5 Months at a Time; or, An Important Resolution
PREPARE YOUR MIND AND YOUR EYES. A lot has happened since my last non-depressing post.
I started having panic attacks again, only much worse than before. Like Wrath of Khan worse. I'm still not sure why, but they were interfering with work so I saw a doctor and scored some generic Paxil, thus adding to my ever-expanding list of "brain drugs I have sampled" (a list that is all the more fascinating to me now that I work at a pharmacy).
I had more NYventures with Gabe! These included delicious food at the Fatty Crab (including apologetically killing a bee that was trying to taste our food), and my first foray into Central Park. It started raining almost right away, and we discovered that my umbrella cannot be turned into a two-man umbrella no matter how cleverly we align ourselves, and also that EVERY PATH in Central Park just leads you in a circle unless you can find some kind of water feature to follow. It was like Blair Witch, except instead of/in addition to the slow decay of our sanity we discussed the question "Are you a Tulio or a Miguel?" (Answer: two Miguels! Too right to be wrong!) Also went to the Met for the first time (props to
tatterpixie for the member discount) and I really could've spent days there. I can't wait to go back.
I went hiking with Pixie for the first time! I took her to Beltzville State Park, via a lovely mountain pass and a detour around a downed bridge. ("Turn right on Covered Bridge Road." ROAD CLOSED - BRIDGE OUT "...I did not plan for this contingency.") We hiked the Waterfall Trail, and I completed the full circuit for the first time, as last time I couldn't find the trail and I'm more reluctant to go scouting ahead in the woods when I'm hiking by myself. About half of the trees with trail markers have fallen and never been replaced. Took a few pictures, including some artfully smeared bird bones and tendons, but I lost them. :( But Pixie took some pictures that do not feature animal carcasses!
I went with Angie and Pixie to Addie's wedding in Canada! My first visit to Canada, incidentally, though I don't think I traveled any further than five miles from the border. Apparently Canada is something you have to ease into, like a warm bath. We drove nine hours both ways, which was much less torturous than I expected it to be. Originally we expected to have more time to spend with Bri and Addie, but due to circumstances beyond our control we ended up having to leave for Canada Friday night and head home Sunday night. :( BUT, we still got to see their house, meet their kitties, explore bits of their city, and have breakfast at a nice little diner with Bri! The wedding itself was beautiful, very creative, and never once got boring, which is perhaps the highest praise I can give a wedding. We were seated at the "freak table" and felt very much at home with our fellow table mates. We danced, we learned that the ASL signs for "rape" and "work" are disconcertingly similar, we danced some more, we made asses of ourselves in the photobooth, and then danced even more. All in all a wonderful weekend, and well worth the drive.
Tet visited for the first time! She has visited MANY times now! Most of these visits are filled with nonsense and food. A+, would hang with again.
PIXIE MADE ME PANDA MUERTOS. My Spanish is incorrect, and here is why! Last year I was pining for Tucson-style Día de los Muertos celebration and pan de los muertos, aka bread of the dead, for my stomach. She had been planning to make me bread to ease my homesickness, and when she told one of her friends about her plotting they misheard "pan de los muertos" as "panda muertos". Delighted by this suggestion, she made bread of the dead in the shape of a panda head, and it's been a Casa DeRP tradition ever since.
I discovered the vast duck populations and tree houses of Longwood Gardens! We went there for Angie's birthday, and though much of the park was in autumn sleep mode, the conservatory had a chrysanthemum festival display going on, as well as all its usual rooms/greenhouses, and it was so large we could've spent the entire trip just walking around in there (we nearly did). The park restaurant also had amazing vegetarian chili and biodegradable plastics. An overall success, and we're hoping to go back in the spring (which is ALMOST NOW).
(Also HA HA HA just clicked the Longwood Gardens link myself. The Gardens will soon be graced by the music of The Bacon Brothers. Ace.)
We ate lunch at the Sun Inn downtown, known more for its historical significance than its lunches. It was entirely by chance that we happened to be strolling by one day, trying to decide where to eat, when we spotted the sign advertising lunch. The food was of the "simple but very well done" variety: I had a pulled pork sandwich with apple coleslaw and German potato salad (still not sure what made it especially German but OK), Angie had mussels in a bacon balsamic vinaigrette, Pixie had something I do not recall, and I'd been pining for the butternut squash soup but there was none to be had (Angie and Pixie went back later and said it was fantastic). I love surprise food-ventures.
I went home for the holidays, and managed to spend time with the family AND the Phoenix crew AND the Tucson crew, although there are still some people I wanted to meet up with and did not get a chance to.
And 2012 has been the year of the revolving door on Casa DeRP, as we've hosted
industrialfairytale, more Tet,
flytastic and
kol 2-for-1 combo deal,
prodigy specifically for food-ventures and getting me stuck on BBC's Sherlock, and most recently
impersona! It has been somewhat exhausting but tremendously fun. Except for the cold.
And here is where I officially resolve to start doing weekly posts! In part it's so that I don't continuously try to squeeze 5 months worth of adventures into a single post, but also because I need to start holding myself accountable for having fun. Certainly based on this post it doesn't look like I have any shortage of fun, but the problem is that between all these outings I am a very brooding, fretful, un-fun Z. I need to actively remind myself that it is okay to read FICTION (yes, fiction) or write letters to friends or go for a walk/hike or do something RP-related, and that I can do that today instead of putting it off until tomorrow (because fun things can wait and un-fun things can't). I'm really not even the slightest bit overwhelmed by work or study; I just convince myself that I can always be a little more organized or a little more clean or a little more well-read on a certain subject. Perhaps I can be, but it doesn't need to be to the exclusion of FUN.
