'm, uh, still teased about how I looked for presents before the fact, when I was younger, and the one (only once!) time I actually slit the tape on a package so I could find out what it was early).

I think my mom is trying to be wacky and funny, or something; she found it on sale at one of the ag shows she and dad have gone to lately, and well, it's a forest fairy, and I like fairies and all. Or something like that. What she actually succeeded in doing is given me the very strangest present I've ever received. And that's saying something, given my friends--Lynette just gave me a blue flocked dragonfly on a stick, with glittery glittery wings. I'd thought that was going to hold the record for awhile, but mom topped it. It was sweet and all, but I'm just kinda at a loss.

I've never owned a doll like this, not even when I was a little kid. It's strange. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with it; mom says I can sell it if I want, but that doesn't feel quite right. I may pass it along to my little cousin Audrey. Always good to engender an interest in fairies early, I say.

So that was an interesting start to my day. I puttered around the house and took some more room pictures, with my newly re-organized books, and got a shot of my masks, too. I eventually crawled into the shower and got clean, before heading to SWM for the Cupid Day festivities.

Mmmm, Colin Firth. Colin Firth Colin Firth Colin Firth. Mmm. I'm all obsessed now, I'm afraid. Between his roles as Mr. Darcy in Bridget Jones' Diary and Pride & Prejudice, I'm lost. He's just so intense in P&P. Like Leigh Ann said, "M. Darcy stares and broods." I figure I must be susceptible to the brooding because I dated Fire for nearly three years, because otherwise I just don't get it. ^_^; But man. There was a brief bath scene, and then the pond, and oh. I didn't get to finish watching it, but will hopefully do so tomorrow, thanks to Megan. He's just so...something. I'm probably hoping for an incredibly strong intensity beneath the rigidness of character, or something. An abandon when that veneer breaks, I don't know. But wow. Yes, I've already added this to my wish list, not that it does much good a day before my birthday.

The gift exchange itself was fun; Megs liked the bear and chocolate I presented her with, and of course the Diet Coke helped. Bethannee gave me a wonderful little silver candle-snuffer, a heart-shaped tea light holder, scented bath bomb, and a scented dream pillow. She's so cool! There was lots of cool stuff all around, really, and of course chocolate. I had to miss the chocolate fondue portion of the evening, but I got some of the delicious cheese fondue Megs made, and LA gave us Andes mints, which I utterly adore. And there was Colin Firth.

The reason I left early was that Mischa and I were meeting for drinks at the Duke. Well, she was coming to pick me up so we could go to the Duke, at least. I was a little late because, well, uh, the pond scene happened just before I managed to tear myself away. But eventually I was happy with my eye makeup and relatively pleased by my outfit, so we headed out. It was...very slow at the Duke. I'm used to rowdy, full Friday nights, with Soula and Kevin around as well. The combination of the difference in environment plus the change of our little social dynamic made it all somewhat strange. I'm also awfully tired. So it was a low key evening, without a whole lot of alcohol overall, but a little bit of a buzz for each of us. Conversation was a little slow, in part because I was sleepy, and partly because I'm just not used to much 1-1 interaction these days; there's a lot more work needed when you're half of any discussion. We eventually gave up around 11:30, at which point she revealed this was my birthday present, which was nifty; I did have fun, and we're hoping to make it out more nights in the future, though we may try Fridays instead.

Now I'm sitting here writing until past my bedtime, with Fight Club keeping me company, since Fire bought a new DVD player, at least to use until I get mine fixed. It's better than the nazi party rally he was watching earlier, certainly. But now, I have got to sleep--I must run some errands tomorrow, then will hopefully hang out up at Entropy, and finally see more Colin Firth. Mmm.

Secondly, I am a mad planning thing with leet skillz; not only have I organized dinner for 21 people, I sent out mail about both that and the birthday party I'm having at Entropy in two weeks. Just barely got it all done before running to chiropractor and gaming, since work was full of installs and software pushes and I was awfully busy, if slightly unfocused and thinking through molasses. I will no longer be uncertain (or let anyone else be!) about my ability to plan things, as I clearly kick ass. ^_^

If you read this and didn't get an invite and will be in the Bay Area on March 2nd, drop me a line! The more the merrier, at least for the party--twenty-one people feels kinda like critical mass for restaurant dining.

