Eseme's Den

I have finally gotten some reading time! This is sometimes a distressingly rare thing for me. While Panther was here, I finished Sharon Lee's Carousel Tides.

I've enjoyed it. It is an urban fantasy, I suppose, although the setting is decidedly non-urban (a small town on the coast of Maine that is a tourist mecca in the summer and full of boarded up storefronts in the winter). It is a fun tale, though I must admit it resonated more for me because I have been to Old Orchard Beach (for the book release party). The town in the book is based off OOB, and having seen the town I could envision it full of strange inhabitants and unusual events (I am working on a supremely long travel post about OOB, which will probably be of interest to no one other than me).

As for Carousel Tides:

Kate Archer was the Guardian of the Land in Archer's Beach, until she did something she felt was unforgivable, cut her ties with the Land, and fled to the southwest deserts to slowly die. She reluctantly returns when the management of the Fun Country amusement park inform her that rent on the carousel is past due. And Kate can't reach her grandmother, who should be running the carousel. The carousel needs to be tended to - it is no ordinary carousel, and Kate is not certain she can keep the other-worldly criminals who are bound to it in line. The past returns to haunt her and there are threats, both of this world and of others, taking advantage of the Guardian's absence.

The holidays were great this year. I picked up Panther in Rochester on Yule, and got to have him at my place for a couple of days, which was cool.

The weather on the 24th was supposed to involve freezing rain. This posed a problem, as we were due to travel to Maine that day. So I got out of work a bit early (I'll work extra hours this week) and we left on the 23rd. This resulted in an extra day of just relaxing at my parents' place, which was lovely.

Christmas itself was rather minimalist. I got a number of neat things (including jewelry and art) from my family. We then went to my cousins' place, where Christmas was decidedly less minimalist (and not as nice, I thought).

I then got to drag Panther all over the mid-coast area visiting friends and shopping. Much fun was had by all.

The return trip today was wonderful driving, thanks to the unseasonable thaw.

oh, and I had essentially no internet access during this time - if anything important happened, let me know.

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!

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.

Currently very full of food and listening to my parents watch Pirates of the Carribian for the first time.

I went to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins today with my family (and since I dragged Panther along we outnumbered the other side of the family for the first time ever).

Happy Holidays to freinds - I've got many all over the globe.

Colleen and I finally met up Friday with the rest of her Powerpuff Posse from work. We went to Friendly's and had food and fun. Colleen decided she wanted me around for the weekend- I take a really long time to do anything, and me taking my time would slow her down and get her to relax. So I stayed on the couch Friday night, and spent most of the day Saturday watching Colleen in pre-trip mode.

We had breakfast with Wade at Perkin's, a resteraunt I remember as a treat when visiting my grandmother in Iowa. I didn't realize they were this far east. Yummy trippleberry syrup. Mmmmmmmmm. Then we went to the mall to froof. I had my hair trimmed a bit and braided in a crown around my head. Colleen had hers trimmed and washed and came out looking lovely. Then we had out nails done. My fingernails are shiny and opal-like, while my toenails are purple!!!! PURPLE!!!! I love having very purple toenails. Yay!

We stopped and got a few other travel essentials for Colleen, then tried to have ice cream with Aaron. This didn't work out so we grabbed Kevin and Berardi instead. Colleen's favorite ice cream place turns out to be Berardi's favorite too, and I must agree that they had some wonderful flavors and were exceedingly generous with the servings. Brain got a large- 5 scoops, and we sang him Happy Birthday while he tried to finish it. He probably would have if Colleen hadn't needed to pack and the cone hadn't fallen apart under the weight of the ice cream.

Then Brian and I went to Sabbat while Colleen packed. There was a big battle with what was left of the Inquisition, and they lost. It took AGES for the battle to start, and once it did Di ended up shooting people rather then hitting them because she was not in the first wave of people through the door and could not really get close to anyone. I left once it was over.

We got up ass-early to get Colleen to the airport. She's going to be the prettiest woman getting off the plane in Georgia, and I hope she has a wonderful vacation. She really deserves one.

I wanted to see Sinbad today, but there are no shows after 5:00. So I'll probably see Tomb Raider. I doubt it will matter that I haven't seen the first one.

The only sad note of the weekend was coming in to work on AI and finding a dead bird on the stairs of Building 70. Finding dead animals is a disturbing trend that has to stop.