Blast; can't find this or that.
9/16: Woke up before 4 to start an annoying coughing pattern. Was able to clear back out with constant drinking. Forgot dreams. Cuddly wakeup. Nothing significant during the day, mostly digging through piles. Sweetheart stayed late-ish at work. We went to Atlantic Station, got her shoes and last-minute things, and celebrated National Guacamole Day at Rosa Mexicana. Stayed up late packing and organizing.
9/17: Woke up around 5 for more coughing. Forgot dreams again. Decided to skip Zumba due to pending stuff. Talked to John about character creation, got different ideas about upcoming game. Had brunch (?) at Einstein, swooped by Target to pick up a few more traveling necessities, headed home. Lots of hugginess. Drove Sweetheart to the airport, waited around for the last few minutes, saw her off. Drove back vaguely home-ish with a concerned eye on the ever-sinking gas gauge. Made it to Kroger, had lunch, went shopping, went to fill up, realized Kroger was one of the stations doing no regular unleaded, premium and diesel only. Drove down the hill to QuikTrip. I had relatively little problem finding a pump and filling partway up (only 10 gallons; I expect to use shuttles most of next week, and hope the prices go down in the near future), but everyone was really tense and aggressive, lots of other people were honking and I heard someone shouting when someone else got in their way. Home to a relative peace. Not nearly enough time to finish what I wanted. Rode with James to Publix for him to pick up ice cream, passed a massive wreck, made it to Jen’s house. Nice potluck gathering, fun discussion, two incomplete games of Exploding Kittens, and a lot of talk about next season’s game. James almost drove us to his house before I reminded him I was in the car.
9/18: Home was empty, and deafeningly quiet. Stayed up and online for the next few hours seeing if I could catch a glimpse of Sweetheart, but no luck. Headed to bed; luckily, no monsters in the dark this time. In high school gymnasium, where they’re handing out schedules. Different classes have their own mini-mascots (all mythological: minotaur, dragon, etc), and people are oddly tribal about such. I go outside and start searching; it’s dark for some reason {possibly related to how the Buffy crew kept being on-campus at night}, and there’s some kind of danger with being caught in the halls {also possibly related to Buffy}. There’s a tortuous passage of stairs and climbing up weird half-stories, but I think I found the right floor. I check my syllabus and curse my luck; the teacher had a panel at DragonCon, and I didn’t see it. But the syllabus also has the room number, and I’m on the right floor, and easily able to find the room. There’s a huge hallway with almost no other people in it. The classroom entrances have sort-of secret passage doors that the teacher intentionally left open to make it easy for the first class to find. The classroom is enormous, carpeted, and cozy (not unlike some of the lodges or parish halls I’ve seen). Paige is there, and not happy to see me. Two or three other people I know are there, as well as Willow. ...from Buffy again. Egads, that must have been terrible - having a celebration for the highest survival rate of any graduating class? Stretched for the first time in a week, tried going to allergy pills instead of cold stuff; we’ll see. Started picking up around the house again. Still periodic coughing periods, and clear again. Walked downtown in-between raindrops, had lunch at Ted’s Montana Grill: Cheese(veggie)burger, milkshake, onion rings. Happy National Cheeseburger Day! Back home, couldn’t figure out garbage compactor. We got a new lock. Saw Chaplin’s “The Circus”, took a nap, picked up more stuff, saw “Stag Knight” (which was utterly awful in every way). Shifted everything from the two-pocket backpack Sweetheart loaned me to her lots-o-pockets Swiss Army laptop bag that she left. Read a book, hard time getting to sleep.
9/19: Two-part dream, something with Willa, can’t remember now. Bathroom surprises. Walked to shuttle stop. Pleasant walk, but I arrived later than expected, and had to wait for the next shuttle, and didn’t get to work until 9:30: Not too late, but later than I would otherwise have expected. Most of the day involved data crunching and digging out this massive pile that keeps accumulating. It sounds like my desk is getting closer to ready? Swang by the weights, called Mum on the way home, started cataloging the refrigerator. Roast both ears of corn, seriously juicy, sounded obscene; put one away for later. Found spicy squash curry, spicier than expected. Found and finished the last little dollop of some freezer-burned ice cream. Don’t remember why I stayed up late.