I made it to the post office this morning, finally, and have shipping quotes for a couple of people, my only current outstanding orders. I'm hoping to have the chance on Sunday or Tuesday to go through my remaining stuff, make sure the weblists are current, and will then post another round of advertising on various mailing lists, as soon as I'm back from vacation. Getting rid of stuff has to be my priority, both because of money and space, and as much as I want to buy all this gorgeous faerie art and masks and swords and things, I have got to be strong and resist. Though man, masks especially, now that I've got the others displayed. Must take pictures of them!

Anyway. Work was long and busy, like I said, with a flurry of planning activity at the end of the day, followed by another uncomfortable 20 minutes of traction and a lightning-quick adjustment session. I think Dr. Osgood is kinda overwhelmed by the number of patients she has to handle with Dr. Lindell on maternity leave; everything always feels rushed, which I'm not entirely happy about. I'll just hope I'm making progress, I guess.

I have a check from Mplayer/HearMe, payout from the 401K I completely forgot I'd ever been signed up for. Since I'm, er, not currently enrolled in the program at AltaVista, I'm not sure how the rollover would work, and I'd be paying another $250 in taxes that I won't see until next year. Then again, getting it started wouldn't be a bad thing, and actually using the money means I'd have to pay penalty taxes on it. I'll have to research that and see how much is deducted, I guess, and will need to act quickly; I've got something like 45 days, I think.

Tonight was another Altaia session at Entropy, which was fun as usual; I got to do lots of sneaky thief stuff this time, scouting around the castle we're crawling, with Invisibility from Undead sheltering me from the zombies guarding the doors. I rolled way way down (three 10's in a row on my down die) while passing the last pair, so ended up running in circles around the throne room to keep them busy while my teammates got ready for the fight. That was amusing, at least. I'm still having a good time with the logs, too, inserting more and more of Selina into them, as opposed to straight dry blow-by-blow recording. Got to share the cookies from mom, so there aren't a terrible number left. They're always so popular, I've got to make these more often, myself.

Christopher invited me to play in his game, which runs alternate Fridays, or sometimes Thursday nights because of schedule conflict. I'm torn; there's a great group of ladies playing, and he seems like a wacky fun GM, but I dunno how I feel about committing all my Fridays ever, or at least missing Thursdays at SWM if the night is switched. And there's GameX, too, though I'm not sure how I feel about it, at this point; I'm just not having much fun, and although it'd make me sad to drop the game, especially as it's the only place I see most of the players these days, I'm not sure it's worth it to feel like I'm wasting my and their time, if it's just not working for me. Then again, I'm not sure it's working for anyone exactly, including the GM, so I'm planning to give it a few more sessions. Doesn't help that I've got to miss next weekend, cuz I'll be on vacation, but ohwell.

Josh is down visiting this weekend, so it was nice to see him, however briefly. I've got to do a little bit of shopping on Sunday, but I might go up to hang out with folks later that day, and can meet Skyfox and C'vin, who are also visiting. And tomorrow is Cupid Day stuff, then drinking somewhere or other with Mischa (taxis are kind of expensive, and all the places within walking distance of her just aren't that alluring), then something or other happens Sunday, and Monday's full of stuff. Hopefully all of this will be liberally sprinkled with sleep. Birthday already, I can hardly believe it. 2002 is going so quickly already, though it still feels like time is barely moving when I'm actually experiencing it. Only when I look back over the days do I see how fast it's all slipping away. But I have a splendid couple of weeks coming up, with many things to look forward to, so life is good and happy, if sleepy. But I can do something about that right now! And I will! Good night! (and good riddance! ^_^)

February 15th
7:40am
Correction from last night: it was cayenne, not paprika (I, er, knew it was one of those red spices that I don't really use), which increases the danger factor significantly. Leigh Ann heroically emptied the dustbuster this morning, and doesn't seem to have lost her nose for it, which is a good thing.

