rummaging for answers in the pages

Friday. Absolute bliss.

I came home in gorgeous, no-jacket-required weather, blissed out in front of Lost for three episodes while my computer charged, then ran a bath. I always bring my comp in with me (not all the way in >_>) 'cause I like to listen to audiobooks and music, and it has to be fully charged since we don't have an outlet in the bathroom. It also serves as a convenient timer-- that way I gotta haul my bath-numbed body out of the water before my computer runs out of juice. So, computer's charged. Next I had to select my bath ammunition, which tonight was a Butterball, per douxquemiel's recommendation and one of the bubble bars I got for free when I bought stuff after Christmas, the Gold Star. Then I scoured the cabinets and found that I still had about 1/8 of a bottle of Hendrick's so I made myself a gin & ginger with a dash of lime shamelessly pilfered from halfdreams. I put it in my favorite martini glass (shamelessly stolen from Hattie's in Saratoga) and sunk into the sweetest bath ever.

Guhhh. I needed it so much. I exfoliated so much I think I probably lost five pounds, for serious.

The last month or so has been unreal. I bought my tickets for Spain, and stupid though it may sound, it's turned my life on its head. It's something I've wanted to do since I was 16, and it's immensely important to me, so of course it's the first thing my brain likes to grab for when I'm feeling vulnerable. Ignoring the anxious part of me that prefers to expect I'm somehow not good enough for whatever I want is better than the trip itself, it's better than anything I've felt in a long time, and as a result, I've been in a constant, oddly grounded euphoria. As Unce Stevie would say, there's nothing for the panic rat to gnaw on, for the time being, anyway, and my fear of never quite having the gumption and ambition to walk Compostela (which is really a stand-in for a lot of issues, I suppose) has been its favorite snack for a long time now.

So I'm just overwhelmed, humbled and grateful for what's ahead, I guess.

I left TR last week, which was immensely bittersweet, but was really the right thing. I wanted to do it before my pups acquired too much dead weight, and I knew that's where they were headed-- leaving now allowed me to do it without months of handwaved interactions and leaving muns/pups high and dry where their relationships with my pups were concerned. Even as it is, there's still a little of that, but mostly it was tied up tightly, with Bert leaving in the company of his best friends, Scott leaving quietly with his blue-eyed miracle, and Flagg moving onto another world where he can exist unneutered, as he tends to think of it. But bittersweet really was the word for it-- I cried a few times but mostly felt grateful for all the awesome threads and connections I'd had the chance to make. The reaction posts made me cry xD but in a good sort of way. Anyway, thanks again to those I played with and I'm glad I'm still able to keep up with most of you here. :)

Marathoning Lost and just starting Breaking Bad at fantasticpants's behest. I watched the BB pilot last night and really enjoyed it. In addition to Mania's endorsement, it also has the seal of approval of another person I maybe like and respect a little so I'm very excited to get ahead in it. Same deal with Lost-- I loved the first season and mostly due to my own DVD rental fail somehow stopped watching mid Season 2 and I'm just now picking it back up, and looooving it all over again. You can ask any number of people (halfdreams, betweenthebliss, etc) and I'm not normally the marathoning-television-type; I get antsy and distracted after a few episodes. But Lost is different. It probably doesn't hurt that it's packed with references to that guy I maybe like and respect a little. >_____>

All right, well, I've babbled enough. Off to more Lost, freelance pretendy funtimes and leftovers from the dinner I made on St. Patrick's Day. Maaaaybe more gin. x3

Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.

So, this summer I'm going on pilgrimage to Spain, and walking El Camino de Compostela from St. Jean Pied du Port to Santiago, 650 miles across the north of Spain with nothing but a pack, a pair of boots and the clothes on my back. ( Collapse )

I've been wanting to share my plans here for awhile, as much to see them somewhere outside of my own head as to talk with others about it, and hopefully turn some people who've never heard of it onto it. Even if the spiritual aspect of it doesn't interest you, it's an incredibly cheap holiday. Well, if you're nuts like me and a cross-country journey sounds like a holiday.

Here's my pack. Here are my boots. I'm looking to buy a ticket for a departure date somewhere towards the end of June, mid-week... probably the 22nd or 23rd, likely from Logan to Biarritz, where we will bus to St. Jean Pied du Port and begin the first leg of our pilgrimage. We'll get to Santiago and leave a few days later, around July 27th.

I have a lot of preparation to do-- mental and emotional as much as physical, lingual and financial, honestly-- and I've just got to put one foot in front of the other but after almost ten years of dreaming about this, it's daunting and nervewracking and I'm almost desperate for everything to work out. It'll be a little more real once I've bought my tickets, but for now, I'm caught between trying to get psyched and proceed with caution in case something goes awry.

In the meantime... is there anyone who can give me advice about buying plane tickets? I've never done it before, and I'm not sure whether I ought to go through an agent or what, taking my pretty specific needs into account. And another thing-- there wouldn't happen to be anyone out there with a used copy of Rosetta Stone Spain-Spanish? I'd definitely be willing to fork over some money for that, as there's no way in hell I'll be able to afford it at half price, but I really, really want it.

:X

Excited, guys!

Well, after my post on Friday night, things only got more fabulous. After I got out of the tub (oh, and I ended up using the rest of my Sex Bomb and a dash of Sunny Side, which made me scented and sparkly and gave me the can't-stop-touching-my-own-arms disease which is always funny), I decided to touch up the red dye in my hair just in time for sekala and Sae to show up. I finished getting ready and we all hopped in the car to go see usually9_15.

