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Jan and John are both in Stockholm, finally, continues...
This morning I am flying to Stockholm to spend a few days with John at the end of his fabulous stay there. It's been many weeks since I've seen him, I can't wait.
Last night Kirsty finished a video of our adventure in Chicago. Wow! It really captures a lot of moments, I love it.
Jan is in London, John is in Stockholm, continues...
I arrived in London this morning! It was a pretty easy flight. I sat upstairs which I prefer, except when there is a "talker" which is very distracting and sleep is impossible.
After I sat down I got out my new iPhone and started to watch a movie that had Kathy Griffin in it called "Her Minor Thing." Kathy had only one short scene but she was pretty good. It was a very cute and fun film, I enjoyed it. I had bought a wire to use the plane electricity to power my iPhone and it took them a while to turn it on but when they did it worked perfectly, yay.
Unfortunately, it was not a quiet flight because there was a talker. She was an older lady, very elegant, with her very elderly husband. She looked extremely familar to me so she could be someone famous but I have no idea who. She sat and talked loudly with her husband for the first 2 hours of the flight while everyone ate dinner. It was a bit odd though because she was talking very loudly, about not much, and he seemed to be quite feeble and was really not paying attention to her or responding. Well, at least that way I only had to listen to one of them babbling about nothing.
Anyway, after dinner she finally shut up and they both got their flat beds made up and went to sleep. I had started to watch a film, "The 300" and it was so amazing I actually watched the whole thing. Gorgeous, very moving film.
Then I took an Ativan and tried to go to sleep. It sort of worked, I had the kind of sleep where you keep waking up and then drifting off again. For six hours. Then all of the sudden I heard the announcement that we were decending to Heathrow so I got up. Overall, the flight felt quick and mostly quiet. I love when that happens.
At Heathrow, I took the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station and then a taxi home.
I had not been looking forward to this visit to London for some reason. Well, I did have reasons: I really want to move into the new house, I am going to miss Clyde desperately and I was not looking forward to the chaos and noise of London.
But once I got into the taxi and it started driving through the streets of London all my apprehension faded away and I got all excited to be here. This happens a lot, about a lot of things, I dread it and then when I get there I love it.
I was greeted at the door by our friend Mary, who is now living in our guest suite with her daughter while she gets settled into her new job in London. Derek, who had been staying here all summer, now has his own apartment nearby so we'll still be able to hang out with him.
I'm completely exhausted so I'd better take a nap so I'm in good shape to go to Stockholm tomorrow morning. In the meantime, here are some photos I took at the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at SFO in San Francisco. Yea, it was my travel ideal. No checked luggage. Ah, freedom.
The only interrogation I got was the pre-checkin at SFO in San Francisco when he wondered why I had no luggage. I told him I live in London. Then he said, "What brings you to the U.S. then?" I said, "I live here too." That was good enough for him, thankfully, and no one else even asked me. I was also a little nervous about going through security with our terabyte hard-drive (now reduced from 3 to 1 hard drive) with all our music on it. However, I was less nervous than I had been because a guy standing next to me at baggage retrieval at Oakland airport when I got home from Chicago on Monday said he travels with hard-drives all the time so the security people are used to them and it's not a problem. When they announced that computers should be removed from carry-on luggage I took out the hard-drive to indicate I wasn't hiding anything (as opposed to having them see it in my bag and then wanting to stop and do a bag search and explanation.) It worked, my stuff just went right through. Whew.
I avoided the lack of luggage issue when I landed at Heathrow too because the Iris system was working so I just looked into the little window to be scanned and the doors opened. A perfect ending to a pleasant journey.
Jan is in California, John is in Stockholm, continues...
Today I am flying to London where I'll be for the next three months. And on Friday I am flying to Stockholm to see John, at last. Hurray!
It has been a fun-filled summer in California. The biggest event being the new house which we will move into when we return to California.
When I got back from Chicago yesterday, Clyde was beside himself and has not left my side (or lap) since then. Today he was stretched out on the sofa. I'm going to miss him terribly while I am in London and can't even think about how much I'm going to miss him after we move into the new house.
