Hey look, it's Rick, he's alive...
Well, sort of. I knew the last time many of you saw me I was undead. ;-)
The last week and a half have been... interesting; as in, "May you live in interesting times". The last week of work prepping for vacation was really rough. I just didn't have the time or stamina for an LJ post. I was constantly going trying to get everything done at work I needed to before leaving. I failed. I'm sure the ramifications of that will come back to haunt me when I get back, but right now, frankly, I just don't care.
While doing the long hours at work, I was also trying to get stuff done at home to prep for vacation and for NERO. Let's visit NERO first. sans_peur and I had collaborated heavily on a multi-faceted plotline that kind of went so far afield (due to player action), it wasn't funny. I had some fantastic roleplay with players as my undead. I just couldn't get my mods off the ground.
I'll come back to Saturday day later. Saturday night I was out as my undead again trying to pull my side of the plot back on track. It was fairly obvious to me that it wasn't going to happen and sans_peur and I came up with alternative plans. It was a great deal of fun harassing the players in the big Saturday night dragon fight. At this point, I deeply regret not being true to the character and doing some really harsh things that I could have done, but I suspect the players would have been really upset, in spite of the fact that they really earned my character's wrath. It would have been gloriously ugly though. Again I was up way too late. I saw the sun coming up on the other side of my usual wake up time and I hadn't gone to bed yet. I'm still paying for that.
Sunday morning I did prep work for the mod I had promised I'd do for bakeneko. Lots of wasted time as she couldn't get things going with the players she'd lined up for it Friday night. Oh well, there's next event. After doing some cleanup around monster camp, I decided I'd crunch in the last battle. I ended up doing the small fight with Don throwing myself over and over again against Capulus. I think that was the ultimate definition of frustration and futility. I found myself coming out at them shaking my head and wondering why, but it was worth it when their leader said, "It's nice to be in a good, clean fight with no head shots or charging". I may not be any good as a fighter and I may not be a challenge, but I do follow the rules. I mean, what's the point of breaking the rules and giving an unsafe fight just because you're going to lose?
Dinner after was awesome, even if I was falling asleep through half of it. Thank goodness I wasn't driving back to Wallingford. I'm not sure I'd have made it.
So, Saturday...which actually begins Friday. My plans for the weekend were to drive my van to Franklin. Monique was going to drive up to Franklin with Chris after he got out of work and stay at a hotel near the site. I was going to go stay in the hotel with her when I got out of game. Monique and I were going to go to NH Saturday together in my van and we'd go back to Franklin from there. She would take my van home Saturday night. Chris would bring me home on Sunday. This would minimize the vehicle movement over a long distance and cut down the amount of time anyone was driving alone.
Um, yeah, the best laid plans and all that. Friday just before I was ready to leave for Franklin, I got a call. Long story short, Chris wasn't going to NERO this weekend, not my story to tell. The bottom line for Monique and I is sudden travel plan shifting. Here's what we worked out. The stuff I needed for Saturday I left in the van in the parking lot at work in Wallingford CT. I went up a couple hours later than planned with sans_peru to NERO, putting all my game stuff in her van. This worked well because we work in the same place. Monique was going to drive her car to Wallingford and then drive my van up to Franklin, pick me up at the site, go to the hotel, NH on Saturday, back to Franklin Saturday night, she would take the van home, sans_peur would take me to Wallingford Sunday and I'd drive Monique's car home from there. Part of this revised plan is because Monique's car is fairly old and we try to avoid putting miles on it if we can help it.
So, um, yeah. Monique comes to the site Saturday night at 1:00 am as planned. I'm a half hour late finishing up, which as you might imagine at that hour does not make her happy, even if a half hour behind at NERO is pretty darned good. On top of that, she parked at the entrance, instead of at the parking lot, making me walk farther and take longer. And then (drum roll please), she's there with her car. I asked her where the van was and she said she decided to just come right up in her car rather than do the swapping. I asked her if she got the messages I left on her phone and she said yeah, but figured I just didn't feel like driving in her car and it would save time for her to just come right up. The time differential in the trade-offs is probably 10 minutes.
My clothes for the memorial service, my flutes, stand and music were all in the van in CT, over an hour and a half south, the wrong way. I have to be at the rehearsal for the service Saturday at 11:30. Monique broke down and cried. I told her I'd take her to the hotel and drive down alone, but she wouldn't hear of it. She wouldn't even let me drive. Talk about a suck ass way to end a day when you're both so tired you can barely function, never mind have to drive an additional hour and a half. We made it, somehow, and took a hotel in Wallingford, figuring we'd get 4 hours sleep there and then drive to NH in the morning, which is what we did. Yup, we paid for two hotel rooms Saturday night.