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All right. Off I go, to hopefully do some productive, creative things. *salutes* I'm out.

I really, really needed this Friday night.

I left work, had a long ride home on the bus with my iPod, which is always weirdly therapeutic. Found myself short on fare somehow, but managed to sneak on anyways. Got home, chatted with fantasticpants, tidied up-- and I say that offhand, but it's really something of a ritual; boxers, a tank top, a trash bag, a broom, and my laptop with speakers attached, turned up to 10 while I wiggle around to "Bombs Over Baghdad" and "Shut Up And Drive" and generally cleaning things up-- and now I'm about to take a bath.

But a Lush bath, which is to say a colorful, fruity, sparkly, fluffy-with-bubbles bath. For the curious, I'll be using half a Karma bubble bar and Cinders. xD With a hard cider and an audiobook nearby.

After, I'm meeting up with usually9_15, sekala and Sae for miscellaneous weekend abandon.

It's just a relief after a week that was pretty much filled with tedious paperwork, mysterious pain which necessitated being totally numb on medicine, and having absolutely no ambition to do any of the creative things I love: tagging, Yuletide, Photoshoppy things. I say friends, cider, music and carousing on a perfectly crisp November night are the best way possible to get back on my feets.

Also my Chipettes icon sure doesn't hurt. x3

All right, so I need me some icons.

I think you guys should point me toward your very favorite icon makers and things OR EVEN BETTER to icons you guys have made yourselves so I can stock up. It's kinda late and I'm not very good at thinking at the moment buuuut I need Stephen King-y icons and The Office icons and maybe possibly Gossip Girl icons and Runaways and Disney and classic movies and Firefly and man, you guys know all the stuff I like. HIT ME. I'll give you a gold star or something if you leave me an icon in the comments you think I should have.

So, mysteriously on Sunday night I started having weird jaw pain. I didn't really think anything of it until the next day, when it started hurting really really badly. I went to the clinic later that day, sat in a waiting room for forty-five minutes, then got shuttled into a tiny room where a doctor with a perpetually confused expression on his face looked me over.

"So, what seems to be the problem?"

"Um, I have jaw pain. Really badly. It started hurting last night and I guess I must've been clenching it in my sleep."

At this point he looks at me like I tell him I'm starting to growing carrots out of my ears. He asks questions leading around various diagnoses I've already given myself thanks to the powers of the internet: possible sinus infection causing facial pressure, impacted tooth, and TMJ. He opens up my mouth and says that yep, my wisdom teeth are coming in on the bottom. He tilts my head back, looks for two seconds, and says he can't see the top teeth. Probably because it's dark in there, buddy. You wanna bust out your tiny flashlight or are you in too much of a hurry?

He's in too much of a hurry. He shakes the Magic 8 Ball in his head and all signs apparently point to TMJ, which he scribbles on my doctor's note, then proceeds to give some pain meds and a muscle relaxant. "Could be those wisdom teeth," he tells me, and then leaves. I picture the staff of the clinic huddled outside the door with a stopwatch, throwing up the horns and giving him backpats to celebrate his record time as he exits the room. But I shouldn't be so harsh, right? I mean, there isn't anything wrong with throwing two guesses out there and hoping one hits the mark?

It's not like, a science.

At the pharmacy, they had to change up the prescription, because he gave me two things that you can't take together.

And well, I can't function without the pain pills and the muscle relaxant, but I'm totally spaced out while I'm on them. I tried to do some research for my Yuletide fic tonight and it just wasn't happening. Blagh. I just hope this creepy jaw pain goes away sometime this week and doesn't come back. I need to start thinking about Christmas presents-- which are going to have to be homemade this year, mostly because of money but also because I feel I need some kinda creative outlet and to stay the hell out of the mall at all cost.

My tagging mojo needs to come back. Cuthbert hates me. DX

Oh, and I have literally looked at the DVD shelf three times this week, going I know, I'll watch Watchmen! in my brain, only to realize we don't own it. This is a sad turn of events, for sure, but what's funny is that my brain is so intent on forgetting that fact. It must be the Black Freighter case that keeps tricking me. But I strongly feel Rorschach will scare away my faily jaw pain. Or at the very least provide some perspective on pain. Ronch ronch ronch.

Well, she said. I'm back.

:3

The victorious but somewhat anticlimactic return of linaeloisetook to your friends page, though it's not really fair of me to say so because I never actually left, just sort of shirked my duty for a reeeeally long time. Probably some of the people I'll add to my flist never actually knew me when I was keeping a journal regularly, and probably some of the other people I'll add have entirely forgotten I exist. In the immortal words of Bilbo Baggins: I know less than half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. Except amend that last bit, I like all of you, and none of you are out to steal the deed to Bag End. But the first part, definitely. That's why I'm back again.

Thank you so much oddprofessor for the rename token!! It isn't that I don't love my old journal, cuz I do, but the creation of this new one was for a couple reasons. First of all, I'm lazy, and I would've had to trim my friends page anew, boot a bunch of communities and do a whole lot of maintenance on something that's a pretty nifty time capsule of me in my late teens/early twenties. I figured better to just start anew. I'm really excited to begin keeping a daily journal again and to be back in touch with a lot of people I haven't seen hide nor hair of in years (baranoouji, fauxophy, sandwichwarrior spring immediately to mind) and to read what my TR peeps are up to not in 140 character bites. :3

So... that's just about it. *gets cozy* I kinda missed you, LJ. And I definitely missed you guys.

- Linds.