I am really excited about seeing John and getting together with our London friends. I just know it's going to be fabulous.
Speaking of fabulous, I just had to post another of this guy's videos. He is truly incredible.
Jan is in California, John is in Stockholm, continues...
Today is my last full day in California before I go to London for three months.
After being away 4-1/2 days I have a lot to catch up on before I leave tomorrow. One of those things is sending out mooches from BookMooch. I added a lot of books to BookMooch about a month ago. Take a look at how few are left. Yay!
Before and after:
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Jan is in California, John is in Stockholm, continues...
Whew, I'm home from Chicago! It was an amazing four days. AMAZING!
About the only non-amazing part of going to the conference was the conference itself, sadly. It was the most badly organised conference I've ever been to and I've been to a lot of conferences. It is not sponsored or run by Second Life, it is a fan-based, fan-run conference. I can see they have really good intentions. But they are clearly not professional conference organisers and could really do with the benefit of one.
Nothing was on time. That's not unusual in any conference but this one was chronic. The schedule was a mess and difficult to read. It was not clear where to go for registration. Or lunch. On Saturday we didn't know lunch was provided. It was listed on the schedule simply as "Lunch" with no other info. We went to it on Sunday (after hearing about it from other people) and it was really nice. I wish we'd know about it on Saturday.
The worst part of the disorganisation was the lack of internet connectivity during the presentations. On Saturday we went to several presentations who all commented that they would be having difficulty without internet.
One particular presenter for a session that was already starting late proceeded to install software on her computer while we watched on the projection screen. Considering her self-important attitude I would have expected her to be better prepared. Then again, maybe not. We walked out of that one, much to our disappointment.
However, Sunday was wonderful. They still didn't have internet in the presentation rooms and for the first one we arrived for they didn't even have a projector provided. So everyone sat around waiting.
But the presentation was amazing, outstanding and inspiring. Actually, the software was jaw-dropping astonishing but the presenter was also excellent. One of my problems with most sessions was they had panels. I think panels are a nightmare at conferences (or ever). It is a mistake to dilute a topic by having more than one "expert" sitting at a table trying to contribute in a coherent but abridged way while other people are doing the same. It just doesn't work. What works is when you have one excellent presenter. And a projector would have been nice.
At the end of that presentation (after which everyone was hopping up and down with enthusiasm) the company gave out some copies of the software as prizes. Guess who won a copy of the Studio version of the software? Yea, me. Hilarious!
Although I find machinima fascinating, I'm not about to start creating it. But Kirsty already does. I wasn't going to put my name down but Chuck told me I should because then it would increase the chances of Kirsty getting the software. OMG, it worked. She laughed and pretended jealousy when I won the prize and was speechless when I handed it to her and told her of our plan. Hurrah!
The next presenter was impressive on many levels. He just spoke to us in a calm, intelligent voice and then showed his machinima project. Everyone was speechless. He is a genius. Kirsty and I had met him on Saturday and chatted briefly and I had an idea of who he was because I had seen some of his machinima on YouTube. He was incredibly nice to us without even knowing who we were. (There was not a lot of that at this conference, I'm sorry to say.) We were stunned by his work and also by him. If I were looking for a job I would be camped out on his doorstep begging to work for him.
Because our experience on Sunday was so good, our overall impression of the conference was positive. We learned a lot, met some great people, got some amazing press for Kirsty (hopefully). But the organisers really need to get organised for future events.
I loved Chicago. It looks and feels more like New York City than any other city I've been to. Huge buildings, amazing skyline, Lake Michigan, restaurants, activities, and... traffic. OMG, the traffic was horrendous. Getting to the airport was quite an experience. But I got a very good first impression of Chicago. Everyone was wonderfully friendly. I would go back any time, it's a great city.
I have to say that the best part of being in Chicago was Chuck and Dayna. Their kindness and generosity is beyond description. THEY ARE TWO OF THE MOST AMAZING PEOPLE I HAVE EVER MET!
Seriously.
