Leisurely week

This should be a good week. It had a great start with my day trip with Jane and a nice President's Day with Jared, and looks to be good from here on out. I finished my first assignments for both screen writing and science fiction and fantasy, which means I have about three weeks until the next ones are due and therefore no particular pressure to spend all my time on them. My plan is to go to help out with Titus build in the afternoons and then have nice leisurely evenings. I'm not going to ballet this week because the schedule is altered and there won't be beginner classes offered, so I have more time Tuesday and Thursday nights. My plan is to cook healthy and delicious dinners, work on homework but not spend all night on it, maybe get a workout in, and continue on through my sewing book. That will keep me productive but still allow me to take it easy. It's not often that happens for me for a solid work week.

Newport with Jane

Had one of the nicest weekends I've had in quite some time. Saturday I went to Newport, RI to meet aurora_knight* and have a great time walking around through the city. That was a great trip. I'd never been there before, but I knew it was a pretty town by the sea where lots of Gilded Age millionaires built their summer homes. We went on a tour of two of the grandest, The Breakers and The Elms. The Breakers in particular was opulent, seventy rooms all styled like high French aristocratic chateaux, designed by the famous Vanderbilt family. The ceilings were all crenelated with carvings of animals, mythology, angels, and fruit, and covered over with painted murals. The gilt covering the moldings and the furniture was made of actual gold. The billiard room was walled entirely in marble. There was a fountain under the staircase. It had ballrooms and sitting rooms and dining halls and a breakfast room and dozens of bedrooms. It was grand and gorgeous but honestly rather overdone. It was rather too much for my tastes, and honestly did not seem liveable by modern standards. I was trying to imagine rolling out of bed, padding down that giant staircase in my pajamas and walking across my cavernous hall to eat my breakfast in my opulent breakfast suite. It made me kind of uncomfortable, honestly. Maybe it works better if you're expected to be fully dressed in elegant clothes and have servants waiting on you and making everything happen, but Jane said that even for the age it was considered over-the-top. I like the say I could expand into any amount of space you gave me-- throwing parties and hosting dinners and running larps and having rooms for sewing and gaming and maybe even a performance space --but I found the Breakers to be just too much even for me. My favorite part of it was the butler's pantry, a place like a kitchen except without fixtures like a stove or anything, which was elegant in the simplicity of its very fine dark wood cabinets and endless counter space. By contrast, the other house, The Elms, of the coal family the Berwinds was very fine and grand but more tasteful and liveable. I'm sure I could move in there just fine. :-)

Overall it was a lovely trip, walking around and chatting with Jane, who is always lovely company. I'm so glad she invited me. Thanks, dear! Here is a nice picture of Jane in one of the Newport shops we browsed. Her hair looks very pretty.

Conqueror of chores

Yesterday I was the Chore-Accomplishing Powerhouse. I've been very busy with more external responsibilities (work, school, directing Merely Players) that I haven't felt very much like spending my remaining energy on stuff around the house. But I finally made myself call the neurologist and get an appointment-- that I wasn't putting off, I just kept forgetting and never remembering until after office hours --and getting that out of the way lit a fire under me. I cleaned my bedroom, changed the bedsheets, put together my new office chair, repacked my fabric basket, vacuumed the carpet, cleared out all the stuff I'd been driving around in my car, stored the new banquet tables I bought down in the basement, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, took the air conditioner out of my window, and threw a roast in the oven for dinner. A lot of this stuff has needed doing for a while so, now I'm glad to have gotten it out of the way.

But I'm still not done. I started painting away the little spots of remaining orange paint on the trim in my bedroom, but never had a chance to finish. I need to keep taping up the blue and get that all covered up. I also need to get around to hanging my big mirror. I've been a little tentative because I don't want to damage it or the wall, but I think I know what I need to do. I have monkey hooks and I bought the stud finder app on my iPhone that valleyviolet* recommended, which might be enough, but I wonder if it wouldn't be helpful to get some eighteen-gauge wire to string it up with. Also, I think I'd like to make that corner of the room a bit more functional. As it is, both mirrors are in my bedroom, while the dresser I'd previously also been using as a vanity is in my office, making getting ready in the morning a bit awkward. Usually when I leave I have just tossed my hair brush and everything onto my bed, which is not as organized or neat as I'd like. I much prefer everything to end up in its proper place. So I've decided that once the mirror is hung I'm going to place a little table beneath it to make that spot into a real vanity. I've been checking out Craigslist and eBay to find something that might serve. The trouble is that spot is in the narrow space between the wall and the door to my office, so I can't put anything there that's so wide it will interfere with egress between the rooms. But I found a little thing that I think will work. Doesn't look like much now, it's a cheap, unfinished half-circle kind of table I'll be picking up on Saturday. But I kind of like that because I can stain it myself and choose the color. I bet I can make it look nice.