Posted via Dreamwidth. Comment there. Or here. I'm not picky.
I started having panic attacks again, only much worse than before. Like Wrath of Khan worse. I'm still not sure why, but they were interfering with work so I saw a doctor and scored some generic Paxil, thus adding to my ever-expanding list of "brain drugs I have sampled" (a list that is all the more fascinating to me now that I work at a pharmacy).
I had more NYventures with Gabe! These included delicious food at the Fatty Crab (including apologetically killing a bee that was trying to taste our food), and my first foray into Central Park. It started raining almost right away, and we discovered that my umbrella cannot be turned into a two-man umbrella no matter how cleverly we align ourselves, and also that EVERY PATH in Central Park just leads you in a circle unless you can find some kind of water feature to follow. It was like Blair Witch, except instead of/in addition to the slow decay of our sanity we discussed the question "Are you a Tulio or a Miguel?" (Answer: two Miguels! Too right to be wrong!) Also went to the Met for the first time (props to
tatterpixie for the member discount) and I really could've spent days there. I can't wait to go back.
I went hiking with Pixie for the first time! I took her to Beltzville State Park, via a lovely mountain pass and a detour around a downed bridge. ("Turn right on Covered Bridge Road." ROAD CLOSED - BRIDGE OUT "...I did not plan for this contingency.") We hiked the Waterfall Trail, and I completed the full circuit for the first time, as last time I couldn't find the trail and I'm more reluctant to go scouting ahead in the woods when I'm hiking by myself. About half of the trees with trail markers have fallen and never been replaced. Took a few pictures, including some artfully smeared bird bones and tendons, but I lost them. :( But Pixie took some pictures that do not feature animal carcasses!
I went with Angie and Pixie to Addie's wedding in Canada! My first visit to Canada, incidentally, though I don't think I traveled any further than five miles from the border. Apparently Canada is something you have to ease into, like a warm bath. We drove nine hours both ways, which was much less torturous than I expected it to be. Originally we expected to have more time to spend with Bri and Addie, but due to circumstances beyond our control we ended up having to leave for Canada Friday night and head home Sunday night. :( BUT, we still got to see their house, meet their kitties, explore bits of their city, and have breakfast at a nice little diner with Bri! The wedding itself was beautiful, very creative, and never once got boring, which is perhaps the highest praise I can give a wedding. We were seated at the "freak table" and felt very much at home with our fellow table mates. We danced, we learned that the ASL signs for "rape" and "work" are disconcertingly similar, we danced some more, we made asses of ourselves in the photobooth, and then danced even more. All in all a wonderful weekend, and well worth the drive.
Tet visited for the first time! She has visited MANY times now! Most of these visits are filled with nonsense and food. A+, would hang with again.
PIXIE MADE ME PANDA MUERTOS. My Spanish is incorrect, and here is why! Last year I was pining for Tucson-style Día de los Muertos celebration and pan de los muertos, aka bread of the dead, for my stomach. She had been planning to make me bread to ease my homesickness, and when she told one of her friends about her plotting they misheard "pan de los muertos" as "panda muertos". Delighted by this suggestion, she made bread of the dead in the shape of a panda head, and it's been a Casa DeRP tradition ever since.
I discovered the vast duck populations and tree houses of Longwood Gardens! We went there for Angie's birthday, and though much of the park was in autumn sleep mode, the conservatory had a chrysanthemum festival display going on, as well as all its usual rooms/greenhouses, and it was so large we could've spent the entire trip just walking around in there (we nearly did). The park restaurant also had amazing vegetarian chili and biodegradable plastics. An overall success, and we're hoping to go back in the spring (which is ALMOST NOW).
(Also HA HA HA just clicked the Longwood Gardens link myself. The Gardens will soon be graced by the music of The Bacon Brothers. Ace.)
We ate lunch at the Sun Inn downtown, known more for its historical significance than its lunches. It was entirely by chance that we happened to be strolling by one day, trying to decide where to eat, when we spotted the sign advertising lunch. The food was of the "simple but very well done" variety: I had a pulled pork sandwich with apple coleslaw and German potato salad (still not sure what made it especially German but OK), Angie had mussels in a bacon balsamic vinaigrette, Pixie had something I do not recall, and I'd been pining for the butternut squash soup but there was none to be had (Angie and Pixie went back later and said it was fantastic). I love surprise food-ventures.
I went home for the holidays, and managed to spend time with the family AND the Phoenix crew AND the Tucson crew, although there are still some people I wanted to meet up with and did not get a chance to.
And 2012 has been the year of the revolving door on Casa DeRP, as we've hosted
industrialfairytale, more Tet,
flytastic and
kol 2-for-1 combo deal,
prodigy specifically for food-ventures and getting me stuck on BBC's Sherlock, and most recently
impersona! It has been somewhat exhausting but tremendously fun. Except for the cold.
And here is where I officially resolve to start doing weekly posts! In part it's so that I don't continuously try to squeeze 5 months worth of adventures into a single post, but also because I need to start holding myself accountable for having fun. Certainly based on this post it doesn't look like I have any shortage of fun, but the problem is that between all these outings I am a very brooding, fretful, un-fun Z. I need to actively remind myself that it is okay to read FICTION (yes, fiction) or write letters to friends or go for a walk/hike or do something RP-related, and that I can do that today instead of putting it off until tomorrow (because fun things can wait and un-fun things can't). I'm really not even the slightest bit overwhelmed by work or study; I just convince myself that I can always be a little more organized or a little more clean or a little more well-read on a certain subject. Perhaps I can be, but it doesn't need to be to the exclusion of FUN.
Posted via Dreamwidth. Comment there. Or here. I'm not picky.