After the conference ended on Sunday, we went to their house in the Chicago suburbs. Beautiful house, lovely neighborhood and amazing Chuck and Dayna. They ordered Sushi/Asian fusion take-out and it was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. And they read the blog so they had plenty of pink champagne on hand. Fabulous! It was incredibly yummy and I drank rather a lot of it.
Their children are adorable and way too intelligent. They're amazing. We also discovered that Chuck is a fabulous DJ! He played us an old-skool set and Kirsty danced around the room. It was incredible. After dinner we all played Wii which Kirsty and I had never done before. Wow, it's incredible!
The whole evening was so fabulous that it made it even harder to say goodbye. Sigh.
Chuck drove us back to the hotel in Chicago and since I was leaving early this morning I packed last night. Kirsty got to spend some more time with Chuck and Dayna today before they took her to the airport. I am seriously astonished that I liked Chuck and Dayna so much. I knew I would like them, because we've hung out on Second Life enough to know that much. But I didn't expect them to be my peeps, in so many ways. I feel so lucky to know them and we will have to find an excuse/reason to get together again.
THANK YOU CHUCK AND DAYNA FOR MAKING OUR STAY IN CHICAGO EXTRAORDINARY. YOU ARE FABULOUS.
Jan is in Chicago, John is in Stockholm, continues...
I was so busy at the convention I didn't have much time to spend on the blog so I'm updating it now that I'm home. Here are some highlights from Saturday:
1. Opening Keynote Speech by Linden Lab founder Philip Rosedale. I had never seen him before and really enjoyed his speech. His enthusiasm is inspiring as is the transparency of how the company acknowledges technical issues and ongoing problems.
2. Met my SL friend "Buridan" in Real Life for the first time.
He recently moved to Chicago to accept a job and I was so happy to meet him at last. He is one of the first people I met in Second Life and he was incredibly helpful to me when I was creating the Magnatune space on Second Life.
3. Met Philip Rosedale.
He was standing in the halway and people were asking for photos so I did too. When I introduced myself as the co-founder of Magnatune he was incredibly enthusiastic about how much he loves it. Philip, me and Kirsty got into a discussion about Magnatune and music on SL in general as a crowd formed taking photos of Philip (a crowd formed wherever he went this weekend). While we were talking ABC News came along and filmed some of it. Yay! I hope I was having a good hair day.
4. ABC News interviewed Kirsty for 20/20 Primetime feature on SL conference
Earlier in the day Kirsty and I got separated and while she was looking for me ABC News stopped her and asked her who she was, what she was doing at the conference, etc. They liked her response and asked if they could film an interview with her for a feature they're doing about Second Life. Wow! It was while we were waiting to meet with them that we bumped into Philip Rosedale which was why they just happened to come along and start filming us talking with him. Then I went with Kirsty (for moral support) to another hotel where they filmed the interview. It was really interesting and the people from ABC were incredibly nice. It's supposed to air on 20/20 or Prime Time in September so I'll be sure to blog that.
5. Masked ball in the evening with great music, great people and much dancing.
Well, we expected it to be a bit of a freak show, and it was, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I do get tired of obese people dressing as goths, but they seem to like doing it so... Kirsty wore the black tutu that we bought in Covent Garden. I wore a black Eileen Fisher dress. ABC News was there so they filmed Kirsty walking into The Ball and also dancing. I really hope the segment airs and it's fabulous. Fingers crossed.
Chuck and Dayna arrived at The Ball and we had an amazing time. We met some really nice Second Life people too. The music was awesome and when Chuck asked the DJ's to play some of Kirsty's music they didn't happen to have any (bastards) but were completely freaked out when Chuck told them she was at The Ball. They asked to be introduced, which Kirsty was happy to do (including autographs). Fabulous!
Jan is in Chicago, John is in Stockholm, continues...
Kirsty and I are getting ready to go to the opening of the conference today but I wanted to pop in quickly with some photos and I'll add more to it later when I have time. Here are some highlights from yesterday:
1. Kirsty and I explored Chicago a little and walked over to Lake Michigan which is gorgeous.
2. We went to the hotel bar to wait for Chuck and Dayna to arrive for the conference registration and the bartender refused to serve Kirsty without her ID which was up in our room. We had Perrier instead.