I don't have anyplace to be this weekend, so perhaps a run to the hardware store is in order, and I can spend the rest of the time seeing that this stuff actually gets accomplished.

My room at Illyria, now blue

My room is blue at last! Two days ago the wonderful acousticshadow2* came to help me finish painting, and brought the also lovely Josh Marcus along with her. EB is a really capable person, it turns out, when it comes to getting home maintenance chores done, as I learned when she was on the team helping me move as well as today. I'm impressed. She taught me a few things about painting a room that were really helpful, such as starting by painting up along the taped-off areas with a brush so you can follow up with the roller in the larger areas without fear of going outside the appropriate area. Josh was really helpful but going ahead of us as we painted, finishing up taping off all the trim that I hadn't gotten to yet. It took about four hours, but we got the entire room done by the end of the day. I am extremely grateful to both EB and Josh, for being so kind as to do all this work to help me out. Thanks, guys, I owe you one!

As I mentioned, the orange coat from before was not well-applied, so there was lots of orange bleed-over onto the trim, which I will eventually have to touch up with white. But I am pleased with how things look even now, so I think I will take a bit of a break and enjoy my nicer room for a while. Now I finally have the place cleaned up and back in order, which means all of you finally get to see what it looks like!

Here is my bed and nightstand in the corner. I like how the blue walls go with the blue in my bedspread, which is one of the reasons I chose it. It also looks nice against the dark wood of my bedroom set. Note the sloping ceiling, one of the more unfortunate features of the room, but that's to be expected on the top floor of a New England house of a certain age. The skylight is nice in that it provide a lot of light in a room that is otherwise a bit dark, though it also makes things quite hot if left with the shade up too long. (I had to brighten all of these photos to make them acceptably clear.) You can also see the neat low closet on that side with its shuttered accordian doors. It has a shelf and a piece of thick carpet along the bottom, and I actually haven't used much of it yet, but I expect I will as time goes on. My moose Romeo, more often called Moosey, who was a gift from Jared can be seen sitting in the place of honor on the bed.

Here is the view more or less from the door on the right side of the bed. Across from it is the smaller of the room's two full-sized closets, which I love because I have many, many clothes. That corner next to the closet was a perfect size to fit my small bookshelf, packed to the gills with show programs, English-major literature, cookbooks, and old notebooks. of mine. Horatio the beanbag mallard, affectionately known as Ducky (notice a pattern with me?), sits atop several decorative cigar boxes. I have decided to keep them there, though in general I have a preference to keeping my surfaces clear. I'm not sure the rug is necessary now that my room has a carpet, but it was in my old room and keeps with the theme of blue. You will also notice my mirror on the floor against the wall there. Now that I've painted I want to hang it there, but it is a very nice, heavy mirror that I don't want to risk breaking, so I may enlist the expertise of someone who knows more about wall hanging than I do. I am amused to notice that you can see Moosey's reflection in it from this angle.

This is what the side across from the bed looks like. This is what I mean about how the room has lots of bites and chunks taken out of it by the weird shape of the walls and ceiling. Now you can see both closets, including the larger one off in nook back there. That is also the room's only window other than the skylight, currently occupied by an air conditioner I almost never run due to the expense. You can also see the room's only real light, a tall lamp that used to be in the similarly fixture-less living room at Elsinore. It works well enough but is not bright enough for my tastes, and I am not fond of having to walk across the dark room to turn it on at night. I suppose I could move it next to the bed, but the door opens into that space and I'm worried about whacking it every time I come in. The wreath on the smaller closet's knob I idly made out of odds and ends of morethings5*'s costume while the talented hazliya* made him up a deer spirit in my kitchen for a photo shoot in the local woods. (I love how much art is in my life.)

On the only side we haven't looked at yet is probably my favorite feature of the place, the little adjoining room I have turned into an office. Here we look through the door to see the far wall and a little of how I have the place set up. Also notice that between the door to the office and the bedroom entrance is a weird little corner with a low-sloping ceiling that comes to a sharp little point. I am currently at a loss at what to do with this seemingly useless wasted space, so if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them. Maybe a little end table? One of those corner-shaped bookshelves? I wish it had an electrical outlet back there at least, to give me more options for what I could use it for.