February 14th
11:00pm
Well, that was certainly fun, though not exactly in the expected fashion. The pizza was really yummy, and Sue's frozen cheesecake was fantastic, even if we got to it late and it had kinda melted. My valentines were a hit, making everyone giggle; they're just the greatest ever. And Chuck gave me a Card Captor Sakura valentine, woot!

Bridget Jones' Diary is really, really great. Painful, in a few places, but overall, she's incredibly endearing, and I utterly enjoyed the movie. Even Hugh Grant was pretty yummy and not totally loathsome, but oh, Colin Firth. I know men like that don't really exist, because he was too completely perfect, but oh, he was so perfect! *^_^* Hell of a kiss, there, too. Mmm. Gotta read the book, now; I'm more than slightly tempted to just go buy it, though I usually like to borrow a book from a friend or the library, before buying. But books are always better than their movies, and since I adored the movie, I'm not sure I'd possibly not like the book. A splendid choice for the not-exactly-bittergirls Valentine Night, I say.

Besides, it led to the line, "My knickers are wet." See, last night, Stuart knocked something loose in the door-hanging shelf thing used in SWM's pantry, and tonight, Megan made the entire thing fall down, because she didn't know about it. So stuff came crashing to the ground, including a bottle of paprika that broke all over the floor. The floor where Leigh Ann's extremely adorable and inquisitive cat, Toast, wanders across. So we tried to hold him back from checking all of this out while she cleaned the mess up, and Laura eventually held him in a blanket to keep him from squirming away. Then the vacuum started, and my god, did he move quickly. Megs reached out to stop him, and he LEAPT sideways and up, directly on/into my cup of water, which liberally splashed my legs and the couch. I just sat there for a few moments, blinking in surprise, while I felt the water soak into my pants, pronounced the above line in a strangled voice, and then literally fell over into giggles. There was much mopping up of water, and several "Angie is moist," jokes, before we finished the movie. Wacky fun, I guess. And, uh, I'm more or less dry now!

Of course, it helped that the kissing was right after this portion of the evening, so I stared at the screen happily and sighed all goopily. ^_^;

Afterwards, we watched "A Close Shave" on LA's new Wallace & Gromit DVD; gotta pick that up for myself. And oh! Birthday presents for me! She gave me the two latest volumes of Inu Yasha, which I'm all pleased about. Especially since I reorganized my manga to leave more room, since I was running out of space for the translated volumes--they're enough taller that they can't fit on normal paperback shelves, grump grump grump.

Now, I'm babbling at people on logrus, but should probably hie myself to bed. Gaming tomorrow night, woot! Gotta read Merlin's rules updates before the session, too. Not enough time!

My mom is so cool. She sent me a box of two dozen of my favorite cookies ever, soft white with almond frosting. Yum! I think I'll bring them to share tonight (and maybe tomorrow, if there's many left), because best cookies or not, I really shouldn't eat 27 of the things by myself. ^_^;

4:55pm
Look, ma, no updates! I need more time in my day, really I do. Or at least fewer things to say; I think I haven't gotten started on the weekend because there's SO MUCH to babble about. Might have to just start and have little bits broken up, or something.

It's Valentine's Day. In my fine tradition, I'm dressed all in black, with a Death t-shirt (er, not that I don't normally wear black. hush.); but it's not entirely that I'm bitter, really. I did this when dating someone, too! All, er, two times that was true. Uh, nevermind. I did manage to give out silly cards to people, though mostly folks at work so far--I found this great box of Crocodile Hunter valentines, with the most incredibly innuendo-filled lines I've ever seen: "WOOOO-HOOOOOO!! check out the size of THESE BLOKES!" and "OWWW!! You are one NAUGHTY LIZARD!" I was too amused to pass them up. Strangely, the only other ops-visible person at work who passed cards out was another woman named Angie. Except her cards were Britney Spears. It's quite an interesting combo, for those who got both. ^_^;

Monday was a blur of exhaustion, and I barely made it through the day. Fell into bed a little after 9pm, and was like the dead until the following morning. Been feeling pretty good after that, at least. Tuesday was another long day, with Buffy and Smallville and not quite as early an hour. All of my boxes from home arrived, though I didn't manage to unpack everything until last night. Though now I've got my cool blue fountain set up at work, which I'm very pleased about. And I have October Project to listen to, so it's all very soothing.