3. Chuck and Dayna took us to dinner at Pops for Champagne and it was COMPLETELY SPECTACULAR!
4. After dinner we went downstairs at Pops for live jazz which was excellent.
5. Chuck and Dayna are two of the most fun people I've ever met and I want them to move to San Francisco so they can be my new best friends.
More later!
Jan is in Chicago, John is in Stockholm, continues...
Wow, after yesterday's airport drama, Kirsty arrived safely in the evening. Chuck and Dayna were waiting for her when she emerged with her long-awaited luggage and it was a happy reunion.
They drove her back to the hotel where I had been biting my finger nails worrying. There was a knock on my door and there they were, yay! Then Chuck and Dayna presented us with litle gift bags of tshirts they had created for us with graphics of our Second Life avatars. Fabulous! OMG, they are amazing. Thank you, Chuck and Dayna, you are completely incredible.
The four of us went down to the hotel bar for some drinks and to wind down after a tense afternooon/evening and it was great to hang out and laugh.
This morning Kirsty and I got up and went in search of lattes. Yummy. The weather isn't too bad, it's warm and muggy but not raining, yay. Fingers crossed. We're going to explore Chicago a bit today and then the registration for the Second Life Community Convention starts at 4 so we'll meet Chuck and Dayna for that and then a fabulous dinner together tonight.
The convention starts tomorrow and we're really excited!
Jan is in Chicago, John is in Stockholm, continues...
Today I am flying to Chicago for the Second Life Community Convention. Kirsty is also flying from London and meeting me there and we're sharing a hotel room. Wow, that is going to be hilarious!
Other Second Life friends are going to be there as well, some we have met in Real Life, some we have not met before. It's going to be a really fun and interesting three days. I assume I will have internet access in my hotel room but what I'm not sure I will have a lot of is time. So I may just pop in to the blog and post bits of stuff and then add more after I get home on Monday. See you in Chicago!
I am in Chicago!
The flight was easy and the three and a half hours passed surprisingly quickly. There are a few photos from the plane flying over San Francisco. Wow, I've never flown over it from that angle before. When I looked out the window I was really surprised and quickly grabbed my camera and managed a couple photos. It was around 6:45 a.m. and the sun was still coming up.
Chuck and Dayna were waiting for me at baggage claim. In fact, I im'd them when the plane landed and they im'd me back to go baggage claim #9. We love our iPhones. '-)
They met me with a sign that said "Janford Flax" which is my avatar's name in Second Life. Hilarious!!!
Chuck and Dayna are friends I know from Second Life who live in the Chicago area and are also going to the Second Life Community Convention. Kirsty has met them before so I knew they were going to be fabulous and they are. They are incredibly kind and generous, I'm so happy I've met them at last.
Kirsty's flight wasn't due to arrive until 3:30 so instead of driving me into Chicago to the hotel (which probably wouldn't let me check in yet anyway) and then them having to drive back to the airport , I suggested we eat lunch at the airport and wait for Kirsty. So we did. There was champagne.
When I landed in Chicago the sun was shining and it was lovely after what I had been told was several days of nasty rain. When we left the restaurant to pick up Kirsty the weather had completely changed! The sky was black and by the time we got from our parking space to the lot exit it was raining sideways. We drove over to the international terminal and it was raining sideways plus lightning and thunder. Chuck checked the flight info on his iPhone and discovered Kirsty's plane had been diverted to Detroit because of the storm and would be delayed for hours. OMG!
So they drove me into Chicago to the hotel through hideous traffic and then went back through hideous traffic again to the airport to wait for Kirsty. Chuck and Dayna are saints!
So I'm in the hotel waiting. Chuck im'd that her plane has landed but the storm has started up again and they cannot unload baggage when there is lighting so they are waiting until the storm passes. So Kirsty is stuck waiting for her luggage and Chuck and Dayna are stuck waiting for Kirsty.
Somebody's going to need some champagne!
Jan is in California, John is in Stockholm, continues...