Now we go into the office. On the far wall is this room's window, under which I have my computer desk. My primary computer is a desktop, all containing within the frame of that screen. I also dock my iPad on this desk, which also holds a box of odds and ends, my personal cable box, an external hard drive, the land line my dad insisted I have just in case, and Jared's high school senior photo (which incidentally I hate.) To the left of the desk is a table that holds my printer, with paper and important documents kept on the bottom shelf and various office supplies in the drawer. The chair doesn't roll very well on the carpet, so I am considering getting one of those plastic mats to put under it. I like working here, as the light and breeze from the window is very pleasant.

To the right of the desk is the old white leather armchair that used to be in the living room at Elsinore. When it didn't fit in the living room here, several people suggested I move it and the matching ottoman into my room. I am finding I quite enjoy having it to lounge in, so I am grateful for the suggestion. Next to it you will see another low closet with accordian shutters; this one is much fuller than the other one, as I use it to store my shoes and boxes of things I want to hang on to but don't necessarily use all the time. Again note the sloping ceiling, which can be a pain even for a short person like me. You can also see here the dark teal color of this room, which I can't say I love, but I don't really mind, so I am saving myself the work and not bothering to paint in here.

Here is the corner between the office door and the accordian-shuttered closet. It's a bit of a random mess right now. I decided to stick my mini-fridge right here, with its crate of random personal snack or kitchen items on top of it. You can also see that I've turned this into my "sewing corner" with my mini-ironing board, iron, sewing kit, fabric basket, and katiescarlett29*'s apron draped over my self-healing cutting mat. I'd like to have a little work table here on which to do projects like sewing or packing larps. Just need to find one I like that fits here. Maybe it would have its own chair too; I wouldn't mind having another little chair in here in case a guest needs to sit at the desk or table.

The last thing I want to show you is the space on the other side of the office door. This is my long dresser, where I keep the clothes that I don't want to hang up. Ideally this would be in the bedroom area rather than the office, but it's so long and the walls are so oddly shaped that this is the only place it would fit. I don't love having it partially under that really low part of the sloped ceiling, but again, I didn't really have a choice for where it was going to go. It just makes it a wee bit tough to use without kneeling, and the mirror in the other room used to live on top of it but now it won't fit. It's a shame, I liked it there. On top of it you will see my jewelry box, my perfume box made out of neat old cigar box that has little drawers in it, the beautiful bone china teaset Jared gave me as a housewarming present when I moved into Elsinore, and a silver tray with some frequently used beauty products on it. Again, I tend to prefer my surfaces clear, but I like having that stuff out because it's either pretty or I like the convenient access. Next to the dresser is another large lamp that used to be in the living room-- it's not great, worse than the other one in fact, but in the meantime I'm just glad for a little extra light.

And that is my room! I love having the space for living and doing things. I am really happy with the color of the blue paint. It's still technically unfinished, as things will need touched up. But now I can start putting things in their permament homes, and hanging my pictures on the walls. I will be very happy when I'm totally settled in, and I think I've made a good chunk of progress with the help of some lovely friends.

Current status of Illyria

I have begun painting my bedroom. I have taped up most of the white trim, covered my workspace with tarps and dropcloths, and cracked open my gallon of 100 Acre Morning blue. It was harder work than I remembered it being, as it's been a while since I actually painted a room. The paint goes on well with both a roller and a brush, though during the initial coat a second stroke tends to slightly displace the paint laid by the first stroke, exposing little patches of orange beneath the nice new blue. I have found that if I wait for the first coat to dry and then touch up the imperfect places, I get nice solid coverage and probably won't have to go so far as putting on a second coat. Given the very weird shape of the room, with all its odd angles and bites taken out of the shape, it's hard to estimate how much I have finished, but I'll say I've gotten about one quarter of the way around the room. Not bad progress for one evening's work alone. If I can get that much done each day I should be finished by the end of the week. I'm thinking I'll have to touch up the white trim too, though. The orange paint looks nicely done on the walls but must not have been applied with well-placed painter's tape, as the trim often has orange bleed-over on it. I'd like to fix that up as well. I plan on staying here for at least the two years of graduate school, so I want it to look nice.

In regards to other aspects of settling into Illyria, thing seem to have worked out. I have been cooking quite a bit in the kitchen, and it's just as nice as I hoped it would be. There is a ton of counterspace, a luxury I haven't had in years. The appliances are lovely-- having a dishwasher makes cleanup so much easier, and I love the gas range. Not as big a fan of the gas broiler, I've discovered, as compared to electric, but that's a small thing. I also was happy to discover that there was enough room in the spacious kitchen to keep my baker's rack, which though now a bit barer than it used to be I really like having around to hang certain tools and produce on. Here is how it looked this morning before I left for work.