Last night was all about unpacking said boxes, which were full of 114 books and an 8" stack of music books, and hockey gloves and female cup and fake flowers and candles and fountain and Rainbow Brite dolls. I have an awful lot of stuff. But my cool masks are hanging above my closet now (I want more!), and my books and stuff are all reorganized so all the new books fit. I have an awful lot of books. And only about half of them are normal paperback size, so there's a lot of weird sizing for shelves. Fitting everything onto the fairy tales shelves was a pain; I may have to start bleeding into the straight faerie stuff if I acquire too many more.

Ok, I'm feeling brainless and scattered enough (this post is not flowing like they usually do) that I'm going to go home for a bit before the girlie V-day fun at SWM tonight. Pizza and frozen cheesecake and Bridget Jones, whee!

February 12th
10:40pm
I am a party animal. Mardi Gras, and I'm at home. I watched hockey and ate a frozen pizza and watched Buffy, and soon I'll go to bed. Someday, I want to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and have a wild time. For now, I'm just here with my books and the tv.

Although my dvd/ld player seems to be broken, sigh. No idea what's wrong with it. I may now own exactly zero pieces of a/v equipment, instead of the one.

Eventually, I will write and write and write and write and write and write and write and WRITE, and have a weekend update, but I'm currently still too tired and busy at work for this. But, following in Kit's footsteps, here's my pictures from the weekend. I like the digital camera a lot, even if it's a pain when it comes to taking timed shots. I'm pretty fond of a few of the shots I got, and mmm, there's ocean.

February 8th
3:10pm
Ah, Orange Dream Machine, my one true love. How did I live so long not knowing you?

No time to shave, as I don't know when Kit and Sarah will arrive. Instead, mopping up Emily's leaky Jamba, and packing last-minute stuff. Like shaving cream and a razor, bah.

1:00pm
My god, I'm still hyper. Bounce bounce, very little brain. It's difficult to keep track of the list of things that need doing, in this state.

Twenty minutes in traction feels very different when I'm fully awake and hyper, than when I'm tired enough that I fall asleep through the discomfort. But everyone at the office loves my scarf! Leigh Ann is so cool!

I'm either a phoenix or a nereid/naiad, depending on my last answer, from the Mythological Creature test.

I'm protesting geeky-bloody-kid.net because it requires frickin IE (and makes Netscrape crash), and that's just not right from proper geeks. But they think I'm 82% gifted and 85% grammar-clueful, all the same.

And I took this ages ago, but never posted it--in a video game, I would be Light Cycle. Previously, I was a Defender Ship.

9:45am
Man, I'm so HYPER. Not that I really got enough sleep last night, but there's a roadtrip ahead of me, woot! With James and girl fun (shopping for bustiers and black jeans, whee!) and a restaurant by the ocean and even a beach and there's a Kit, too!

This getting to bed early thing is hard, though, and it's extremely difficult to actually roll out of bed at 7am, instead of saying, "Maybe I'll sleep for another hour." Next week will be exciting, with the Oh God Thirty hours we're likely to be keeping over the weekend. At least if I have to resort to caffeine, it'll really work, because I've hardly had any at all for the last three months. In more work fun, I was left out of the pay rotation for the oncall schedule, though I've still been taking oncall time. Guess that means I'll get an extra extra bonus on my next paycheck, or at least I'd better. And PTO still isn't accruing properly--I wish I had some idea of what my PTO actually is, because I'm not at all sure.

My Gryffindor scarf is so cool! Leigh Ann is so cool! I'm really really pleased with it, and like the all-burgundy tassels at the ends an awful lot. I hope it's chilly enough in LA for me to wear it and my coat all weekend, though part of me wants it to be nice enough for shorts and sandals (beach!), too. Hanging out during Christopher's game was fun; he's a Wacky GM, and the group of players is really great. I'm undecided, schedulewise, whether I want to try to play or not, because having at least some Fridays free is nice. Although the most likely plans for that night were drinking at the Duke, which won't happen as often with Soula and Kevin gone, I expect. Not that I'm hugely into drinking right now, anyway.