9/20: Justin is doing home inspections in an old wooden building - feels like a house, but the second story is open-frame like a public building or barn or church or somesuch. Then there’s a church procession, around the sides and down the middle. I have to tell someone I’m leaving the acolytes without seriously interrupting the proceedings. {indefinite switch, I’m not in this part} In a small town with a kooky old man, kindly but weird; possibly not human. He leaves, something about not belonging, but one of the kids remembers his habits and takes his place, leaving surprises in people’s windows and buying pending coffees and whatnot. What a difference a day makes. Easy morning waking up, had breakfast, caught the shuttle I wanted to, got one project out of the way. Didn’t end up eating the apple I wanted to. Latter day kind of fell apart with unnecessary procedures and frittering away conversations and whatnot, but I did still get things ready for the Goblin Game. Found out more about my pending move into a new room at work. Shuttle later than expected, still ended up arriving same time as chiropractor. Had almost the same dinner as last night, with the addition of a ridiculously crunchy (but not yet stale) baguette. Made Goblins.
9/21: Dreamt something about Goblin exercises - obviously related to building characters last night. Felt hard to get everything together. Writing to Sweetheart on the shuttle. Saw leaves start to fall on the trail. Impulse to keep searching Facebook for new input, which I actively recognize as an addiction, but subconsciously… yeah. Lots of emotional and political content with which to struggle in the past few days. Zumba class had the same substitute from a few weeks ago, she recognized me and said I was a great dancer. Worried about making it home, but still had enough time to make another three characters.
9/22: Angst from disagreements, loneliness, and caffeine gave me a little bit of a hard time falling asleep… but only a bit. Goblin games showing up again, something about Zumba dancing, and a cabin near the edge of a sea cliff. Started a completely different project today, but one I had been expecting since around the end of August. Most of it is easy to fill in, partly by design; things I had set up in years past to use variables, so you just fill in the new numbers and it propagates across the rest of the form. Met kellinator and Nate for Trivia, contributed nothing, came in 3rd, bought dinner for everyone. Another late night hitting the (RPG) books.
9/23: And a somewhat harder time falling asleep than previously. Don’t remember dreams. Took some time to get everything set up, went in later than usual, found myself quite sweaty. Regular churn at work, low-key. Professor was meeting her teacher, so no Tai Chi today. Some panic about being able to get everything done in time. Alert about power lines down on the main corridor in and out of work - probably going to be running late. Saw the shuttle pass my stop, but the traffic was sluggish enough that I was able to jog to the next stop and catch it there. Then I ran into Lancasters in Decatur, who were kind enough to give me a ride to the Waffle House. We got up to eight people (two booths) there, got a bit of discussion in but the layout and noise made it difficult. The staff was slammed (and possibly somewhat new) so everything came out late and had a few problems. Courtni joined us for the first time, and Carlton and Cathy and Romy joined us later and brought pineapple upside-down cake. After giving some space for cake and discussion and settling down, I pulled out We Be Goblins! They were very enthusiastic, and definitely got into acting like pyromaniac freaks with funny voices. Lots of people (and possibly over-identifying with their characters) made steering a little difficult, and we didn’t finish; stopped before the finale, will have to run the one-shot as a two-shot. Of course, the fact that it was only written for 4 characters probably didn’t help matters: SO MANY INITIATIVES.
9/24: I only remember the very end of this morning’s dream, where I thought Nate had died, but an evil witch-queen wearing a ring with a pale green stone shows that he hasn’t because of how some coppers are still glowing. I scoop up the coins. We’re all in a fantasy circus whose stables are in stonework, like a castle. Started picking up this morning, got lost in thought and forgot what I was doing. Made it to Zumba, back to regular Saturday teacher, fun as always. Took a long time at the gym with all the things, weights and stretches and sauna and shower. Stopped by Goldberg’s for lunch, had a nice time reading The Thrushmoor Terror. Came home to one of the more unnerving sights I’ve ever seen: Upon opening my mailbox, I noticed it was glowing inside. I discovered that a foundation for blindness had sent me a light-up pen, and it activated en route. Had some trouble with laundry machine; splitting two loads into three seems to have worked, and the machines started running again, I hope there aren’t any serious problems. Had a nice long chat with Sweetheart. Picked up, ate junk food, watched bad movies. Terrible idea.