I really really like it. Unfortunately I like the living room a lot less. It's tough to condense from a larger space into a smaller one, so in an effort to maintain a certain amount of seating the room ended up a bit cramped. I'm also not a fan of how the washer and dryer are in a closet in the wall, meaning nothing can be put up against that side. But we've sort of worked out a compromise, and I suppose it's comfortable enough.

I will post pictures of my room once the painting is done, and I've finally got the place the way I want it.

More walking



Now that the weather is finally warming back up, I think it's time to rededicate myself to the resolution to start walking whenever possible rather than jumping in the car. I can't bear the cold, so I drove everywhere to shield myself from having to spend time outside. But God knows I need the exercise, though I did manage to work out four times last week. Let's see if I can do at least that well this week, even though when I'm really in a groove I can do it six. But also quite pressing is the rising prices of gas, which haven't been this high around here for ages. I could really do without spending that chunk of change on so regular a basis. The only trouble is time-- I certainly don't mind the effort, I actually actively enjoy walking places, but it can be so much more time-efficient to drive instead. Often my life is so tightly scheduled (as yesterday was, yowza) that I just can't spare the minutes in my already packed day plan. The solution is probably just to not overschedule myself, but knowing me that is easier said than done. I do better, especially with the emotional hole I've had such a hard time digging myself out of these last few months, when I have more going on, more things to do, more projects to work on, more things to think about.

Today when I got out of work Jared and I walked the mile to the grocery store and back, so that's something already. :-)

Housing next year

So after much stress, much wrangling, and much worrying, at last I have my housing situation figured out for next year.

After three years there, I am finally moving out of Elsinore. Though I was pretty contented with what I could do there, it really is time. The landlord is impossible to deal with, the heating bills in the winter have been insane, not to mention a host of sundry other little annoyances that add up to a fair-sized pain. So, especially when it became clear I was not going to find suitable roommates to fill in those who were definitely moving on, I decided it was best to move on too.

So now, with lovely friends blendedchaitea* and my current roommate Emily, I will be moving to the other side of Brandeis to a three-bedroom apartment on 51 Morton Street. (Emily is going to be a graduate student at Brandeis next year, so staying close to the school was necessary for her.) This is, interestingly, also about a block away from Albion, where Steph, Plesser, April, Lenny, and Jenna will be living next year. Features of this new place that are a definite improvement over Elsinore are the wide driveway (no need for stacking and therefore constant carswapping), TWO bathroom for THREE people, a huge kitchen with plenty of counter space, new appliances including a dishwasher, significantly cheaper heat and electric bills, and only having to share the place with two others instead of four. I actually have enjoyed living with all of my current group of roommates, but more people means more crowding and more mess, which I will be glad to have to deal with less.

Also, it looks like I will not have to be compromising on bedroom space. I was initally interesting in this really neat-shaped room upstairs with cool nooks and crannies and a whole separate space with a door almost like a walk-in closet for where the bed goes, but after some measurements were taken I realized my bedroom furniture was probably not going to fit. So Rachel will have that room, and I will have the sizeable downstairs bedroom that will more easily accommodate all my stuff. It's one odd feature is that it doesn't have a closet so much as a storage space, of good size but unfinished inside. I am actually okay with that, as I am confident that if I laid down a piece of carpet and got moveable clothes racks I could basically make it into a pleasant little walk-in. I've always wanted a walk-in closet, so that should work out nicely. Also, as it is on the ground floor, that means the ground floor bathroom is basically mine when we don't have guests.

There are some downsides. As it is only a three-bedroom, there is considerably less common space. That probably means while dinner parties can still happen, the big parties I have every now and then probably won't fit. That makes me sad. Also it will probably mean having to get rid of some of my furniture, seeing as pretty much all the stuff in the commons spaces is mine. My baker's rack, for example, may not have a home (unless I repurpose it into a shelf for my planned walk-in closet...). The washer and dryer are coin-op, though I am grateful enough that they are on-premises that I don't really mind. It will also mean something of a raise in rent for me, which I am hoping with my new job won't be quite so burdensome, but we'll see. But the positives outweight the negatives by far for me. I will really miss living with Charlotte, Jane, and Ryan, all of whom someone managed to overcome my hermit tendencies to make me actually enjoy being roommates with them, but I am very excited to live in this new place with Rachel and Emily.

It's going to be kind of a relief to me, to be honest. All it needs now is a name. I myself am partial to "Illyria," but I would also be amenable to Rachel's idea of "Arden."