Clyde has been sick. I was immediately suspicious when he did not demand water from the faucet when he came in in the morning. Then he would go to the sofa and just sort of crouch there in what looked like an uncomfortable position, instead of laying down in one of his unbearably cute positions. After a couple days of this I decided he actually looked like he was in pain so I called over to his owners when I heard them next door.
His mom came over and got him and they took him to the vet. They think he had some kind of intestinal bacterial infection, put him on antibiotics and quarantined him in their house. So I hadn't seen him for three days. He showed up yesterday, as feisty as ever. And more needy than ever. After his ritual drink at the faucet he proceeded to explore the house like never before, including getting up on the chairs under the dining table. Now that's cute.
Last night he jumped up on one of our beautiful "jester" chairs which concerned me because I didn't want him to accidentally ruin the silk fabric or claw at the tassel which he has done in the past. He settled down on the chair, briefly, but discovered that the seat was not comfortable for cats and he moved on.
This morning he was up on the chair again and I thought what is it with that chair he likes? and I realized that it was not the chair, it was the chair's proximity to me. He was trying to settle down as close to me as possible. Last night he had wanted to spend the entire evening in my lap at the computer which is adorable but not really practical or comfortable for me after a while. So, his trying to find a chair as close to me as possible is the next best thing to my lap. Sigh. What a cutie.
Then he jumped up into John's desk chair which is right next to me and finally settled down there. He's sleeping in it as I type.
OMG, I am going to miss him so much it is breaking my heart.
Strangely, one of Clyde's 8 brothers and sisters has suddenly decided he wants to play. After years of running away whenever he sees me, Mr. Stubbs (truly the worst cat name I've ever heard) now walks right up to me in our garden and lets met scratch his head and back. He purrs and follows me around. Wow, is that weird. Even another of their cats, Rita, who used to run from me the minute I opened the door, now lays there and purrs while I scratch her head. It's like the cats are conspiring to make me feel even worse about moving away. Sorry cats, I love ya but the pool wins.
At this point only two of their cats have never let me near them: Frank and Munchkin. Now let's see, what are the names of their cats who do let me play with them: Rego, Clyde, Blackie, Stan, Mr. Stubbs, Rita, Lexie. Wow, that's a lot of cats.
Jan is in California, John is in Stockholm, continues...
Back in July I added 60+ Joyce Carol Oates books to BookMooch and now there are only 11 left. Amazing! I just finished her newest book "The Gravedigger's Daughter" last night and after adding it to BookMooch someone requested it within 10 minutes. Fabulous!
She is one of my favorite authors ever but I decided I didn't need to be carrying her dozens of books around with me for the rest of my life. Especially for our upcoming move.
Yesterday I remembered that I had a book signed by her. Oops! I wondered if it had gotten mooched yet so I went through my little pile and found that I still had it. Hmmm, to mooch or not to mooch. Sure, why not.
She signed the book at a Borders Bookstore appearance in Philadelphia in 1992. It was really neat meeting her. Of course I gushed how much I loved her books and had been reading them since 1973, and that I had every single one of them. Her reaction was apathetic and I thought I could see the little wheels turning in her mind saying, "Oh yes, this is character X from book Y, page 137: the star-struck, middle-class fan who craves recognition because she's read all my books if indeed she has read all of them and why should I care anyway. Damn I'm tired."
Her lack of enthusiasm was disappointing but not surprising. The authors I have gotten to know over the last few years handle book signings and fans extremely well, with kindness and amazing energy, but I do have a much better perspective than I had in 1992. I can see how difficult it must be on an exhausting book tour, dealing with hundreds of fans demanding attention and "praise" for being fans. And I'm one of the sane fans (IMO). I know that there are loonie fans out there. Incredibly loonie fans verging on stalkers. Joyce Carol Oates is still one of my favorite authors ever. I will expect a personal letter from her in a few days thanking me for my loyalty '-)
After the book signing in 1992, my boyfriend at the time, who did not read books but reluctantly drove me to the event, was also less than enthusiastic and wanted to leave immediately in search of more beer. Yea, that was my life before John '-)
Jan is in California, John is in Stockholm, continues...