We made the rehearsal with about 15 minutes to spare. It was wonderful seeing some of my old friends from the flute crowd in NH. I wish it had been under better circumstances, like not a memorial service for a friend of 26 years at which I was so tired I could barely stand, but it was wonderful anyway. The service itself was really nice and the widow, one of my closest friends, was appreciative of our presence. I don't think she really thought we'd come on such short notice, but I really couldn't have done anything less. I have discovered that it's really, really hard to play when you're crying. There was one piece in the middle we did that was so gorgeous and thinking about why we were playing it just pushed me over the edge. I don't know how I managed to keep going on that one. Overall, the music was some of the best I've ever participated in, It's a rare occurrence to play with a group of professionals that just fall together so naturally and perfectly.
We went out to dinner with the brother, his dog, his girlfriend and our mom after. It was a nice slow relaxing let down before going back to the game, at which I fell into a four hour long nap before going back into game (see above).
Monique left for MD Sunday morning with two of her employees, so I was alone Sunday night (well, except for Sasha). I crashed hard and slept in until 9:40 Monday morning, 12 hours. I haven't done that (except for being sick) in forever, if ever. I'm just not that much of a sleeper, but I've been burning the candle at both ends and in the middle for 11 months and my body is going to be a while getting over that. I got just about nothing done on Monday and ended up taking a nap in the afternoon. The plan was Monday for packing and heading down to MD to join Monique. This did not happen. I crashed Monday night again and slept in until 8:30 Tuesday morning. I could get used to this schedule.
I spent Tuesday morning cuddling the cat, running errands, playing with the cat, cleaning the house and packing for the trip. After cuddling the cat and making sure she had enough food and water for a few days (just in case), I headed out for MD. NY took about 1/2 hour more than it should have. I started getting a migraine just after I got into NJ. Fortunately, I was just coming up on a rest area. I stopped and got some extra strength pain reliever and crashed in the car for about 20 minutes, just long enough for the initial signs (numbness and blurry vision) to go away and give the drugs a chance at the headache. The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful and it took me a grand total of about 6 1/2 hours to make the trip. I got here just in time to go out to dinner with Monique and her two co-workers.
I'm not going to talk about work because it will upset me, so moving on to today. I slept in until after 8:30, went to IHOP for breakfast, shopped the Barnes & Noble at the mall next door and here I am doing my first update in a week and a half. I'll be here for a couple of days and then off to Baltimore for an 8 day cruise to Canada.
The last week and a half have been... interesting; as in, "May you live in interesting times". The last week of work prepping for vacation was really rough. I just didn't have the time or stamina for an LJ post. I was constantly going trying to get everything done at work I needed to before leaving. I failed. I'm sure the ramifications of that will come back to haunt me when I get back, but right now, frankly, I just don't care.
While doing the long hours at work, I was also trying to get stuff done at home to prep for vacation and for NERO. Let's visit NERO first. sans_peur and I had collaborated heavily on a multi-faceted plotline that kind of went so far afield (due to player action), it wasn't funny. I had some fantastic roleplay with players as my undead. I just couldn't get my mods off the ground.
I'll come back to Saturday day later. Saturday night I was out as my undead again trying to pull my side of the plot back on track. It was fairly obvious to me that it wasn't going to happen and sans_peur and I came up with alternative plans. It was a great deal of fun harassing the players in the big Saturday night dragon fight. At this point, I deeply regret not being true to the character and doing some really harsh things that I could have done, but I suspect the players would have been really upset, in spite of the fact that they really earned my character's wrath. It would have been gloriously ugly though. Again I was up way too late. I saw the sun coming up on the other side of my usual wake up time and I hadn't gone to bed yet. I'm still paying for that.
Sunday morning I did prep work for the mod I had promised I'd do for bakeneko. Lots of wasted time as she couldn't get things going with the players she'd lined up for it Friday night. Oh well, there's next event. After doing some cleanup around monster camp, I decided I'd crunch in the last battle. I ended up doing the small fight with Don throwing myself over and over again against Capulus. I think that was the ultimate definition of frustration and futility. I found myself coming out at them shaking my head and wondering why, but it was worth it when their leader said, "It's nice to be in a good, clean fight with no head shots or charging". I may not be any good as a fighter and I may not be a challenge, but I do follow the rules. I mean, what's the point of breaking the rules and giving an unsafe fight just because you're going to lose?
Dinner after was awesome, even if I was falling asleep through half of it. Thank goodness I wasn't driving back to Wallingford. I'm not sure I'd have made it.