Sick and snowed in

Bah. More goddamn snow. I am so tired of being cold, sliding on the roads, and shoveling. There's no where left to put the damn stuff. I don't know why I bothered coming in to work today; there's nobody here and I probably could have done everything I needed to today over e-mail from home. :-P To top it all off, last night my throat abrubtly started to hurt, as suddenly as if someone flipped a switch from fine to sore. I don't recall that ever happening before; usually my throat will just gradually start to feel a little dry beforehand, then the next day I'll wake up with it sore. Very strange. I also feel like I have a slight fever, but two turns of the thermometer say I'm not only not feverish, but a little on the cold side at 97.1. Wonder if the thing's not working right.

Being sick and snowed in was not part of my plan. I need to focus on writing, which will be tougher if I'm not feeling well, and I really didn't want to have to waste a ton of time shoveling that I should be using to work on character sheets. I got one more done last night, bringing my total of completed sheets up to a staggering two. *Sigh* I need some discipline on this. Only about a month remaining.

On to positive things

Now it is time to focus on some good things, so as to not to go back into Victorian suicide mode.

I got my hair cut the other day, FINALLY. It was sorely in need and I was starting to hate it. Heh, today for my Examiner article I wrote about how much it helps your everyday look to keep your haircut maintained. I am a bad, hypocritical style writer. Still, the point stands, and my head is proof-- I look and feel much better when I do. I am keeping the look I got last time, the longer layers with the sideswept bangs. Now that the bangs are shorter again they're back in my eyes all the time, which is a little annoying, but I'm getting used to them again and I really like how they look.



Bernie got me a Teavana Perfect Tea Maker for a belated Christmas gift, and MY GOD, does it make a better cup of tea than my tea ball. It is mug shaped, which allows the leaves to float around and steep properly, and then you put it on top of your mug and the tea strains out through the bottom. Works like a charm, and it comes out delicious. I think I will be keeping it at work to make individual mugs, as I prefer to use my lovely bone china teapot, a thoughtful gift from Jared, when I'm at home.

I got my first casting for Intercon, in this case for Clockwork Cafe. I am asked not to say who I am playing, but from the character outline I think she will be interesting. Even better, I'm pretty certain I already have my costume figured out, with no need for any new purchase. I have decided I will be casting the Intercon run of The Stand this coming Monday the 31st. Annoyingly, I'm still missing three casting questionnaires, all from people I don't know. I have been poking them pretty agressively to get them in before Monday, because I really hate casting people with no knowledge whatsoever. I will then send out character and costume hints, which should allow people sufficient advance notice to prepare.

I am ridiculously pleased with my Sudini Minna leather rain boots this season. I bought them two years ago seeking stylish tall leather boots that could be worn in all weather. These have served that purpose beautifully, looking great and keeping me dry and warm. I've been wearing them almost constantly since the weather got bad. Though they are not cheap, they are incredibly high quality, so I highly recommend them. I think at the end of the season I will take them to a cobbler to have them refurbished, because I think with proper care these could last me for a long time.

My grownup corner

In case you haven't been in the kitchen at Elsinore recently, let me tell you that lately it's been kept pretty nice. I like the way the furniture looks in it, the light wood of the table contrasting with the dark chairs, which is picked up by the wood board of the baker's rack and the gorgeous butcher block in the corner. As I think I mentioned, I got the butcher block when my brother moved out of his old apartment. His landlord wanted the building completely emptied of its contents, including this little beauty, which apparently did not belong to anyone-- which means I got to take it home. It is a piece of kitchen furniture that I'd coveted for ages and regularly sells for hundreds of dollars, so that was quite a stroke of luck for me. Last Halloween my dad also brought me six bundles of herbs from his garden, which look homey and nice hung all around. When I got my copper pan, I decided the best way to store it was to hang it on the wall on display. To complete the effect, I moved two of my oil flasks, Jane's mortar and pestle, and Charlotte's pretty glass onto the butcher block beneath it. Charlotte then put some flowers in the blue vase to complete the tableau. I have immortalized what I believe to be the prettiest place in the house in this photograph:

Sometimes I stand in this corner and look at the display before me and I can pretend that I live in a grownup house.

Alone in a clean house

All my roommates have left for winter break. As much as I will miss them as individuals, it will be nice to have the place to myself for a bit. I will be away myself for a while around Christmas, but other than that I will be at Elsinore enjoying the brief period of solitude. Nautrally, my first act as soon as everyone was gone was to clean. I cleaned the whole house, from bedroom to basement, except for vaccuuming. I burnt out on cleaning before I got to the vaccuuming, so I guess I will leave that to later or even tomorrow. Still, I am always worlds more comfortable in my space when it's clean, so it is very nice to have the almost the whole place done.

