unforth | A Strangely Busy Week

Despite promising a more extensive update, I've not really felt like sitting my butt down and typing, so here it is, almost a week late. It's been a weird week, so I guess that makes sense.

Finals week was mostly eaten up, with, well, finals. Once I finished those, I launched into an unbelievable quantity of baking (so far everything that's been tasted turned out quite good, yay! I was a little worried about some of the stuff). I managed to get everything done, some how, and was only a couple of hours late to the Knightridge party last Saturday. Leading up to, I had felt a bit reticent about going - I was exhausted from a long week and a long semester, and dreading the week I had coming up, realizing how much I needed to do and how little sleep I was going to have on which to do it. I kept telling myself that if I cut out of the party, I could get some actual stinking rest, and that would be good. All in all, though, I'm very glad I went. Dancing was very, VERY cathartic, and it was a lot of fun to do a little bit Irish Step, show off (? or not, I probably looked silly... ;) ) what I've learned in my class this semester. (and point, point hop back two three, spring two three, spring two three!) I dropped off the second batch of baked goods and hung out with folk and sat out in the chilly night air breathing deeply and danced and generally had fun. I cut out a bit early - I was exhausted and had to wake up early on Sunday to get everything I needed to done in preparation for the trip - but still, I was around until 12:30...I reminded myself I c ould make up for the dancing I was missing at the New Years Party (can't wait! ;) )

I woke up bright and early on Sunday, finished getting ready for the trip, did my last Christmas shopping, and then headed into game. I hadn't gotten all the XP and stuff set, so I helped with set for a bunch but then cut out to go and update the books in preparation. I'm so happy with everyone, they've been being so well behaved and check in has been going so smoothly! Thank you all!

I had a great game over all, loads of fun. Every single person I spent time with was absolutely awesome; I particularly enjoyed being abused by the Changeling council, being scolded by Laughing Tom, and trying to quietly coordinate efforts with Lara, Liza and Nadja. So yeah, thank you all SO MUCH. A part of my brain worried I'd have a not-very-good-game and I get all annoyed at myself for exhausting myself before the trip, but it was worth it, completely. And now that I know I didn't get sick cause of Chili's, I'm also happy that I went there afterwards. Especially for the back rub.

Well, my trip to NYC has already been explained and whined about thoroughly. On Tuesday, I woke up after sleeping a ton, it felt nice, though I still felt a bit blah. I spent a bunch of time on the phone with

mistress_sin,

xaniquen,

eviltophat and Kev, trying to figure out what I was going to do about Binghamton - should I go up there? Or what? In the end, I convinced

mistress_sin to join me in New York, and Kev pointed out that it'd make a lot of sense for me to drive up to Binghamton before leaving for Bloomington (this only adds about an hour and a half of driving, not unreasonable really) so I'll be going up to Binghamton on the 27th, spending the night, and then driving on to Bloomington from there. (the drive from Binghamton takes the same amount of time as the drive from NYC). This is nice - none of the others could come down to see me, and I haven't seen Kev or Top Hat since the summer; I haven't seen

xaniquen since last Christmas (though we've been trading e-mails and the like)....

I feel like I did something else on Tuesday, but I can't recall what for the life of me. Probably helped mom around the house. Or something. Anyway,

mistress_sin arrive on Wednesday in the early afternoon, and she and I went a trekked down town and went to my usual haunts - the Elizabeth Street Center (home of much illegal anime, down in Chinatown); La Bella Ferrara (home of wonderful fresh cannoli); Jim Hanley's Universe, Compleat Strategist, Book Off...it was nice over all, spent some money on frivilous things (yay volumes of Hana Yori Dango I don't have time to read in Japanese...) and generally caught up. Meeting up with old friends is strange...I always fear, going in, that it'll be awkward and weird, but then it never is.

mistress_sin and I got mistaken for siblings more than usual this trip, too, and I got the "she's a tourist" look far more than ever before; I guess 6 years is about how long one has to be gone before one starts to loose the native New York air...that makes me a little sad, but oh well...in all, we walked about 4 miles, and it was exhausting but worth it.

Thursday was, of course, my birthday. In all I did surprisingly little. We went to the Whitney museum with my mom and saw a Hopper exhibit that was there - this was very gratifying; when I was in Chicago with

schenker28 I wanted very much to see Nighthawks at the Chicago Art Institute, only to learn that it was on display in NYC. Hopper is my mom's favorite artist, and I felt obliged to try to see it...but it was going to be in NYC until mid-December, leaving before I'd be visiting, so I'd be missing it completely. This bugged me greatly; but I was consoled to discover that mom had plans to go see it. However, the day of those plans - a day before the exhibit was closing - mom was sick, so she missed it too. It was distressing. However, victory was ultimately ours - on Tuesday, mom was holding some magazine clipping, and I noticed Nighthawks on the back of it in an ad; flipping it over, we learned the exhibit had been extended until the end of this month! So we won! And I saw the painting! And it was cool! We did some more wandering around the city - about the same amount of walking again, even. I still felt a bit sick, but fresh air helped and I wasn't going to sit around and be mopey on my damned birthday. That evening, me and mom and

mistress_sin got dinner, I opened my (two) packages -

mistress_sin made me a beautiful picture frame, with a picture of she and I about two weeks before I left Binghamton, and my mom got me a kitchen aid, which will...er...aid me greatly in the kitchen. You know. Mixing things. And stuff. Yeah. Stuff. :)

Friday was another rather lazy day. I started to feel sick again, badly so, in the evening. I'd felt blah all day and done as little as possible; in the end I was up most of the night, which really rather sucked but couldn't be helped. My grandfather, my brother, his wife, and his wife's family were arriving on Saturday; I felt very sick, but took some medicine cause I really wanted to feel better. It was worth it; once they got here, we went and got dinner, and then Ben, Kirsten and her brother and I went down to the Comedy Cellar in the village and saw some acts, including Dave Attell, and it was generally totally awesome. I'd never been to a live comedy show before; it was fun, though our audience was kind of down in the dumps over all which was annoying.

Today, then, was the day for the musical. I'd told mom I wanted to see Avenue Q, and somehow this ended up being a whole thing with 8 of us going. I'm glad we did, it was even funnier than I thought it'd be and was really excellent. :) Then we ate out and headed home (toting a bag of NYC's best cheesecake evar) to enjoy an evening of reading while Ben and Kirsten and their family went sightseeing.

All in all, it's been a good week. Mom and I have been fighting a lot, which is...frustrating, but it'll be different now that the family is here. Tomorrow, all of us except Poppop and Mom are going out to my dad's for Christmas, and then we'll open some family type gifts in the evening. My uncle is arriving from Texas at like 11:30 PM, so we'll go get him; Kirsten's family leaves on the 26th and we'll have our family Christmas once they're gone. I'll be heading out early afternoon of the 27th, laying over in Binghamton, then driving back to Bloomington on the 28th before going in to the ALF to work on the 29th. Then there will be parties. And stuff. And Jonie dog (who is doing well so far, thank god, I miss her!). And FFXII. And vegging out and reading manga. And generally trying to relax before I launch into my last semester.

Woot.

This'll probably be my last extensive update for a few weeks, though I might post a "ooh, shiny new toys" update. ;) Not sure. Depends on what shiny new toys I get, I suspect.

Merry Christmas everyone! I needs to get me some sleep so that I can enjoy the gingerbread, gifts, frivolities, and pointless driving on Christmas day! :) Hope every one is having a great time!