I must soon run off to the chiropractor, and then come back to work. I was again going to try to list my quiz results, but have run out of time once more. Hopefully the day won't end up too crazy, before I take off for home and then LA, so I'll have more time!

February 7th
4:45pm
Bleah. Day. Up early, taking pictures, like a huge dork; not that I had time to actually write email babbling about all my fairy books, but hey. I'll get to it, I'm sure. Talked to my parents on the way to work, updating them on the saga of my nasal problems, and found out that along with the dozens of books (I think the count was 80+ for what I absolutely wanted fastest) she shipped out, mom also sent the cool fountain I bought while home, along with the books that wouldn't fit in my luggage--mostly some artbooks and another two editions of Peter Pan (one in Greek!), and a small pile of music books. And the memory card for my camera arrived, so that's on its way to me. Lots of packages, lots of stuff. And as you can see above, god knows where I'll put everything. There's some room on the one bookcase, but I dunno what I'll do with the stuff currently displayed on it. Fun fun puzzles, I guess.

In an effort to make our new VP happy, our team will be getting to work at 8am from here on out. Which isn't fun, but is overall good, I guess. The only problem is that I'm a night owl, and love staying up late, which I won't really be able to swing anymore. This wil be fun to implement after the upcoming weekend; I'll have to reteach myself that sleep is for wimps, or something, and then fall over the next weekend.

Oh, and I've been collecting test results over the last week, though I refuse to link to the huge giant images that seem to be all the rage:

Bugger. Ran out of time. Have to go to chiropractor, and then either to SWM to watch the gaming session, or somewhere to buy jeans, as I'm seriously flailing about what to wear this weekend. None of my cool sexy clothes fit me anymore, augh!

12:15am
Oh, yeah--heard back from the allergist about the tests. There's nothing reacting to allergies in my nose. This means the constant congestion is either chronic sinusitus, or some other things whose name I didn't catch; this latter is hard to treat, from what she said. I've got to go to the Stanford clinic (maybe I can do this in an afternoon or morning, and combine a blood donation with the visit) for some sort of testing, to make absolutely certain about what it is; I figure this is worth knowing about, if it's going to be with me forever. The worst part about this is still not knowing whether I'll get to dive again or not. The problems I had the first time, just with 30 ft of water, make me uncertain about trying the stuff I really want to do (deep diving, wreck diving, etc), because I don't want to be constantly struggling to repressurize, and bleed for it when I surface, regardless of how careful I am. -_-

Gosh, I'm feeling awake. I have got to do something to regulate my bloody sleep schedule.

February 6th
11:58pm
What a wonderfully lazy night. I've, uh. Lounged on the couch and had another grilled cheese and some strawberries, talked to people online, watched Labyrinth and obsessed a whole lot about masks (and masks and masks) and Jareth (his pendant!) and Froud. My fey side, she is awakening. With a vengeance.

Oooh. Powells has a copy of Goblins of Labyrinth, which I've just determined I must own; there's Froud conceptual art in it that wasn't included in the recently re-released Goblin Companion. Sides, it's not possible to have too much Froud!

Right, anyway. Saturday night. I had to wash my daytime makeup off, since I was actually wearing blush, and had all this blue eye stuff (blue mascara and eyeliner, even), both of which helped me look young and cute, but weren't terribly elven. Megs and Stuart chatted while I did this and fussed with my hair (not at all elven), and ooh, Stuart brought Jamba Juice. Orange Dream Machine makes my world so much better (and I've just realized that there's a Jamba directly on the path of my drive home from work; I'm definitely initiated into the Church now). After a dusting of shimmer powder, we pronounced ourselves ready, and dashed to Stuart's noble, er, station wagon, to head to San Mateo. Lots of people there. Lots and lots. Megs and Stuart were whisked away by strangers within minutes of arriving, so I took up my usual post on the sidelines. Once again, no dances for me, but that's nothing new; I'll just have to tell myself it's because my blue hair (or, uh, the way I hold/carry myself, from something Megan said) is too intimidating, or that I was confusing all the nice young men by dressing like a boy. Or something like that--it's too damned close to bloody Valentine's Day to let myself slide into bitterness.