9/25: Forgot dream. Had expected to sleep in after last night, but no luck. Frantic cleaning for the first hour, only to realize I got most of it done and Sweetheart’s plane doesn’t land until around 9 PM. Read a lot, did way more laundry than usual this time around, got a haircut, went to Athens Pizza for dinner, stopped by to pick up flowers. Despite thinking I had it all together, getting back home was still a rush; seeing things I missed, underestimating how long it would take to shower, and so on. Got a call from Sweetheart, headed out. Despite panic and traffic, I still managed to pull up to the airport right when she got out. The drive home was a bit strained; I was focusing on driving, and we weren’t used to talking. Still, very nice to get hugs when we got home. Oh, and I told her how much I missed the way she makes me smile. She said she gives me smilepox.
9/26: Sweetheart got up in the dark, woke me up in the process. Got everything ready. Met with our superintendent, he told me he’s quitting this week. Immediately hit a bunch of things once I got to work, starting with informing the rest of the Board, but after the first rush I felt like I was reeling most of the day. Had peanut rice for lunch, just like Mom used to make. Boss told me about a bunch of numbers needed at the end of the day. Started in on that, dropped off Sweetheart, went to Half Price Books to return duplicates and scratched discs, came back home to find Sweetheart asleep. The original plan was to go out for dinner, but I ended up making as little noise as I could in the kitchen and watched the first few episodes of “The Boondocks”.
9/27: Sweetheart woke up when I came to bed, and cuddled me mercilessly. Wandering around a campus reminiscent of UC Davis {probably because I had written about it recently}; something about a free-love and open discussion and alternative academic atmosphere. I see photognome, of all people, wandering around taking pictures of interesting people. Started feeling a cold again, spent the entire day on the grindstone pulling numbers out of my ass different databases. Stayed late, as per request. Went to Madras Mantra, split a thali and an eggplant appetizer. Got back on the drugs, Sweetheart went straight to sleep.
9/28: Sweetheart woke me up early, but no complaints. Oddly, I felt relatively awake for the first hour, but then felt like falling asleep on the way to work. Funny chat. Daily grind. Shuttle was late, didn’t have time to do weights before Zumba class started. Called Sweetheart, she was apparently waiting for me, so I didn’t have time after Zumba, either. Home for cuddles, then she fell asleep. Read way too much internet, got last few things done before midnight.
9/29: Dreamt something about downtown Atlanta (with chrome and redstone and parks, kind of fancy), driving or riding a Christmas train for kids, and seeing box heroes in the distance. I’m specifically remembering The Incredible Hulk, for some reason. Hard time waking up, but given the extra time on Tuesday, I don’t have any worries about hours this week. Same grind. The problem with eliminating the symptoms of a disease is then I’m never sure whether the disease is gone or just hiding; still taking stuff, just to make sure. Met Theresa for lunch, very nice time catching up. Picked up her daughter. Met coworkers, feel like I got a good handle on the process they use and what model to help facilitate that. Sweetheart needed to stay late at work, so I went to the gym to catch up on what I missed yesterday. On a wild hair, decided to go to Marlow’s afterwards, asked her to join me. Home. She went straight to bed, I took a little longer cleaning up.
9/30: Dreamt about animal shapeshifting, a mini golf challenge course, conventions, a hobbit hotel in a tree, a dangerous visitor (but we have to let foxes in because they’re relatives), and jumping back to the first part of the dream (that I remember, anyways), the philosophy of shapechanging; namely, if you turn into a bulldog and lick someone’s face, was it you licking their face or the bulldog you became? Sweetheart got up early, of course. I woke up shortly thereafter, and helped her with a paper for about an hour. The rest of the day I got messages about stuff that needed fixing on the building, while I was at work. Tai Chi friends brought noodles and moon cakes. Someone brought beer to one of the meetings; curiously, I just realized that both the beer and the cake had a hint of pineapple in them. Shuttle drove past deer in the evening. Ended up meeting Kelly for a ride over to Melton’s. Funny time chatting with John at the restaurant (and picking at leftover nachos), then got a ride with Marcus back home. Pathfinder took over an hour to set up, despite prior planning and previous preparation, but when we did… honestly, it still dragged, trying to fit in all the moving parts. Stopped and smooched with Sweetheart when she came in, ignored the visitors for a while since they were still figuring stuff out. Possible clue to fixing broken computer that won’t stop restarting, Adam had a fix when John’s started doing the same thing.