Last night I had my weekly Sunday dinner with friends and neighbors Teresa and Bob. This was our final dinner together before I start traveling and will be away for three months.
After going to Unicorn every Sunday for years we decided it was time for a change so we have been going to Venus, which is a wonderful restaurant. But when we got to Venus last night it was packed so we walked on down to Downtown. It was nice, quieter than Venus, but the food was not as good.
Teresa and Bob are two of my favorite people ever. I'm going to miss our Sunday dinners.
Jan is in California, John is in Stockholm, continues...
John is back in Stockholm, yay, so he is back online and we had some iChat this morning.
Yesterday I took Bart into San Francisco to have lunch with my long-lost friend Jon, who I met after 30 years at a conference in Geneva last February. We have stayed in touch since then and I was so excited when he said he was coming to San Francisco for a conference.
We had lunch at Lulu. The food was exquisite. The service was very slow although the waitress apologised several times and said they were missing some staff. Hmmm, ok. Well, the food was great and I will go back and give it a try next time I'm in that part of the city.
Jon brought his friend Jerri who is going to the same conference. It's always nice to meet people in person who I have met in Second Life. She is fabulous, I'm so glad I got to meet her. Jon is an amazing person, so fun, I really adore him and am still completely verklempt that we bumped into each other after 30 years.
I wish he and Jerri lived here so I could see them all the time!
Jan is in California, John is in Helsinki, continues...
Yesterday, Teresa and I drove to the new house (she drove) for a bit of pool time. I took a couple photos from the windy road and you can see the house in the distance across the valley, which gives you a really good idea of how isolated it is.
Below is a panoramic photo I made from several photos of the interior. Photos do not at all capture the feeling of openness and space you get when you walk into the house. Hmmm... Well, that's what the main floor looks like anyway: to the left leads to the master bedroom, center is the living room and to the right is the dining room and kitchen.
I'll probably head over there one more time before I leave next week.
John is on the boat on his way back to Stockholm from Helsinki, so he should be back online tomorrow, yay. In the meantime, he's sending me text messages from his iPhone '-)
| Jan is in California, John is... somewhere in Finland, continues...
He is somewhere in Finland with no internet access. I didn't even know that was possible '-) But he called on the phone this morning and it was great to talk to him. He will be returning to civilisation, and the internet, tomorrow. Yesterday, my friend Teresa brought me some birthday gifties, including spectacular flowers, a little cake and some champagne. Thank you, Teresa! And thank you everyone for all the blog and email birthday wishes! |
And an extra special thank you to Kirsty who completely redecorated her dance club in Second Life as a giant birthday tribute. OMG, that is incredible. Thank you, Kirsty. What an amazing friend you are.
Jan is in California, John is in Helsinki, continues...
Wow, it's that time of year again: my birthday. I can't believe I'm 54. I'm having the time of my life and am particularly grateful to be in good health, fingers crossed.
Last night I had dinner with David and Hanneke. We had dinner at the soon to be closing Zax. It was an exquisite dinner in every way and now we're even more disappointed that Zax is closing. Yes, that is dessert. I had only one bite. Really I did.
David and Hanneke are so fun. I'm glad I had the opportunity to see them before I start traveling next week.
Jan is in California, John is in Helsinki, continues...
Some more photos of Stockholm from Ramsay while John is away in Helsinki. Lovely.
John did call me on iChat video yesterday afternoon (evening for him) so we got to catch up. One week from today I fly to Chicago for the Second Life conference, then the week after that I fly to London. So I'm just hangin'.
Jan is in California, John is in Helsinki, continues...
Ramsay sent me some fabulous photos he took when he and John visited Tivoli in Stockholm. I thought it would be fun to share them on the blog while John is away in Helsinki this week.
John said this Tivoli is not as large as the one in Copenhagen but they had a great time. I'm looking forward to seeing it in person.
Ramsay takes beautiful photos. Thank you, Ramsay, for sharing them with me and letting me put them on the blog!
| Jan is in California, John is in Helsinki, continues...