Anyway. Lots of nice costumes, including a fantastic Boromir and Faramir, though Megs and I both thought the woman was Eowyn at first. The prancing nancy boy (T's term--I usually call him the beautiful arrogant man) seems to have been Aragorn, and they had a pretty good Legolas and Gandalf, and what might have been Boromir. He was all hairy and manly, at least. Not movie costumes, but they pontificated in front of the revelers for awhile, all the same. My favorite costume of the evening was a guy with curly, frizzy hair, glasses, a baseball cap, and a casual suit jacket: clearly supposed to be Peter Jackson. Got some inspiration for hobbit feet, too, using leather slippers covered in hair, so that's a nice option to keep my toes from freezing off. Once again, T proved to be a terrifically fun dancer, and since he's someone I know and am comfortable with, I could laugh at my screwups (I'm no kind of formal dancer), which was delightful--the room is loud enough that it doesn't matter how loudly I laugh, for once. After they kicked everyone out, Megs and Stuart and I headed to Peppermill for some food. Mmmm, steak on a stick. I was pretty worn out after this (far too little sleep the night before), but we got Fire to take some pictures after returning home, and then Stuart gave me my early birthday present--the wonderful black velvet cyclas! Happy happy happy me, dancie dancie. I may well have to wear it to LA this weekend, though Leigh Ann said my Gryffindor scarf is done (woohoo!), and if I manage to meet up with her in time, that'll look better with my trenchcoat. Pondering is required, clearly.

Regardless of how tired I actually was, I ended up not falling asleep till nearly 5am, as I was wandering around the apartment in a daze and reading, like a dumbass. This meant I didn't wake up until after 2pm on Sunday, at which point I staggered downstairs, and can't really recall what I did. Probably random websurfing crap, or something. Soula called again at some point, and my muddled self fell asleep again for awhile after this, before I managed to get up and shower, to head to Ray's new place to hang out with folks. Saw the very very end of the Superbowl (uh, yay?) and giggled over the V. Secret Diaries some more, before going to Ariake for sushi. More people introduced to the place, I'm so smug--Laura and Megs really hit upon something here, when we went after diving practice. More giggling with Soula, and we absolutely broke poor Rebecca, who laughed so much she could hardly eat. Then we stopped at Safeway for the Ice Cream Outing Of Doom; half of Soula's stuff got left at the checkout counter, so it was a good thing I picked up some mint chocolate chip (mmm!), even if it had kind of a strange consistency. More hanging out and chatting after this, and I want to say we were watching something, though I haven't the faintest idea what. Then we all made our goodbyes and I hugged Soula and Kevin a bunch and poked Kevin in the side several times, before heading home. I don't think I made it to bed very early, but again, it's blurry.

Monday, I woke up coughing and feeling oogy, and fell asleep at least twice after getting fully dressed and ready for work. -_- Awful lame me, but at least I wasn't in danger of getting sick, anymore. So that day was a wash workwise, though I stayed caught up on email, at least. And I managed to do all my laundry that night, even got it folded, plus I finally unpacked and set up my keyboard. Now I just need some time to start practicing again.

Yesterday was very busy at work; first couple of hours were eaten up by failing to make my workstation boot, since it has a mental disorder where it believes it's an NT machine. Then some sort of CDE excitement caused further problems, but it was eventually solved just before our weekly meeting. All of this was interrupted by my needing to go see the allergist for a followup appointment. She was still mystified by what was wrong with my nose, and stuck some stuff up it for tissue samples to have tests run on. Uh, fun. Otherwise, she peered up my nostrils, hmmmd a lot, and sent me on my way. Back at work, I was Productive for the rest of the day, working at untangling the labryinthine SAN setup for a group of machines I'm trying to get installed. Their constantly-changing state finally drove me away from the office around 6:30, at which point I ran to the grocery store to get my Aciphex prescription refilled. Mostly lazy night last night, with a very very early bedtime--asleep before 11pm, so that I missed the oncall problem that was rung through around 11:20pm, bah. Overslept by an hour this morning, too. Guess I must have still been tired!