I am now relaxing in my room with a cinnamon-vanilla scented candle and a mug of eggnog. Every time I drink eggnog I think to myself, "This tastes the way I always wanted... something... to taste." But I can never remember exactly what that something is. It might be milk-- the flavor of milk certainly is never what I feel it should be. But it makes me feel nice, and I can use the relaxation and comfort for the moment so I can get more work done this evening.

Brain blah

Feeling unfocused and uncomfortable today. I didn't sleep well last night, my body is tense and knotted from the cold, and my stomach is all out of whack. The rainy weather is not helping me. Cannot really manage a detailed coherent entry today, so here are the broad strokes.

Signed up for Clockwork Cafe for first pick at Intercon. Surprised it didn't fill yet. The Stand has exactly one signup, and while I wasn't expecting many in the first round, I was surprised to see that one singup was natbudin*. I figured all my local friends would wait for it to run around here. I'm shocked but grateful. Thanks, Nat! Though I feel in all fairness I should let you know I'm probably going to run it at this coming Festival, if in that case you want to use your signup for something else.

Having such a hard time focusing amid all the busy that I haven't worked on The Stand in a couple of weeks. Really need to get my ass on that. Certainly want to validate Nat's willingness to devote a slot to it at Intercon. ;-)

Stars of Al-Ashtara happens this Saturday. I am excited, but my brain has had trouble getting through the character sheet. I will have to make sure I sufficiently absorb the content by the end of the day tomorrow.

Stupid fogged-up brain can't remember what I did with my wallet. Hope to God's it's just out of place in my room. Heh, whenever I can't find my wallet it tends to be in its proper drawer in my desk, which I never think to look in because I assume I would never be responsible enough to put it there.

Despite everything, however, had an awesome rehearsal tonight. Got to see a lot of scenes I'd never seen before, and I am pleased and impressed. I felt pretty on my game, which surprised the hell out of me, given how I was feeling about everything else today. We're about to go into tech week this Sunday, and I think we're in damn good shape for it. We even got to load in our wood today, giving the shop a good cleaning in the process. Tomorrow I hear they got permission to start getting boards cut. This is awesome, because this means a lot will be gotten out of the way early. The show before us is a dance performance which doesn't have a set, so we'll only have to strike the lights and not the stage as well.

I am going to be ridiculously busy over the coming week. But I am always happy to have these sorts of things in my life, so I guess I can't complain.

Charlotte, arrived!

Elsinore is now in possession of a Charlotte! She arrived in the afternoon yesterday, and despite the rain we managed to get her things into the house safely. Spending time with her as she got her things in order was very nice; I am feeling really good about having her as a roommate. Jane, as it turns out, will not be getting in until midday today, and with any luck I will be home from work in time to help her out as well.

It turned out to be a good day for socialization, something I have not had overmuch of in the last several weeks. After all of Charlotte's things were brought into the rooms in which they will be stored, I spent a lovely evening hanging out with at various points Charlotte, Steph, Caitlin, Emily, Plesser, and Plesser's younger brother Ben (newly arrived as a student at Brandeis) as Charlotte arranged her bedroom. The Plessers arrived after I offered to feed them when they went to a dining hall and found it closed. I made them open-faced burger sandwiches, due to my abundance of the mail-order burgers sent to me by my dad, but at the time having only one bun. While having to pull a dinner out of thin air on a moment's notice is not a challenge I'd like to face every day, I am flattered that they thought of me as somebody who could be relied upon when they needed to be taken care of. It was a lovely evening of chill, low-key socializing, which I enjoyed very much. Goodness me, how I missed these people.

As a side note, I'm very tired of the rain. It has been raining for days. I dislike such weather; it makes me inclined to hole up in a warm dry place such as my bedroom and not emerge until the deluge has passed. The one advantage is that today was the first day I got to wear my smashing new leather trenchcoat that I got off of eBay. Between the coat, my knee-high boots, my shoulder bag, and my belt, I am simply armored in leather today, and I like it! Makes me feel dangerous.

