Where did the time go?

I can't believe I let this go for so long. So much has happened that it's hard to catch up now. How about if I hit the highlights:

• 
  Ren Fest was great and I have lots of pictures and videos that I hope to eventually get posted one day.
• Maria has moved in with us. She came for a three week visit and one thing led to another, and she decided to stay. There were no jobs available in Carbuncle, or wherever it is her parents live, and there are lots here. She worked at CVS for a few weeks and now it looks like she's going to go work at Kelly Press with me. We'll be able to use the carpool lane and everything.
• I bought a new psaltery, a custom made one. The place is called Phantasy Psalteries and you can see pictures of it here, here and here. It is gorgeous and has a beautiful tone, but I sent it back for adjustments because the sustain was too much. Its sound isn't as crisp as the one on my Unicorn Strings psaltery, but it's unique because it is strung with overwound strings and so it is a tenor psaltery and not a high soprano. It sounds beautiful when Maria and I play together, her on the higher one and me on the new one.
• I caught a virus in late October, right after Ren Fest got over, and I'm still sick. That is seven weeks now. I'm beginning to think I'm never going to get well. I wouldn't mind so much, but the people at work act like I'm a leper. Idiots. It's not as if I want to be sick, or did anything to make myself sick. The girl who gave it to me is being the biggest yahoo about it and I've lost my patience. I don't have much to begin with.

I know there are lots of more important things I could be posting about, but it's three in the morning and this is as good as it gets. My mom just reminded me that the shuttle will be here any minute. I need to shower and get dressed. We are leaving for a week in Puerto Rico. Maybe I'll finally be able to shake this stupid virus. I'll try to get lots of pictures and post more when I get back.

Busy Weekend

I had a few friends from work over this weekend for game night. Dave, Brian and Cindy came as well as the friend-who-must-not-be-named. Dave brought his wife, Edie, and Brian brought his girlfriend, Rachel. I ordered pizza and had some veggies and fruit, too. Since our family is LDS and we don't drink, I also had a large bowl full of chocolate candy. I gained a couple of pounds from the food, but I had a great time.

We played Fluxx and Cranium, both of which are pretty freewheeling types of games. With Fluxx you start with only one rule and no goal, but you add new rules and goals as the game progresses. It's confusing the first time through, but it gets to be a lot of fun once you get used to it. Cranium, as you probably know, is a game that combines every other board game known to man... Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, Scrabble, etc... into one.

We split up the couples and Brian and I took on Dave and Rachel on one team and f-w-m-n-b-n with Edie and Cindy. Brian and I kinda won, but there was some argument about whether or not we cheated. I was ready to keep going until we got a definitive winner, but it was getting late, so we let it go. I think everyone had fun, I know I did.

The only downside was that I had already been feeling ill and I spent way too many hours cleaning and getting ready for the game night, so that on Sunday I was too sick to do much. We postponed celebrating Mom's birthday until next week and I called in sick to work today. I got out of bed long enough to check email and call in sick and then went back to bed until noon. This afternoon the winds knocked out our power so we went to Chipotle's at the Annapolis mall and did a tiny bit of shopping.

I am still sick, but the two days of rest helped a lot and I'm going back to work tomorrow. I hate to be out at all right now with all that is going on. I definitely can't take two days off. I should be ok tomorrow, I handled the mall just fine tonight. I think that five hour nap this morning helped a lot. Sometimes when I get too exhausted my body just shuts down on me. I don't know which comes first - getting sick and then feeling tired or getting tired and then feeling sick. It's one reason I try not to overdo it, though, because I always end up sick. Speaking of which, I need to get to bed. I've been up for a full nine hours!

2,700 Words

2,700 Words... that's how many I need to write every day between now and the end of the month to make my goal of 50,000 in February. I was sick most of this last week and so I did no writing. Yesterday my computer broke down and I spent 12 hours getting it working again. Needless to say, I didn't get any writing done then. I wrote 5,700 today, so that helped me catch up a little bit, but I'm still about 9,000 words behind schedule. At this point I will be happy just to finish the first draft, whether I hit my word count or not. I am close, but at the moment I have them written into a corner, literally, and I haven't figured out how to get them out. I think I'll sleep on it and see what my dreams come up with. They might as well help me rescue them, since it was a dream that gave me the idea for this book in the first place.

I was very tempted to quit on the whole idea of writing this last week. I hate getting so depressed and dreary. It always looks so lame and ridiculous when I look back on it, but at the time the feelings are so intense and real that there is nothing remotely funny about it. I think I need better drugs... the legal kind of course.

You know what I love? Ice cream in winter. Doesn't it just make you smile? I prefer it to ice cream in summer because it doesn't melt so fast and you can enjoy it longer. Of course, some people think it's too cold, but cold doesn't bother me. We've had temperatures in the low teens around here, and I have only worn my coat once. Then again, I did end up sick last week. Maybe there is a connection. Nah....

Another Day Off

I did not call in yesterday to make sure our office was closed when every other business, government office and school in the state was shut down from the snow and ice. I would have, but I was sick and fell asleep and I didn't wake up until noon. Today, I called in sick and found out that our office did not close yesterday, so I was AWOL. I could not reach my boss so I just left a message. Now I have to go back tomorrow and hope he is not pissed at me for not calling on Tuesday and not going in today. I was sick, but there is a good chance he won't believe me.

I get sick a lot, and I hate having to take off from work. I always feel like my bosses think I'm faking, even though I am not. If I were, I would come up with a much better story than "I was sick." I never even got dressed today, did not set foot outside (always a good choice when I don't get dressed) and barely moved from in front of my computer all day. Yesterday I slept almost all day, and I should have slept more today. In fact, that's what I am going to go do now.