Had a lot of stuff going on this week.  It's just been terribly busy, and I haven't slept well.
Thought about going to the memorial concert tonight, but wasn't up for it.  Spent the whole day reading various bizarre social networking posts about where people were in 2001. There was a hashtag for it, for goodness sakes. Bizarre, and yet I suppose completely human.
I doubt I'll ever forget, but the memory seems to change with each telling. And more than the day itself, the days and weeks immediately after stay in my mind. It was a hard time, but one that has faded with the passing of years so that its immediacy is lessened but certain indelible images and feelings remain, worn into the psyche beside all the rest of a life's traumas.

Hm, I seem to have gone a bit introspective despite my effort to avoid same this year.

I've finished two actual novels this week, though, which was great.  And they were both awesome in totally different ways.  Lavinia by Ursula K LeGuin, and The Shadow Queen by Anne Bishop.

Now I'm really tired and looking forward to a fun weekend, so I'd best get to bed and try to actually sleep.

Had a lovely crafty evening with Kim last night.  Found some fantastic Halloween accessories at Michael's that will make wonderful not-quite-so-tiny shrines, and achieved a significant amount on the quilt.
The quilting portion of the project is finished. Now I have only the binding and final touches before it is ready to send.  Yay!

I am so busy, in all aspects of my life, and it's funny the way that everything just gets more complicated. Luckily I have a really great workplace and a lot of resources for keeping my head above water.
There's a small list of urgent tasks I need to do in the next few days, but things have been made much easier by canceling some of my almost-scheduled out-of-town plans for this month and next.  Except for the RenFaire, there is now nothing on my plate requiring a large travel investment until the holiday season.

And plenty of time for crafty decompression.
(I hope!)

I think I need to make blogging a daily habit, although I'm using Twitter a lot more now that it's part of my job.

Yesterday I went to get a new glasses prescription.  I had forgotten that optometry takes three zillion more hours than my regular doctor. They did all kinds of things that I don't think I've ever had done before, like dye drops to check pressure and various scopes to peer into the depths. The guy doing the exam was very nice and willing to chat and joke about the various machines, which is always nice. I like a doctor (well, in this case a student) who is willing to explain things. He dilated my eyes, which takes about a half hour to process in itself. 

So while I was sitting around letting my pupils grow, another student came in and asked me to take part in her research project - it would be very brief, non-invasive, and I could do it while I was dilating.  So I said sure, and went and looked inside a big box at some glowy lights, telling her when they changed color. Then my student doc and the supervising doc took turns peering into my eyes again, and at the end of the exam they said, "Your astigmatism is gone."  Hey, cool.  Turns out that if I don't wear contact lenses for two years, my lenses/corneas/whatever don't warp as much. No mention was made of whether warps in the soul bounce back, too. Fun times.

I'm leaving for San Francisco on Wednesday, and starting my packing this weekend. I'm beyond worrying about costume pieces, now.  I have a hat, that will have to do. My art is printed but not yet in the frames. I need to run a final back-up of my data before traveling with the laptop.

This is the extremely busy and stressful time at the office, and with the con just past and the one coming up I am not in a good place to be worried or stressful about fandom stuff. It's just not worth it. So I'm skimming most things, concentrating on getting back into a creative mode so I can do my art, and not worrying about anything but getting to Azkatraz and meeting all the cool folks I hang out with online.

In other fandom news, by the way, I've suddenly become completely addicted to fanfic in the new Star Trek 'verse. Mostly Kirk/McCoy. This has not been exactly my cup of tea in the past, but it's entirely too much fun now. I very much like most of the fics' take on Uhura, in any pairing. She's a mad genius. Also, I've noticed that fandom seems to have taken a huge shine to Sulu/Chekov, of which I really can do nothing but approve, right? My question is, why is there no love for Scotty, in any verse? Show me the Scotty fic, folks.