Kirsty is so amazing. Go buy her new single right now! |
Jan is in California, John is in Helsinki, continues...
Yesterday my friend Teresa and I drove over to the new house to spend the afternoon at the pool. This is my first visit to the house after officially owning it. Wow, I'm so excited!
We stopped and got takeout for lunch and then went to Target to get some floating noodles for the pool.
I was impressed that Teresa knows how to dive and swim underwater. I can barely keep head above the water (hence the floating noodles). It was a gorgeous afternoon, we loved it.
| Jan is in California, John is in... Helsinki! continues...
Yesterday afternoon, John took an overnight boat from Stockholm to Helsinki. Very cool. The views are gorgeous and he said the boat was really fun. He's going to be in Helsinki for a few days meeting with various people, then he'll go back to Stockholm where I'm meeting him in a couple weeks. Can't wait! He called me from Helsinki on iChat video this morning (afternoon for him), so I know he arrived safe and sound. Hey wait, he's having a bottle of champagne. Damn. Well, then again, so am I. I'm really looking forward to sharing some champagne together soon. |
Jan is in California, John is in Stockholm, continues...
No, I'm not talking about my colonoscopy again. I mean purging the house.
Moving is hell. But one side-benefit to moving is purging all the crap that you don't need/want that has collected over the years. We moved into our current house in 2000 and have accumulated an astonishing amount of stuff. Before he left for Stockholm, John had started to empty some rooms of stuff we are going to get rid of and put it in the living room. So now our living room is a mess.
In the dining room, I have a giant stack of books that I'm giving away on BookMooch. In fact, some guy mooched 30 of them yesterday, yay.
Upstairs we have piiles of old clothes that are a combination of ugly and worn out. Probably the most tedious purge is the several drawers of papers I've been saving for no reason I can think of. Stuff like electric bills from 2002. I'm separating the papers into stacks: important-and-save, recycle as-is, and shred-then-recycle. So far, "shred" is winning.
I can't even begin to describe the nightmare in the attic. What, no photo of the attic? Be glad.
In other news, I've gained five pounds since John left 2 weeks ago. Actually I gained it all in the first week he was gone. This always happens because I don't cook so I get a lot of Lean Cuisine which is yummy but not "Lean" if you eat 4 of them for lunch.
Plus I'm bored with John gone so I go out to the store and get a bag of mustard flavored pretzels, or jelly beans. The problem with that is that I don't eat just a few and then save the rest for later, I eat the whole bag within an hour. It's so incredibly yummy. But then the next day I'm annoyed that I gained two pounds. Sigh.
My apples and sparking water diet has worn out its welcome and I can't even look at an apple anymore. So I went to the store, somehow managed to walk past the mustard flavored pretzels, and bought salad. Yes, salad. That I had to chop myself. Yea, I know, it's scary. Well I discovered that when you buy salad you have to chop yourself you can put in the kinds of things you love that pre-chopped salad doesn't have. Like radishes. I could live on radishes, I love them. Although you probably don't want to be in the room with me afterward, if you know what I mean.
So far, I've lost three pounds. A couple more pounds to go and then I can reward myself with a bag of mustard flavored pretzels. And then start all over again. =:-0
Jan is in California, John is in Stockholm, continues...
Last night I realized that if John was here we would be going out to celebrate the new house. So I decided to celebrate by myself and opened a bottle of champagne. Nicholas Feuillatte Palmes d'Or. It wasn't pink but it was damn good. It would have been better if John were here, sigh.
While I was sitting at my computer surfing and sipping champagne, Kirsty came online after her gig in Malta. Hilarious! It was around 4 a.m. there. Her performance went great and she was really awake so we talked on IM and sent each other hilarious photos which I promised not to show on the blog (damn). She edited the footage from the show for a video which is fabulous. She's amazing, I can't believe I know her. BTW, her new single, one of her best songs yet, is coming out on Monday. More about that later in the week '-)
After finishing her video she went off to get some sleep and I poured myself a second (omg) glass of champagne and settled down on the sofa with Clyde and my book. Lovely.
