Eseme's Den

So, not really work safe either.

Hilairous though. I'd be one of the two, and I am fun at the begining of the evening.

*Hums* Sooooo fine!

( You Tube behind the cut for f-lists )

I was in Rochester on Sunday. Just Sunday, and the day was very full. But oh, it was great!

I had brunch in Ithaca with lissa_dora, which was yummy and included fun conversation. That really kept up all day, and I really loved that because I don't get to just talk to people as much as I would like (what with not having close friends in town).

Then we arrived in Rochester, and after a lightning fast trip to the mall (she shops like a guy and has mall geography- it was a thing of pure precision), we got to visit moriden. I've really missed my panther, and this made me very happy.

Then we drove to jilliko and netbard's house. Changeling! I have not LARPed since May, and the opportunity to do so was just what I needed. I took my concept from another Changeling: The Lost and had the fun of dumping a bunch of XP on her. And LARPing in a non-college setting was so much nicer- we could eat, drink, and be merry with much more ease. And what food! Oh it was great.

Sadly, I began to get something like a migraine in the middle of game. I didn't feel too bad, and certainly didn't want to miss any game. By the time we left though, I had a problem. I'd eaten a bunch of rich food (I love good food) and had a headache that included some sensitivity to light and sound and a bit of nausea. And that was before I got in a car. I get motion sickness in anything that moves, save a train. I have some medication that helps, and some extremely effective wristband things (which I wore on a bus ride earlier in the week and was fine).

But, well... the motion of the car just did me in. *sigh* I feel very guilty about that, especially as I got a brief glimpse of where I was and it seemed to be Twelve Corners. I spent most of the ride with my eyes closed. It was the most discomfort I've ever experienced over such a long period of time while traveling.

But the day I had was well worth it. Just wonderful on so many levels.

And today! I ended up staying the night at lissa_dora's since what should have been a two hour drive turned into three and a half. And after work today...

My art is here!

I ordered prints from haikujaguar and they arrived! I first asked for Forgotten Garden, which is lovely and ethereal. I also got a few mini-prints off her brand new printer which produces vivid colors. And there was a sketch! One that I will have to find online to figure out which sketch I ended up with a print of (there are MANY on her site). It's an elf, in a library!

So Much Goodness!

Tomorrow is Lobby Day.

The day that I, and hundreds of other librarians from all over New York State, travel to Albany to talk to our elected leaders about the importance of funding for libraries.

If anyone can hear us over the hordes of reporters trying to talk to our governor.

*sigh*

Timing.

And I thought the bus ride was going to be the hard part.

The first of many, I hope.

lissa_dora came to visit yesterday, and left this afternoon. The time between really flew by (we kept looking at clocks and being surprised). My pasta sauce turned out well, and I was fortunate enough to find my favorite secret ingredient at the local kitchen shop (the owner thought she was out, but was able to find a jar in the back room). Food was yummy, and there was much celebrating. And talking- we chatted and ate or chatted and crafted (she can knit lying down!) nearly the entire visit (with a quick field trip to the library today to check out the display of the local fiber arts guild's work). Pancakes for breakfast, with jam and syrup and goodness. Middle-eastern style lunch. And speaking of jam, I now have three open jars of yummy gourmet jam (not the on peanut butter sandwiches type but the good on English muffins type).

I have a lovely new potholder/dishrag in shades of purple. It will totally match either my two purple and blue waffle-weave dishtowels or the two with cats on them. I quite like the pattern- I should be able to knit one in oatmeal and light green to match the current dishtowel rotation. Also a lovely hand towel for the bathroom (though it is very nice and would make a lovely runner on my dresser where it would get less mussed-up). And soap and tea and cookies and an art tile and more Celtic knot earrings (this makes three pair!). Oh, and chcolate. My house has been warmed! Thanks lissa_dora!

I've just spent the last three hours trying to get my crochet to behave and be roughly the same size as the other bag panel I have already made. It's been annoying, but I think I have managed to get close the the gauge of the part I worked on in Maine.

And I have had some very happy moments unpacking. Last week I managed to find the Celtic knot earrings I bought in Scotland and was beginning to fear were lost for good. I had looked everywhere, and then this little Asian-style pouch turned up. I've very pleased. I also opened a box marked "Fragile, 9/05" and found that I own a small version of the red dragon I bought moriden for his birthday. Neat! The same box has my little amethyst and wire tree, a glass dragon Apl bought me at one of the Disney parks, a pewter leaf ornament M gave me, and all sorts of assorted little things I haven't seen in years. I nearly opened the box while lissa_dora was here, when I needed a break from crochet. It is a happy box.

So I wanted some background noise while unpacking books.

The new Knight Rider is more entertaining than unpacking.