9/17: Woke up around 5 for more coughing. Forgot dreams again. Decided to skip Zumba due to pending stuff. Talked to John about character creation, got different ideas about upcoming game. Had brunch (?) at Einstein, swooped by Target to pick up a few more traveling necessities, headed home. Lots of hugginess. Drove Sweetheart to the airport, waited around for the last few minutes, saw her off. Drove back vaguely home-ish with a concerned eye on the ever-sinking gas gauge. Made it to Kroger, had lunch, went shopping, went to fill up, realized Kroger was one of the stations doing no regular unleaded, premium and diesel only. Drove down the hill to QuikTrip. I had relatively little problem finding a pump and filling partway up (only 10 gallons; I expect to use shuttles most of next week, and hope the prices go down in the near future), but everyone was really tense and aggressive, lots of other people were honking and I heard someone shouting when someone else got in their way. Home to a relative peace. Not nearly enough time to finish what I wanted. Rode with James to Publix for him to pick up ice cream, passed a massive wreck, made it to Jen’s house. Nice potluck gathering, fun discussion, two incomplete games of Exploding Kittens, and a lot of talk about next season’s game. James almost drove us to his house before I reminded him I was in the car.
9/18: Home was empty, and deafeningly quiet. Stayed up and online for the next few hours seeing if I could catch a glimpse of Sweetheart, but no luck. Headed to bed; luckily, no monsters in the dark this time. In high school gymnasium, where they’re handing out schedules. Different classes have their own mini-mascots (all mythological: minotaur, dragon, etc), and people are oddly tribal about such. I go outside and start searching; it’s dark for some reason {possibly related to how the Buffy crew kept being on-campus at night}, and there’s some kind of danger with being caught in the halls {also possibly related to Buffy}. There’s a tortuous passage of stairs and climbing up weird half-stories, but I think I found the right floor. I check my syllabus and curse my luck; the teacher had a panel at DragonCon, and I didn’t see it. But the syllabus also has the room number, and I’m on the right floor, and easily able to find the room. There’s a huge hallway with almost no other people in it. The classroom entrances have sort-of secret passage doors that the teacher intentionally left open to make it easy for the first class to find. The classroom is enormous, carpeted, and cozy (not unlike some of the lodges or parish halls I’ve seen). Paige is there, and not happy to see me. Two or three other people I know are there, as well as Willow. ...from Buffy again. Egads, that must have been terrible - having a celebration for the highest survival rate of any graduating class? Stretched for the first time in a week, tried going to allergy pills instead of cold stuff; we’ll see. Started picking up around the house again. Still periodic coughing periods, and clear again. Walked downtown in-between raindrops, had lunch at Ted’s Montana Grill: Cheese(veggie)burger, milkshake, onion rings. Happy National Cheeseburger Day! Back home, couldn’t figure out garbage compactor. We got a new lock. Saw Chaplin’s “The Circus”, took a nap, picked up more stuff, saw “Stag Knight” (which was utterly awful in every way). Shifted everything from the two-pocket backpack Sweetheart loaned me to her lots-o-pockets Swiss Army laptop bag that she left. Read a book, hard time getting to sleep.
9/19: Two-part dream, something with Willa, can’t remember now. Bathroom surprises. Walked to shuttle stop. Pleasant walk, but I arrived later than expected, and had to wait for the next shuttle, and didn’t get to work until 9:30: Not too late, but later than I would otherwise have expected. Most of the day involved data crunching and digging out this massive pile that keeps accumulating. It sounds like my desk is getting closer to ready? Swang by the weights, called Mum on the way home, started cataloging the refrigerator. Roast both ears of corn, seriously juicy, sounded obscene; put one away for later. Found spicy squash curry, spicier than expected. Found and finished the last little dollop of some freezer-burned ice cream. Don’t remember why I stayed up late.