Awesome Independence Day

Had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend. Went to a fantastic party with Bernie, lightgamer*, and morethings5*, who are some of my favorite people to do anything with, let alone going to fun parties. I had a blast at this same party last year, and so was really really looking forward to going to this year's. My excitement grew when shortly before the day, captainecchi* sent out an e-mail saying we could swim in the lake if we brought our swimsuits! I was so happy we did; that was the first time I'd been swimming in over a year, and it was a lot of fun. My poor bikini doesn't get to come out and play often enough! We swam and canoed and explored islands and I didn't get the whole story but I'm pretty sure Kindness beat a bear into submission with his bare fists. ;-) It was cool. Then we came back to the house where electric_d_monk* grilled up some fantastic burgers, hot dogs, and corn on the cob. I had made my "inaccessible rice," as some are wont to call it, with the golden raisins, pecans, mint, and scallions and brought it along. And because the beef in the burgers was locally grown, lightgamer* actually got to eat one! I was happy for him, since they were damn good burgers, and I am sorry when anyone can't enjoy deliciousness. Then there were board games, fantastic strawberry shortcake, and morethings5* sweetly offering to learn how to brush out my hair. The party was a blast, the food was excellent, the company was great, and it was also lovely getting to spend time with captainecchi* and electric_d_monk*. Thanks to our gracious hosts for having such a fun gathering!

Marissa moved into Elsinore on the Fourth as well. Unfortunately I was at the party when she got in, and due to feeling sick and gross with the heat the next day I did not so much welcome her as spend the day hiding from all human contact like a small wild animal. I shall have to rectify that soon. I may also have to take steps to rectify the intense heat situation in my bedroom. For some reason, no matter what the weather, my room is always the mostly extremely affected in the house, making it an icebox in winter and a blast furnace in summer. Climate control is expensive, but it's getting to the point of unbearableness.

Girly evening

With the boys off at a poker game tonight, I spent my evening to myself being the most abject fifties stereotype of a woman that I could possibly be. First I handwashed some delicate laundry items and threw the rest in the washing machine. Then I settled in to give myself a home pedicure, nothing fancy or complicated, just a nice soak in hot water with some fizzy bath salts, a scrub, and some shea butter lotion. It is a nice, if temporary, way to deal with my pain issues. Then I put lotion all over my legs and arms while I waited for the dryer to finish.

I've always wanted to be able to have a routine for taking care of my skin, but I've never been able to figure out what might be good for me. I've always been prone to acne and I hate it, but Ive never managed to find some treatment that actually worked. I tried Proactiv for a long time, but it never seemed to have any connection to whether my skin got better or worse. Since I quit using it in a rage I've been a lot clearer, but I'm afraid to use anything on my face now for fear of messing that up. I'd like to find a moisturizer with sunscreen in it, as those contribute a lot to skin health and wrinkle prevention, but I'm terrified that picking the wrong one will make the acne come back. Maybe if I do get to see a doctor I'll ask to get to see a dermotologist.

Parents for the weekend

My parents are supposed to be in town this weekend to help my brother move out of his dorm, so that means that pretty much all my time must be set aside to be available. That kind of bugs me, but it's true that I don't get to see them that often, so I should make an effort to be able to spend as much time as possible with them. We're all going out to an early Mother's Day dinner Saturday night at Bricco's, this fantastic Italian restaurant in the North End that my mom's always wanted us to take her to, so that will be nice.

Now that the weather's finally warming up, I am resolved to walk as many places as possible instead of driving. My getting of exercise recently has been very spotty, so I want to overhaul my schedule to make sure I make time for it. And not using my car for everything will help, I think. In the cold times I use Constantine just to avoid freezing my tail off. And to be honest, since getting a job my free time has been a lot scarcer, so I find myself not wanting to waste it in extended transit if possible, so I drive just to get from one thing to another more quickly. But that's not good for my health or my wallet. I am resolved to get back in shape this summer, and this seems like an excellent place to start.

Nesty-nesty

Been feeling very... nesty... lately. I keep messing around with things in my space, trying to make them look nicer or get them more organized or cleaner or what have you. It started with just putting away all my winter coats and packing up all my sweaters for the summer. Then, itching to do more, I rearranged my bookshelves, organized my closet, and lined up my shoes. This afternoon, now that the sweaters are out of the way, I intend to redistribute the clothes in my dresser so that they're not so crammed into the drawers. It may get cold enough in the near future for me to need access to my sweaters again, but I'm hoping I can make do with just jackets and pashminas. I am thoroughly sick of the cold, and of the articles of clothing it has forced me to wear for so long.

I'm just feeling unusually compelled to get my living space in order. I'm not sure what brought all this on. I'm feeling particularly cramped by disorder, clutter, and stuff. It might be a reaction to stress, manifesting in cleaning, organizing, and the extreme desire to get rid of ugly and junky things. As I've mentioned before, completing domestic tasks to good effect has a soothing effect on me, so perhaps that's why.