I've had a rather bad several days, interrupted by some really great stuff.
Been doing art, building furniture, being very depressed, having a great time at work, going to various meetings, being depressed again, calling therapists and doctors, and re-arranging my living quarters.
I got to go to the ancestral home for Mom's birthday on Sunday to play Ticket to Ride: Europe with Mom, my aunt, the scion and Hillary. And then on Tuesday Dad and I went to IKEA for dinner and to pick up the table I wanted. Mom came over yesterday to help me put it together, along with the laptop table and task chair that I'm using now for the computer. It's so much easier to do stuff with a workstation that lets me keep a good posture. Typing on the laptop on the coffee table just was not a winning situation.
Due to my two bouts of severe sorrow, I got behind on my art commitments, so I'm working tonight on finishing the last overdue one.
I'm also watching a DVD that isn't Merlin. Ha, ha, ha, I know.  I've watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Real Genius, and now I'm watching the really awesome episodes of Season 3 of Babylon 5.

OMG my love for Andreas Katsulas as G'kar just swells my heart to bursting.  God, what brilliance. Such a good show... such a loss.
Ok, moment over.

Now I'm having some dessert (angel food cake with strawberries) as a reward for finishing the line art for this overdue piece - with my fanart style, when the line art is final, the piece is 60% done.
Tomorrow I'm home from work, so I'll be finishing up some other obligations, including data entry, and more furniture arranging plus the disposal of all the styrofoam and cardboard.

I'm really having a lot of trouble with my GI stuff - Mom says I need to give myself more credit for dealing with a chronic health problem as well as I have, mostly.  It just got really frustrating for a few days - with all the other stresses, then feeling like I was unable to eat just was a bit of the last straw.  I've got to rethink my habits.  One great thing is that my Wellness Counseling at work has been going really well, including keeping a food diary. That will hopefully help once I can do a bit of analysis. Only another few weeks before I get back in to the gastroenterologist.

Mom's been encouraging me to meditate, and it kind of sort of maybe helps. And I should really do a tarot reading or something. What's all that stuff for if not to offer guidance in times of stress?

Oh, and bonus - despite the stress and stuff, I am happy to say that I still have fingernails.

Now it's back to the drawing board, or in this case the brilliant Wacom tablet.

Hi, Mom!  Everything's ok! 

Today was the big benefits festival for campus employees - food, door prizes, give-aways, and lots and lots of wonderful information about the stuff we can get or do or attend.
I manned our department table for an hour, and spent another hour wandering around collecting information (and business cards and seeds and white boards and food, and getting my cholesterol checked).  It's usually a good time, although I missed the popcorn.

Had a really good time at art class last night, but for once I don't have a finished piece to post. I worked up a graphite values sketch first, then got the basic color under painting laid in, and now I will probably need to take it back to class if I'm to have any hope at all of actually finishing it.  Although I may surprise myself and set up a watercolor studio on the drafting table.
A trip to the art supply is definitely in order, though, because everything else being ok to move forward as is, I am running out of paper.

InstaCon 8 is this weekend- it's a Texas con for con-runners, with panels about organizing.  Various concoms around the state get together to talk about solutions and troubleshooting.  I'm a panelist and also hope to get some good stuff from a few other presentations.  It's a small con pretty much by definition, and thrown together last-minute (as the name implies) but I'm looking forward to it!

It's going to be May very soon, and that's good because Yay NYC trip! but it's also bad because OMG one month closer to July when we're launching (we hope) the new site at work. Eeek. Man, I am going to be like a total crazy person at Azkatraz if we pull this off, I will just be so happy!  Or else I'll be totally stressed but determined to still have a good time.  Whee.

Apartment still a big mess.  Haven't opened the right box to find tarot cards. Really need to figure out shelving situation soon. And maybe chair situation.
Have big plans, but right now they sure seem far away.
Still need to work on stress management. Considering a meditation class.
And good grief, I really need to go for acupuncture.

Ok, gonna go draw or something.

Unpacking books seems like a foolish endeavor when I have no shelves upon which to place them.  Hmmm.

I could run over to the Central Market and Bed, Bath and Beyond to get some of the things I still need.  (A spatula would really come in handy.)
I'm out of rice cakes! This is a tragedy.

I made tea today in my kitchen for the first time, using the kettle Mom bought me and the teabags she sent from home.  I should probably acquire my own tea at some point. And a teapot.

Tummy troubles continue, with possible hypoglycemic symptoms, but they are usually mild and quite possibly psychosomatic. My anxiety can level me faster than anything else, it seems.  Need to work on that meditation thing.

I've been reading actual books and paper media, though. Mostly nonfiction - some "making a magical home" stuff, some "environmentally sustainable cleaning" ones, and ODE magazine. Also the interviews in Weird Tales.