9/20: Justin is doing home inspections in an old wooden building - feels like a house, but the second story is open-frame like a public building or barn or church or somesuch. Then there’s a church procession, around the sides and down the middle. I have to tell someone I’m leaving the acolytes without seriously interrupting the proceedings. {indefinite switch, I’m not in this part} In a small town with a kooky old man, kindly but weird; possibly not human. He leaves, something about not belonging, but one of the kids remembers his habits and takes his place, leaving surprises in people’s windows and buying pending coffees and whatnot. What a difference a day makes. Easy morning waking up, had breakfast, caught the shuttle I wanted to, got one project out of the way. Didn’t end up eating the apple I wanted to. Latter day kind of fell apart with unnecessary procedures and frittering away conversations and whatnot, but I did still get things ready for the Goblin Game. Found out more about my pending move into a new room at work. Shuttle later than expected, still ended up arriving same time as chiropractor. Had almost the same dinner as last night, with the addition of a ridiculously crunchy (but not yet stale) baguette. Made Goblins.
9/21: Dreamt something about Goblin exercises - obviously related to building characters last night. Felt hard to get everything together. Writing to Sweetheart on the shuttle. Saw leaves start to fall on the trail. Impulse to keep searching Facebook for new input, which I actively recognize as an addiction, but subconsciously… yeah. Lots of emotional and political content with which to struggle in the past few days. Zumba class had the same substitute from a few weeks ago, she recognized me and said I was a great dancer. Worried about making it home, but still had enough time to make another three characters.
9/22: Angst from disagreements, loneliness, and caffeine gave me a little bit of a hard time falling asleep… but only a bit. Goblin games showing up again, something about Zumba dancing, and a cabin near the edge of a sea cliff. Started a completely different project today, but one I had been expecting since around the end of August. Most of it is easy to fill in, partly by design; things I had set up in years past to use variables, so you just fill in the new numbers and it propagates across the rest of the form. Met kellinator and Nate for Trivia, contributed nothing, came in 3rd, bought dinner for everyone. Another late night hitting the (RPG) books.
9/23: And a somewhat harder time falling asleep than previously. Don’t remember dreams. Took some time to get everything set up, went in later than usual, found myself quite sweaty. Regular churn at work, low-key. Professor was meeting her teacher, so no Tai Chi today. Some panic about being able to get everything done in time. Alert about power lines down on the main corridor in and out of work - probably going to be running late. Saw the shuttle pass my stop, but the traffic was sluggish enough that I was able to jog to the next stop and catch it there. Then I ran into Lancasters in Decatur, who were kind enough to give me a ride to the Waffle House. We got up to eight people (two booths) there, got a bit of discussion in but the layout and noise made it difficult. The staff was slammed (and possibly somewhat new) so everything came out late and had a few problems. Courtni joined us for the first time, and Carlton and Cathy and Romy joined us later and brought pineapple upside-down cake. After giving some space for cake and discussion and settling down, I pulled out We Be Goblins! They were very enthusiastic, and definitely got into acting like pyromaniac freaks with funny voices. Lots of people (and possibly over-identifying with their characters) made steering a little difficult, and we didn’t finish; stopped before the finale, will have to run the one-shot as a two-shot. Of course, the fact that it was only written for 4 characters probably didn’t help matters: SO MANY INITIATIVES.
9/24: I only remember the very end of this morning’s dream, where I thought Nate had died, but an evil witch-queen wearing a ring with a pale green stone shows that he hasn’t because of how some coppers are still glowing. I scoop up the coins. We’re all in a fantasy circus whose stables are in stonework, like a castle. Started picking up this morning, got lost in thought and forgot what I was doing. Made it to Zumba, back to regular Saturday teacher, fun as always. Took a long time at the gym with all the things, weights and stretches and sauna and shower. Stopped by Goldberg’s for lunch, had a nice time reading The Thrushmoor Terror. Came home to one of the more unnerving sights I’ve ever seen: Upon opening my mailbox, I noticed it was glowing inside. I discovered that a foundation for blindness had sent me a light-up pen, and it activated en route. Had some trouble with laundry machine; splitting two loads into three seems to have worked, and the machines started running again, I hope there aren’t any serious problems. Had a nice long chat with Sweetheart. Picked up, ate junk food, watched bad movies. Terrible idea.