Stuff I'm doing

So I noticed that I wrote significantly fewer public entries in my LJ this past April than I did in March. I wonder if this, combined with ultimatepsi*'s suggestion that people may be reading my cross-posts to Google Buzz instead, contributed to my decreased number of hits between those two months. It would make sense.

Just finished my part of a fairly major project at work. Now I'm in the stage where I don't have anything particularly significant to do until I'm given a new assignment. It's a nice little reward for finishing. I plan to enjoy it until something new is dropped on me.

We are now at the stage of Labor Wars where we are editing sheet so that they may soon be sent out. All the first-run characters are written now, and most of the replacements too. I am very much looking forward to casting. Alleged Entertainment has a strict policy of casting "by the numbers," meaning that whenever possible characters are assigned based on how closely the numbers given on the questionnaire match up with the ratings for each of the characters' traits. It's a good system that has served them well in the past, and is probably more reliable than my occasional tendency to go with my gut. ;-)

For the first time in forever, I wore a skirt today. I've worn a skirt for the odd dress-up occasion in the past few months, but this is the first time it's been part of my regular outfit. Despite the rain today, it's actually warm enough for it, and I am sick to death of being cold. My pallid legs startle me with their stark whiteness, though God knows that's the typical state of them.

Household items for the coming year

Elsinore has had a lot happen to fix it up recently. We got our new windows, which are lovely, and I am quite optimistic that they'll do a lot to reduce the heating bill. Won't know for sure until it gets cold again, but I'm the last person on Earth to complain about warm weather. :-) The basement has been cleaned up since the time it flooded over Intercon weekend, and should now be more resistant if that much water ever happens again. And today a mason came to repair the deterioration on the front steps as well as to patch some spots on the chimney. I am pleased by these improvements and hope my soon-to-be-roommates are too.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what household items, specifically furniture and kitchen appliances, that will be departing when some of my current roommates move out. I just got my not-large but still appreciated tax refund, which I divided equally between savings, rent, and checking, and decided to use the amount that went to checking to buy new dinner plates. They are not gorgeous, and cost a bit more than I expected them to, but I got twelve good-sized and perfectly serviceable white china dinner plates from the restaurant supply store on Water Street. I figured that plates were the most essential pieces that would be leaving, and therefore should be the first thing to replace.

We housemates for the coming year should really start talking about this. We should at least begin to figure out who can bring what, and who will buy what of the things that no one already has. I also suddenly recalled the kitchen things my parents meant to give me but I never brought up because they would have been superflous, but now can fill in for departing items. My parents should be coming up to help my brother move out of his dorm next week, so I must remember to ask them to bring them along.

Griping as head goes *pound pound pound*

After over a week of exhaustion and stress, I feel particularly lousy today. There is a low-grade headache in the top right side of my head that isn't as bad as it was last night, but still hasn't gone away even after a night's sleep.

I spent last night helping Jared work out the writing of his thesis. The first half was due today, and he used me as a sounding board to figure out the structure and flow. I agreed to read it once he was done and make suggestions as if I were the theoretical "mean, lazy, and stupid" reader that his professors warned him to write for. At some point I noticed I had developed a halo in my left eye. This has happened to me before and gone away on its own, so I wasn't too worried, more annoyed because I knew it would make it difficult to read. Then the headache set in, starting high on the right side of my head and spreading to just behind my hairline. I drank tea and grumbled as Jared finished the first part of his paper. The halo eventually went away, thankfully, and I read the paper and I think made some helpful comments. It really is a good work; I'm incredibly proud of him. Just one more section to go, and the second part is supposed to be easier than the first.

As I lay in bed that night, still headachey and now with nausea settling in, I wondered idly if I had a brain aneurysm. I was tired enough that I decided if I woke up dead the next morning, well, at least I'd get to sleep in.

Well, needless to say I did not wake up dead. Head still hurts, though, so perhaps my aneurysm is just a lazy-ass that's taking it's own sweet time to kill me. I feel zombie-like, quite useless for any form of productivity.

Traffic on my Livejournal has dropped drastically from last month to this. I am depressed about it. Maybe I've been less interesting. I feel less interesting, so it would not surprise me if my entries were becoming less so as well. I even look less interesting; I think the look of tiredness that's been dogging me makes me appear ten years older.

I think I need to take it easy for a little while. This week I shall do things to take care of me. I have a couple of minor social things I'd like to indulge in. I have a hot date, heehee, with blendedchaitea* this coming Friday night that we've been meaning to have for a while, and I've been meaning to have Michael Hyde over for dinner sometime, so that would be an enjoyable way to spend an evening. Maybe I need to just take a little time to pull myself together. At least until this heavy, overwhelmed feeling goes away.