Now I'm hip deep in the con Access database, running some reports for the Chair, and pondering the reality that ConCom members don't really *attend* their con as such. 

Also, I'm on programming for a Con next weekend.  The panel is about Social Media. I will have very likely just finished a report and formal action plan on the topic for work. My life is funny that way.

I want to get to a point today where I can get the sewing machine table set up and finish the sandwich construction phase on the current quilt.  If I do that much, there's every chance that I could manage the quilting before I go to New York. But I still don't have a printer set up and it's blotchy when it runs. Can't print photos with it until I figure out what's up with that.

Also, for those keeping track, I'm up to Episode 1.09 of Avatar: The Last Airbender and I <3 Sokka SO MUCH! :D

This is just a quick update for those following the drama on the Personal filter (and as always, if you want off a filter, just drop me a comment).

Everything is ok, I have lots of apartment leads and one, maybe two viewings lined up for today.
Things are progressing. Work continues to be awesome, so at least that's one place where nothing is falling apart.  It's getting busier, but that's really ok.
I signed up for ten more weeks of watercolor class.
GI meds have not made any real dent in the problem, so it's probably back to the drawing board. I expect a call from the nurse later today to discuss it.
Dad has been out of town this week, which is sad because we miss him, but it also means that I got dibs on the DVD player so it's been all Merlin, all the time.  w00t!  (I know, I know, I am so silly when I get deep into a new fandom. At least the art has been fun.)
Have not been sewing lately, but that really needs to change. Quilt now probably solid with cat hair, despite being covered up with crinkly paper.  Whoever said that cats avoid lying on things that make noise has never met our cat.
Have been largely avoiding LJ and SFF flaps online, but am not unaware of them. I find myself gaping in disbelief a lot, but I've also found some really excellent new folks to read. 
Also, have been reading real books. In the middle of Alexandria, finished Lackey's The Fairy Godmother, and have made a start on Privilege of the Sword.
Umm...  I think that's a pretty good summary.

So, you know, don't worry too much.  Big thank yous to the folks who have been helping me out on this long-distance. You know who you are. I love you guys.

I have been caught in a vortex of never-ending meetings/meetups since last week. Not a bad thing necessarily, just so incredibly busy.  And I run from work to class or other meetings or to run important family errands and suddenly my to-do list is a mile longer than usual and I am just tired.
But today is Watercolor class and after that there is nothing but actually catching up on all the work stuff that doesn't involve meetings and no more meetups and then maybe I'll get to breathe because dude Friday is my birthday and I don't want to have any more meetings!  (Although if it doesn't rain I'm hoping for another picnic in the park.)

Also, the cat has been sleeping on my quilt-in-progress and you can all congratulate me on womanfully not throwing things at him to get him to remove himself.  Rowr!

p.s. My presentation went really well!

The school where I work had its 40th Anniversary gala tonight at Houston's most exclusive country club.
They had an open bar, so naturally I took advantage. At one point, I set my glass down on a table near several co-workers.

Co-worker: zephre, are you drinking apple juice?
zephre: No, it's single-malt scotch.
(laughter)
zephre: Glenlivet, I believe.
Other co-worker: You are the weirdest person I know.

ETA: I think the weirdness stemmed from either a) knowing enough to want single-malt and avoid Jack Daniels, plus reading the name on the bottle, or b) taking advantage of the open bar. Or it might have had to do with the discussions about Unicorns for Obama... To be honest I can't remember the entire context of this exchange- it was in the middle of a different conversation. ;)

I am running late on everything, it seems.
Too many holiday deadlines.
Not doing Nanowrimo this year, which is a relief.
I have no idea what to wear to a costume party.
Politics continues to suck.
eSlate training in three weeks. What joy, I tell you! (Fair warning: that web site takes ten billion years to load, and then links will open randomly (and slooooowly) into PDFs, video presentations, or other multimedia without telling you first. I love it! Not.)
Gastro appointment next week! Fun with my insides!
College Fair (appearing for Vassar, weird) the week after that!
Office 40th Anniversary Gala the week after that!
Wow, October is full of stuff. I haven't even mentioned my three classes a week AND Meet-ups.
I would really like to also make the Bayou City Art Festival this year. We'll see, as it's the same weekend as eSlate and Apollocon stuff.
BUT! Excitement and squeeing shall commence, because when October is done, it's time for...  The International Quilt Show! Yeah, baby.