Da-yum, it's sexy.

And apparently Val Kilmer provides the voice of the car. Very cool credits.

I know people are curious about my first week of work. And I will post about that, under some sort of friends-lock... at some point.

Right now I've just completed an unsuccessful search for my hammer. It has to be somewhere with my good screwdriver... and I can't find it anywhere. Possibly it is still in the Panther's Lair, and I can retrieve it in the future. Which doesn't help me now, when I want to assemble two bookcases which will have cardboard that gets nailed to the back of them.

I'm going to have to buy another hammer, because I just can't sit here with this many boxes much longer. The local hardware store is going out of business (the owner is retiring) so I can get one at something like half off. But still, buying another hammer is silly.

I've been hemorrhaging money, trying to either replace things I couldn't take out of the apartment in Buffalo (like bookcases) or get new things that I need in this apartment due to space issues (storage thing for the bathroom because it is half the size of the one I had in Buffalo, and a fake closet unit so I can store costuming stuff).

*sigh* I just feel like I'm not getting anything accomplished here, and there will always be boxes.

*sigh*

This is a stealth post from work. I'm technically on lunch.

So I somehow failed to pack the power cord for my computer. It's being mailed to me from Maine. So while I now have Roadrunner, I can't really USE it.

*sigh*

Job is very great thus far. I've got a meeting tomorrow at breakfast, another one next week... a Board meeting sometime, and I'll be going to a conference in Lake George in April. Plus I should be able to attend both cons this Spring (SimCon in Rochester and UBCon in Buffalo) and the library thinks of it as vaguely job related. And I got flowers! And have two adult programming events to run, one this month and one in April. And I may be the kinda-sorta YA librarian, at least as far as events and programming go.

Other than the internet mess, life is good.

But I will be scarce online, because I can't get on the internet after work on a public terminal, because I am here until the library closes...

The drive yesterday sucked. We were up at 8:00, and left the hotel around 9:30. Then chipped ice of the vehicles for half an hour. We arrived in Sidney around 2:00 - the drive was long and slow and icy and scary. We got to see a jack-knifed tractor trailer on 88 (thankfully it was southbound and we were northbound). The trailer was still going southbound. The cab was going northbound right next to it on the edge of a steep embankment. The driver was very lucky not to have gone over and rolled. As it was the local police looked to have no idea how to get it off the edge. It continued to rain as we unloaded the U-Haul trailer.

All the stuff is in the apartment. I just need to excavate. Dad says it is sort of like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom...

One thing I really need to find is the hardware that holds together the futon I slept on in Buffalo. My parents gave me another one, so I've got that set up for my bed. But it would be nice to have a sofa-like thing int he living room, plus lissa_dora might want to sleep on it when she visits. I'll still have my nifty fold-out chair, but I like to give guests options. And I can't find that hardware- not int he "Useful Stuff" box, and not in a few other bags and boxes that have screws and other hardware. I know it will turn up, along with the screwdriver I use to assemble to futon, but I'm not sure WHEN it will show up. Dad recons I have a month of unpacking ahead of me...

The kitchen is mostly done though- just need to go buy food for the fridge and pantry shelf. The tea shelf is rather full, as is the mug shelf. I have obvious priorities.

Today I hope to get most of my clothes situated- which will involve moving closet-organizer stuff around.

I plan to try and get my TV and bunny ears set up too. It would be nice to watch the Superbowl at home so as not to meet any rabid Giants fans. But Fox is channel 40 around here, and bunny ears are often not that good at getting high-numbered channels.

I'm getting internet at my lovely local library, who were nice enough to let me work in someone's office (it was that or the reference desk as all the other computers are reserved- and I don't start work until Monday).

No more internet for me until after work on Monday.

I am supposed to be packing. I am packing. Really. I'm using my parents' computer because mine is shut down and due to be packed.

But something WONDERFUL has happened.

I found it!

Isn't that great?




Erm, backstory. While I was in England I became good friend with a wonderful artist who painted me a lovely little painting of a fairy. It's this beautiful little watercolor. I took it with me back to America. And I thought I took it to my college dorm room. But then I moved ino to RIT for grad school, I couldn't find it.

I have packed, moved, and unpacked so many times since returning from England. I knew I wouldn't have thrown it out. It's precious. But I couldn't FIND it. I had been hoping that once I got all my belongings in one place in New York after this move that it would turn up.

And today I went through the contents of my nightstand to pack... and there it was, along with a few other relics form my days in England. It never left Maine!

I finally found your gift, pelelandra! I'll have it framed once I get paid.

For those interested, it is here: http://www.elfwood.com/art/n/n/nnatalia/varda.jpg.html

In other news, I also unearthed some Branston Sandwich Pickle. I think I intended to surprise my family with it (it's so yummy) but I forgot to. Hrm. Best Before FEB 2003. It's pickled vegetables. It's got tons of vinegar in it. It must be still good. I think I'll risk it.