So, Saturday...which actually begins Friday. My plans for the weekend were to drive my van to Franklin. Monique was going to drive up to Franklin with Chris after he got out of work and stay at a hotel near the site. I was going to go stay in the hotel with her when I got out of game. Monique and I were going to go to NH Saturday together in my van and we'd go back to Franklin from there. She would take my van home Saturday night. Chris would bring me home on Sunday. This would minimize the vehicle movement over a long distance and cut down the amount of time anyone was driving alone.
Um, yeah, the best laid plans and all that. Friday just before I was ready to leave for Franklin, I got a call. Long story short, Chris wasn't going to NERO this weekend, not my story to tell. The bottom line for Monique and I is sudden travel plan shifting. Here's what we worked out. The stuff I needed for Saturday I left in the van in the parking lot at work in Wallingford CT. I went up a couple hours later than planned with sans_peru to NERO, putting all my game stuff in her van. This worked well because we work in the same place. Monique was going to drive her car to Wallingford and then drive my van up to Franklin, pick me up at the site, go to the hotel, NH on Saturday, back to Franklin Saturday night, she would take the van home, sans_peur would take me to Wallingford Sunday and I'd drive Monique's car home from there. Part of this revised plan is because Monique's car is fairly old and we try to avoid putting miles on it if we can help it.
So, um, yeah. Monique comes to the site Saturday night at 1:00 am as planned. I'm a half hour late finishing up, which as you might imagine at that hour does not make her happy, even if a half hour behind at NERO is pretty darned good. On top of that, she parked at the entrance, instead of at the parking lot, making me walk farther and take longer. And then (drum roll please), she's there with her car. I asked her where the van was and she said she decided to just come right up in her car rather than do the swapping. I asked her if she got the messages I left on her phone and she said yeah, but figured I just didn't feel like driving in her car and it would save time for her to just come right up. The time differential in the trade-offs is probably 10 minutes.
My clothes for the memorial service, my flutes, stand and music were all in the van in CT, over an hour and a half south, the wrong way. I have to be at the rehearsal for the service Saturday at 11:30. Monique broke down and cried. I told her I'd take her to the hotel and drive down alone, but she wouldn't hear of it. She wouldn't even let me drive. Talk about a suck ass way to end a day when you're both so tired you can barely function, never mind have to drive an additional hour and a half. We made it, somehow, and took a hotel in Wallingford, figuring we'd get 4 hours sleep there and then drive to NH in the morning, which is what we did. Yup, we paid for two hotel rooms Saturday night.
We made the rehearsal with about 15 minutes to spare. It was wonderful seeing some of my old friends from the flute crowd in NH. I wish it had been under better circumstances, like not a memorial service for a friend of 26 years at which I was so tired I could barely stand, but it was wonderful anyway. The service itself was really nice and the widow, one of my closest friends, was appreciative of our presence. I don't think she really thought we'd come on such short notice, but I really couldn't have done anything less. I have discovered that it's really, really hard to play when you're crying. There was one piece in the middle we did that was so gorgeous and thinking about why we were playing it just pushed me over the edge. I don't know how I managed to keep going on that one. Overall, the music was some of the best I've ever participated in, It's a rare occurrence to play with a group of professionals that just fall together so naturally and perfectly.
We went out to dinner with the brother, his dog, his girlfriend and our mom after. It was a nice slow relaxing let down before going back to the game, at which I fell into a four hour long nap before going back into game (see above).
Monique left for MD Sunday morning with two of her employees, so I was alone Sunday night (well, except for Sasha). I crashed hard and slept in until 9:40 Monday morning, 12 hours. I haven't done that (except for being sick) in forever, if ever. I'm just not that much of a sleeper, but I've been burning the candle at both ends and in the middle for 11 months and my body is going to be a while getting over that. I got just about nothing done on Monday and ended up taking a nap in the afternoon. The plan was Monday for packing and heading down to MD to join Monique. This did not happen. I crashed Monday night again and slept in until 8:30 Tuesday morning. I could get used to this schedule.
I spent Tuesday morning cuddling the cat, running errands, playing with the cat, cleaning the house and packing for the trip. After cuddling the cat and making sure she had enough food and water for a few days (just in case), I headed out for MD. NY took about 1/2 hour more than it should have. I started getting a migraine just after I got into NJ. Fortunately, I was just coming up on a rest area. I stopped and got some extra strength pain reliever and crashed in the car for about 20 minutes, just long enough for the initial signs (numbness and blurry vision) to go away and give the drugs a chance at the headache. The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful and it took me a grand total of about 6 1/2 hours to make the trip. I got here just in time to go out to dinner with Monique and her two co-workers.
I'm not going to talk about work because it will upset me, so moving on to today. I slept in until after 8:30, went to IHOP for breakfast, shopped the Barnes & Noble at the mall next door and here I am doing my first update in a week and a half. I'll be here for a couple of days and then off to Baltimore for an 8 day cruise to Canada.