Even more hurricane journaling, minus some censored family or personal griping / introspection.
You can take it as read that the discussions among my mom, dad, and me out on our patio during our enforced together time ranged widely and included much of military hardware, political ranting, religious speculation and ranting, story-telling, and recitation of Mark Twain.

( Monday, 9/15/08 )

( Tuesday, 9/16/08 )

( Wednesday, 9/17/08 )

We're closing down for the storm this afternoon; the campus will be closed tomorrow. Folks are currently evacuating, but we probably won't. We have a very secure little house without many windows. I don't think I've ever actually evacuated for a storm in my life, but it's really a decision folks have to make for themselves.
Now, the power is extremely likely to go out on us. The power goes out if somebody looks at the neighborhood box the wrong way.

In other news, this morning mom said, "Are you going to be all right today?" And I said, "Huh?" And she said, "It's September eleventh." And I said, "Oh." Right.
Last year there was a performance of Mozart's Requiem by the campus chorale during my lunch break, and that's what I did for the day. This year the concert is scheduled for tonight but will probably be cancelled anyway.
Really, though, I was kind of pissed off on my drive here and I'll tell you why: on my calendar, today is marked "Patriot Day". That makes my blood pressure rise. What kind of stupid excuse for a remembrance is that? Another curve in the road to fascism. Aaaargh.

Anyway. Today people are mostly leaving the office early, or getting ready to leave early, or watching the weather cams obsessively for evacuation traffic. So instead of a September Eleventh story, which mostly would involve the memory of caked ash and dirt on my roommate's work shoes as we finally, finally got out of Manhattan that day, I'm going to tell a hurricane story.

It's 1983, the hurricane is Alicia. I am six years old. We live in a tiny little wood frame house with a carport, just like all the other folks on the block, except the ones at the end of the block that had put in a brick facade. The power is out and we have candles, flashlights, and at least one kerosene lantern.
I am pressed into the screen door looking out onto the little porch, where my mom has gone outside to watch the eye of the storm pass over our neighborhood.
I am certain that she will blow away at any moment.
It's so terrifying a thought that it has clung to me, and all these many years later it is really all I recall of the storm. And it may in fact be wrong. Memory is fluid, after all, and years of telling change the tale.
Six-year-old fears, six-year-old memory.

University is closed for the day, it's raining, expecting floods, and our power may still go out.
But the storm landed elsewhere, and is weakening even as it brings the rain.
Hopefully the flooding won't be too terrible.

Everybody in my office is so nice - they remember that I'm supposed to be starting my apartment hunting now that I'm back from England and ask me how it's going...
And I say, "Uh? Oh, yeah... I should start that."

Also - four stopped buses or transportation vans with hazard lights on in the right lane on Main Street this morning between Southmore and University. How exciting! Plus an accident at the intersection where I usually get on the freeway backing up all the neighborhood traffic. Fun times!

It's humid and hot and sticky and overcast and intermittently raining and kind of gross outside, but it's parka weather in the office! Whee!

That is all for now.
Good morning!

Today and for the rest of this week my normal work hours have shifted to accomodate 9-6 Software Training in the IT Building across campus.
Fun times.
I think I'll be able to check email and such on breaks and things, as I will be in front of a computer, but we shall see.

Training, training, training, got to get some training, got to sit through training, NOT NAP!

Whee.

San Diego was great, thanks to Cheryl and Lianne and their respective SOs for showing my coworker and me a fine and lovely time. Cheryl and Ben took us for Peking Duck at their favorite Chinese place, which was amazingly child-friendly.  Sami was very entertaining and the waiters just maneuvered around her with aplomb.  That duck was really good, too.  Then Lianne and Ben met us in the Gaslamp Quarter (which has no actual gaslamps), and we had drinks and dinner at a pub.  Excellent.
We also walked by the bar where the famous scene from Top Gun was filmed.  You know it's that bar because it has a sign next to the door that says "Sleazy Bar Scene from Top Gun Filmed Here, 1985". Awesome.
Our first day there was rainy and cold, but after that it cleared right up - but I broke my sunglasses. Doh.
I got a fun and exciting handbag printed with octopi. I was going to get the skull-and-crossbones one, but it wasn't as nice. I also got some awesome socks with a Quilter Girl on them. Photos to come when I get a camera.
I do wish I'd had a camera in San Diego, the colors and the light were quite amazing. But since I didn't have a camera, I spent a lot more time just enjoying the sunshine and the fun buildings and walking through the city.