Ingredients:
Vegetables in variable proportion (Carrots, Cauliflower, Gherkins, Marrows, Onions, Rutabaga, Tomatoes), Sugar, Vinegar, Dates, Salt, Apple, Modified Startch, Lemon Juice, Colour, Spices, Garlic Extract

See? Two acids in there, plus salt. Must be still good. It will make wonderful lunches on bagels with extra sharp cheddar. Your cheeks hurt eating it because your mouth is trying to implode. Mmmmmmmmm, tangy!

Moving is like an abyss, but without cookies. Hence the icon.

Moving sucks. The current game plan:

I work today. I may get a few more boxes packed. This is my last day of work.

Monday I pack. I madly pack. All must be packed.

Tuesday Dad acquires a U-Haul trailer. And we load it up with the stuff here in Maine. This includes some furniture which I either bough from the L.L. Bean employee store, or was handed down from my parents or grandparents.

Wednesday Dad and I drive to Small Town, New York. I'm not saying where that is in a public post- do not tell the internet where you are. We unload the trailer as fast as we can and try and drive to Syracuse by 8:00 or 9:00 PM to sleep.

Thursday we drive from Syracuse to Buffalo and all my stuff in storage. We work very hard to get it all packed up, so that I don't have to pay for another day of storage (this would be the 31st of January). Then we drive to Rochester to get stuff from the Panther's closet. He will now have a closet again. Then we go to a hotel and sleep.

Friday- well, we might end up getting stuff from the Panther on this day, depending on how loading the U-Haul went the day before. We then drive back to Small Town. We unload as much as we can. I would love to return the trailer to U-Haul on this day, so we pay for one less day of use. That may or may not work out.

Saturday we either keep unloading the trailer, or start arraigning my apartment. By this point it will be a sea of boxes and unassembled futons. Dad will have to leave sometime around 1:00 PM as he has an early-morning appointment in Massachusetts on Sunday. This is when I would have liked Time Warner to show up and turn on my cable and internet, but they don't do house calls on weekends (so I've decided to give them less money in return for less service).

Sunday I will try and listen to the Superbowl on the radio while I unpack. My parents are Patriots fans, living in Maine and all. My mom is a bigger fan than I knew- Dad bought her a Patriots sweatshirt and she wears it while she watches games. I find that a little alarming... Anyway, this really matters to her, so I want to know what's going on. I'd rather not go to a sports bar or something deep in Giants country and root for the Patriots. Sounds hazardous to my life. Besides, this way I can unpack at the same time!

I start work Monday.

People reading this in Rochester or Buffalo might think: "Hey, she'll be in town. We could have dinner with her or something." That's a great thought. But I'll be insanely busy, and will likely be moving stuff until after dinnertime, then sleeping and getting up at hours my father considers morning and I really don't. Plus all this fun will be happening at the worst possible time of the month for me to be doing heavy lifting. So I'll be frazzled, snippy, and possibly screaming at times. Plus, we might not even have time, given the schedule we will be working on. Sorry!

I hope to make it to Rochester for SimCon, but I may not have any vacation time then, so I can't be sure at this point. I do know I will have a small housewarming party later in February, consisting of me and lissa_dora. Hey, I said small! This will be kind of odd for me.

I don't get visitors. When I lived at RIT, I had people other than me in my apartment about twice in the year I lived there. When I lived in my first off-campus apartment I had visitors more often, but tended to weird them out by being a hostess. I'd try and have nice food and stuff to do- for them it wasn't an occasion but it was for me since no one ever came in my place and saw my stuff. But I had people other than me in my apartment maybe ten times out of that year.

Visitors were common at Frank and Suzzanne's place, but they were generally in the public areas of the house, not my little room. I dated a viking who turned out to be smarmy- he saw my room but almost no one else did. I had no visitors while I lived in Buffalo at all, with the exception of one weekend when the Panther came and by then the apartment was such a mess that he was kind of alarmed. "Can't move, stuff might eat me." Well yes, but when you live in a place where no one else has been for over a year, you get in the habit of leaving piles of stuff lying about because it is easier than cleaning up and no one else will see. And since I was only in that Buffalo apartment for about half the week anyway, I wasn't really living there myself.

So, a new apartment, and a visitor who has never seen any of my belongings. My inner hostess is channeling Martha Stewart and trying to decorate, thinking about what china I have and do I have wine glasses, planning some sort of menu, and trying to make me nervous a month in advance. I'm trying to shove her in a box. We'll see if that works. Someday I'd really like people dropping by to be a normal thing as opposed to an occasion.