Today, up later than intended, but I still made it to the post office and sent off another six packages. I'm about to start another round of sales-advertising, so it's nice to have everything else cleared out beforehand. More adventures with SAN, plus another (thankfully small) restore request, and a long meeting with the new Ops/Engineering VP. He's a geek, which is a good thing, but I'm not sure what I think otherwise. There were alarming vague rumblings about the team (as a whole, so I'm not sure how much I'm worried for Ops, since we're tiny and more or less rock) only being average and needing a lot of work. Some of the work could be layoffs and other hiring. But worrying about my job is nothing new. Off to chiropractor (which I have again tomorrow and Friday), next. Did a whopping 18 minutes on traction today, because I'm dumb and macho and said it would be fine when the timer kept flipping past 17. It's making the back of my head and neck go numb, now, which is an odd feeling when sensation starts returning. And Dr. Osgood is indeed brutal; I'm glad I worked with Dr. Lindell from the beginning, because she was much more my speed. I can deal with the rougher treatment now, cuz I know it's good for me, but right from the start would have been difficult.

Home again home again. Ended up chatting with people online for far longer than I'd intended, but finally had some dinner (mmm, strawberries), and watched Labyrinth (it's on a second time now, to keep me company). Man, I want fantasy masks, I dunno why I'm obsessing so much now. And more Froud artwork, but that's not surprising--my fey side is coming to the forefront again. Ang and I talked about books some this evening, which was really cool--I love finding new people to talk fairy tales with, especially, and we've got pretty similar urban fantasy/magic realism tastes, too. And oh! Because I'm perpetually in catchup mode, I keep forgetting to mention this: I'm taking a couple of vacation days near the end of the month, to visit Charlie in Albuquerque. I figured I'd never seen the desert, I like guns, and he'd be fun to hang out with, so that was an easy decision to make. I'm really looking foward to it, since I've never been in the southwest, and especially after reading Terri Windling's The Wood Wife (which I must reread before I leave, or perhaps while I'm there), I've really wanted to see the area.

Now, I should go sleep; maybe I got too much sleep last night, and that's why I was so tired all day. Want to stay up-to-date here, too, writing these huge posts is exhausting.

February 5th
8:50pm
I have grilled cheese sandwiches and strawberries and there's Dexter's Laboratory to keep me busy until Buffy starts. Life could be worse, and it's certainly looking up from earlier this afternoon. Except for this godforsaken lag.

Right. Catchup. The weekend was busy, as advertised. Up fairly early on Saturday, so I could get costume stuff for the day and night prepped. This meant I was at the game relatively early, too, which was a nice change. Stacy and I got a few costume shots with our cameras, though I quickly forgot about my nicely functional camera--it's been so long! You can check out what I did get here (captions will be explained as I write this). My character was a cheerful little thing, dating as many people as she could get her hands on (ahem); the plot card I pulled (Two Timer, so I could date two people at once, and got a couple of bonuses for it) was really perfect for getting lots of naughty points, too, which made me happy. Aeryn ended up dating nine different people (mostly girls, though one was the Vice Dean; mmm, he was based on Alan Rickman's Snape, though he wanted to turn my character into a necromancer), and had 25 naughty points at the end of the day. Plus a cool treasure card, the Halo, which meant she turned into a demon. My team was Graham, Leigh Ann and Sarah, and while our first couple of dungeon runs pretty much sucked, we killed the sea dragon on our last outing, and nearly beat another of the big bads, so that was cool. I couldn't have cared less about the exam at the end of the day, so cheated on the test, which meant my character got caught. I liked her ending, though--a rich demon thief, woot! I felt a little guilty about Cera's character becoming a hermit (she was the second person Aeryn dated, and stayed with her throughout the day, but was very naive and didn't know about the Two Timer thing till the end), but was glad to hear it fit with her character concept.

But I'm not, cuz I'm like that. Someone asked me when on earth I found the time to write all I do here, and a lot of it's times like this, when I should be sleeping. Weird kinds of fun, I guess.