9/25: Forgot dream. Had expected to sleep in after last night, but no luck. Frantic cleaning for the first hour, only to realize I got most of it done and Sweetheart’s plane doesn’t land until around 9 PM. Read a lot, did way more laundry than usual this time around, got a haircut, went to Athens Pizza for dinner, stopped by to pick up flowers. Despite thinking I had it all together, getting back home was still a rush; seeing things I missed, underestimating how long it would take to shower, and so on. Got a call from Sweetheart, headed out. Despite panic and traffic, I still managed to pull up to the airport right when she got out. The drive home was a bit strained; I was focusing on driving, and we weren’t used to talking. Still, very nice to get hugs when we got home. Oh, and I told her how much I missed the way she makes me smile. She said she gives me smilepox.
9/26: Sweetheart got up in the dark, woke me up in the process. Got everything ready. Met with our superintendent, he told me he’s quitting this week. Immediately hit a bunch of things once I got to work, starting with informing the rest of the Board, but after the first rush I felt like I was reeling most of the day. Had peanut rice for lunch, just like Mom used to make. Boss told me about a bunch of numbers needed at the end of the day. Started in on that, dropped off Sweetheart, went to Half Price Books to return duplicates and scratched discs, came back home to find Sweetheart asleep. The original plan was to go out for dinner, but I ended up making as little noise as I could in the kitchen and watched the first few episodes of “The Boondocks”.
9/27: Sweetheart woke up when I came to bed, and cuddled me mercilessly. Wandering around a campus reminiscent of UC Davis {probably because I had written about it recently}; something about a free-love and open discussion and alternative academic atmosphere. I see photognome, of all people, wandering around taking pictures of interesting people. Started feeling a cold again, spent the entire day on the grindstone pulling numbers out of my ass different databases. Stayed late, as per request. Went to Madras Mantra, split a thali and an eggplant appetizer. Got back on the drugs, Sweetheart went straight to sleep.
9/28: Sweetheart woke me up early, but no complaints. Oddly, I felt relatively awake for the first hour, but then felt like falling asleep on the way to work. Funny chat. Daily grind. Shuttle was late, didn’t have time to do weights before Zumba class started. Called Sweetheart, she was apparently waiting for me, so I didn’t have time after Zumba, either. Home for cuddles, then she fell asleep. Read way too much internet, got last few things done before midnight.
9/29: Dreamt something about downtown Atlanta (with chrome and redstone and parks, kind of fancy), driving or riding a Christmas train for kids, and seeing box heroes in the distance. I’m specifically remembering The Incredible Hulk, for some reason. Hard time waking up, but given the extra time on Tuesday, I don’t have any worries about hours this week. Same grind. The problem with eliminating the symptoms of a disease is then I’m never sure whether the disease is gone or just hiding; still taking stuff, just to make sure. Met Theresa for lunch, very nice time catching up. Picked up her daughter. Met coworkers, feel like I got a good handle on the process they use and what model to help facilitate that. Sweetheart needed to stay late at work, so I went to the gym to catch up on what I missed yesterday. On a wild hair, decided to go to Marlow’s afterwards, asked her to join me. Home. She went straight to bed, I took a little longer cleaning up.
9/30: Dreamt about animal shapeshifting, a mini golf challenge course, conventions, a hobbit hotel in a tree, a dangerous visitor (but we have to let foxes in because they’re relatives), and jumping back to the first part of the dream (that I remember, anyways), the philosophy of shapechanging; namely, if you turn into a bulldog and lick someone’s face, was it you licking their face or the bulldog you became? Sweetheart got up early, of course. I woke up shortly thereafter, and helped her with a paper for about an hour. The rest of the day I got messages about stuff that needed fixing on the building, while I was at work. Tai Chi friends brought noodles and moon cakes. Someone brought beer to one of the meetings; curiously, I just realized that both the beer and the cake had a hint of pineapple in them. Shuttle drove past deer in the evening. Ended up meeting Kelly for a ride over to Melton’s. Funny time chatting with John at the restaurant (and picking at leftover nachos), then got a ride with Marcus back home. Pathfinder took over an hour to set up, despite prior planning and previous preparation, but when we did… honestly, it still dragged, trying to fit in all the moving parts. Stopped and smooched with Sweetheart when she came in, ignored the visitors for a while since they were still figuring stuff out. Possible clue to fixing broken computer that won’t stop restarting, Adam had a fix when John’s started doing the same thing.