There is a hotel downtown with a beach bar on the roof.  Even in the middle of downtown with a waxing moon in the sky, the stars were astonishingly clear. While hanging out by the bonfire on the hotel roof's beach bar, we met several other Texans in town for a pharmaceuticals meeting. Coincidence, or Texas Social Magnetism? You decide. Fun times.

I drank ten metric tons of coffee while at the conference, which was dumb. I did not drink any caffeine at all yesterday, which was verging on idiotic.  Now I have a horrid withdrawal headache. Attempting to stave off the worst of it by applying fresh caffeine and acetaminophen.  Oh, woe, my bubbling boiling brains.

In other news, it's Girl Scout Cookie Time! Yay Lemonades! They are my new favorite cookie.

Ah, my cache processing is done now, back to work.

My mother regularly wakes me up on the weekends by shrieking.  I have 3.7 seconds of absolute panic and then I realize, "Oh, it's the baseball/football/soccer/fill-in-sport-here game." 

Apparently, watching TV with Mom and me is very difficult.  We've been watching Tin Man on Sci-Fi for past two nights, and making snarky comments.  Mom and I snark about the names; the dialogue; the acting; the internal story logic.  And every time Dad sighs and mutters, "Can't you just suspend your disbelief for a couple of hours and enjoy the presentation?" Well, we are enjoying the presentation. And snarking at it.
I do wonder on occasion if this interpretation would make any more sense if I read the books. But on the whole, probably not.

This morning there was ice on my car.  On Sunday when I took out the trash it was muggy and I was in a tank top and flip-flops.  Today there was ice on my car.  Thank you, East Texas weather.  If you don't like it, just wait. 

My office is having a door decorating contest for the holidays.  I want to do something Solstice-y.  Any ideas?

Also, Happy Hanukkah! 

We have begun the Season of Light.  (I know because my neighbors down the road have a giant illuminated inflatable Santa on a Harley in their yard.  If that doesn't scream "Season of Light!" I just don't know what does.) 

And in the spirit of Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men (hey, it's not my holiday slogan, but it's a pretty good one), Banksy returns to Bethlehem at the BBC In Pictures.  Be sure to click through them all.

wordcount widgets

Current Count: 37,176

Today Harry and Luna get married.
And possibly pay a visit to Luna's mother's grave.
And maybe there will be some tabloid headline action and a trip to the Solicitor's.
Fun times!

I have managed to post almost every day, and did double scenes when I missed so I am still up to date for the month. 20 days, 20 parts.
I have to stop myself from going back to do thorough editing all the time. Not certain if I want to actually look at this again in December or just move straight into the original story that has been percolating in the back of my head.
Also, I have a mad lot of gifts to make. So maybe no writing at all for a week or two after NaNo is over.

I need to think of a name for the sewing machine. It might be a he sewing machine, oddly enough, too.

Today is a short day at work, and most of the office has taken off anyway. I am holding down the fort for my department.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving with my aunt and her huge family, plus games. Yay games! Friday I get to see Donna's new house.

Plus at some point I must visit the store, because I am all out of Stash Peach Black tea and that is tragic, folks. TRAGIC.  Perhaps I shall go to Spec's downtown and combine my tea trip with a chocolate and cheese trip because, dude - a WHOLE AISLE of gourmet chocolate. 

Today my office went out for lunch (well, a bunch of us anyway) and while I was happily munching away on my shrimp crepe florentine, I bit down on something hard... and round... and plastic.   The spray top to a PAM can, if I am any judge, in fact.  Mmm, just what I wanted in my lunch.  So I walked over to the manager and showed him the spinach-covered object and said, "This was in my crepe."  Voila, free lunch and a new crepe. 
Of course by then the shrimp crepe florentine was not sounding quite so appetizing, but I finished most of my new one anyhow.  I suppose I should be thankful it wasn't a human part or something.
Ugh. Where is my stomach-settling tea?

I watched video on YouTube of Dennis's appearance last night on Colbert.  And my officemates came in to see what had me so upset.   They discovered that I wasn't sobbing at all, but laughing.  I laughed so hard I did eventually cry.