Gaming tonight was fun, for the most part, but the fight ran awfully long--23 rounds, against nine zombies, with pretty good armor. We got some of the phat lewts, though, so my character has a crown that gives her a bonus to most of her thief abilities. I'm just not sure how gaudy it is, and if she could get away with wearing it on a job; in a dungeon, sure, but...Anyway. Mike's character is still entertaining, and has now started uttering garbled sentences in the common language; seems to go on about fish a lot. Christopher was hyper without Angie there to balance him--she's not someone I knew really well, but I'll definitely miss her in the game, and am sad I won't really have the chance to know her better. And unsurprisingly, the huge packages of the Uruk-hai were brought up to tease me; Chris apparently guessed spot-on that I had uttered the phrase, when Charlie related the story to him. Hmph. ^_^;

Before things started, I wolfed down some pasta, and we watched part of Blue Planet while waiting for everyone to show up. I kept making small noises of delight or awe, amusing the hell out of Chris and Mike, who had never seen me close to the ocean. Lynette referred to it as "the Angie ocean-gasm," and I can't really disagree with that. Man, that looks like a cool show, I wish I could manage to see it (hey, birthday present hint: Blue Planet on DVD) all, but I'm always busy or away from home, and it's hard to catch with no Tivo. Hm, maybe this should be a lesson to me--I could catch all the coolest TLC and DSC stuff, which I kinda see at random now.

What else? I finally found white knee socks Thursday night, so my schoolgirl costume for SA tomorrow will look a little more authentic. All that's really important to me is the short skirt part, though, since I'm hoping to get lots of naughty points, and it seems to set the right mood. The costuming package was handed over to Megan with no fuss, which was good, and everything was there. I'm pretty pleased with the shirt in a general sense, and it looks fairly good for the elf costume. I could rhapsodize about the vambraces if given leave (they're just so nifty!), and likewise the frog--my bokken is still at Avalon, but it looks as if the adjustable buckles will allow for the thickness of the sword, and I'm just so pleased about this. Chrisber's contraption is nifty, but it keeps coming untied because I move around too vigorously, and especially with all of DNA's dragons on display in the front room, I don't want the sword getting in anyone's way. Stuart's cyclas is quite droolworthy; I have got to get me one of these. After oohing and aahing over everything, Megs and I discussed placement of closures on the tunic (which looks great with the rest of the outfit!) and cloak, and I sat sewing a clasp on to the cloak through a couple of Muppets episodes and a bit of SmackDown!, which I hadn't seen for ages. Go read Bryant's thing on wrestling, because it's fairly close to how I feel about the whole thing. I haven't the time to watch WWF much anymore, but when I'm bored or need some background noise, it's fun mind candy, and of course, I always like the violence.

More chiro work this morning, and I discovered that Dr. Lindell will be going on maternity leave starting Monday, so I'll be working with Dr. Osgood instead. She seems nice too, so I'm looking forward to seeing how their technique differs. And I bonded some more with Dr. Hunt--turns out she's a water girl like me, so we chatted about oceans and lighthouses briefly, and the receptionist seems to be a budding geek, often asking me about fantasy books, complimenting my cloak, and today, wondering if I'd seen Brotherhood of the Wolf. This led to discussing period films in general and clothing in particular, and I ended up passing along the Peers website addy, and my email, because she's really interested in costume foo. So that's pretty cool! And when I got home tonight, my Labyrinth movie poster and Legolas poster were waiting for me, woo! My mom also sent a few bookmarks (three with the One Ring replica--anyone in particular out there want one? Ellie and Laura already have one, or a couple would be spoken for) and a "Good Guys" FotR poster, so I've got to get more poster tape and find somewhere to hang these things. Probably on the back of my door, at this point, because there just isn't room anywhere else, and I at least sometimes close my door, unlike the back sliding door to my closet.

Now, I should really go to bed--must get up earlyish to prep for SA, and have to have everything for the Middle Earth Ball ready besides. Maybe I can sleep in Sunday, there's always hope!

Not much coming here, but I wanted to get my page swapped around before leaving for the night, because I know how busy I'll be all day tomorrow, and I started last month off on the third, so wanted to break that trend right quick. Now I should run off to Entropy for gaming, for I am starving and Merlin is cooking again.

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