Lilya and I got up fairly early, grabbed some breakfast, and headed off to my church. She was really impressed with the pastor and the congregation, and got a better idea of what my church means to me. She said she finally understood another piece of me, and what’s important to me. There are so many different things people could mean when they call themselves “Christian” and seeing first hand the church I call “my family” she was impressed, and wants to come back again some time. Talk about a huge compliment, wow! She also hit it off with Craig, the pastor, and they’ve already started talking about things on their own—she’s planning to teach him to read Hebrew, he’s loaning books to her that’s she’s always wanted to read, etc.

Donna and I also made some specific plans about the sign language chapters we’re going to work on next, and I’ll be going over to her house in a few weeks to help her with her computer. She’s really excited about getting back into her studies to also become clergy, and I’m going to help her sew a few stoles and things for her clergy wardrobe.

After church we went back to Dayle’s, packed the car again, and heard a little bit about her crazy morning. She lives in the Historic District, and in preparation for the Home Tours this fall, some guys dropped by to see the house. Unannounced. Seems her real estate agent kinda forgot to mention she actually gave them an appointment day and time to come over. So poor Dayle had to clean the house in a flurry, and I felt bad that (a) I wasn’t there to help, and (b) my stuff from the tournament was filling her living room. But the place looked gorgeous, so I’m sure she impressed them in her ever-efficient way, as always!

Lilya and I went to hang out in the park, where normally the local guys have “fighter practice” on Sunday afternoons. This is where people learn to fight in armor and heavy swords (made from solid bamboo) or where they practice a form of fencing from the middle ages. But since it was the day after the local tournament, turns out that practice had been cancelled. So the only people who came out were the folks who *weren’t* at the tourney the day before.

This was kind of nice, too, since it meant I got to see some friends I *really* hadn’t seen in a while. And of course, Lilya hit it off really well with everyone here, too, and it’s a given that if she decided to move here, she’d be immediately part of the family.

As if my weekend weren’t full enough, another college friend has finally caught up with me again. “Moose” has been a friend of mine since my 2nd year in college, although we hadn’t heard from each other in nearly ten years or so. He didn’t even know I had been singing with a band or recorded two CDs, it had been that long! Lilya and I went over to their place, and we all went out for the local salad-bar-and-soup restaurant. Carl is almost four now, and Timmy just turned 18 months. *Again* Lilya hit it off with them, and carried most of the conversation. But then again, some of that was a self-defense mechanism because of different opinions about fundamental Christian missions overseas. So she got to talk at length about Judaism, and I was fascinated to just sit back and listen. I made Michael (Moose) and Connie promise to help me not let ten years pass until we see each other again. And so I’m going to try to come back again in another three weeks or so. We’ll have some alone time to talk about Michael’s plans to go to Uganda for a summer mission trip, and we’ll see how that discussion goes. But most importantly, I’ve just missed my “little brother” from college, and was glad to see we could pick up where we last left off.

And again, Lilya really got to see yet another part of my life.

We decided to take the coast for the drive back, and continued our weekend full of deep conversations. After so many hours of such intimate conversation, we were easily given to tears. But shared tears are a good thing sometimes. She’s definitely one of my closest friends now.

Finally, back at her house, she and I played Tablero while her husband watched “Attack of the Clones” on tv. She’s just completely engrossed in the “Known Worlde Handbook” that she was able to get at the tournament, and the rules for Tablero were in there. I finally had to leave even before the game was over, because I was so tired, but all in all a wonderful weekend.

It was slightly embarrassing that when I got home, I didn’t have the energy to unpack and go inside, so I just napped a little in my car (to keep my things safe). A nice young police officer came by to wake me and see if I was okay. And she chatted with me for a while about all the gear in my car that I needed just for a little weekend trip with friends. Once my contacts were back in, I was awake and alert enough to unpack everything and crawl in bed.

That wraps up my weekend!

The morning packing went fairly well, and my friend Lilya even got to sleep another hour before I picked her up for the day’s events. And the “House of Coffee Splendor” went over fabulously. I arrived on site for the tournament a little after 7 am, and my friends helped me drag everything out of the car into the shady grass. I served coffee with zillions of flavored creamers and different kinds of sweetners (Vanilla Toffee Caramel was the biggest hit), tea and honey (Peach was the big hit this time), hot chocolate (for both grown-ups and kids alike), and spiced Hot Cider with sliced apples, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves (had to even make two pots of this). Besides the faithful fans who came to enjoy the coffee and other hot drinks, there were even a few friends who insisted on tipping me a dollar here and a dollar there. That was a first, and very silly! *Grin*

I met some wonderful new folks from the next shire up the coast including a Ph.D. student in English lit and her husband, some new folks from my home shire I had never met much before, and got re-acquainted with some folks I just have been missing over the past year and a half I’ve spent “living abroad.” I miss my “home town” a lot, and I could easily imagine my new job as my “get back on my feet job” and coming back within the next two years or so. No promises, just a feeling in my gut.

Speaking of feelings in my gut—isn’t it funny how you can feel like you’re back in junior high asking a friend to pass notes in homeroom to see if so-and-so likes you? Crushes are silly funny things, and it’s weird to have to deal with them. I love my close friends, and I’m sure they’re having fun laughing with me and my jr-high-like silliness. ‘Nuf said, that’s all I’m going to write about that for now. *grin*

After the event, during which I filled my entire memory card on my digital camera, we had yummy monogolian barbeque for the birthday celebrations of anyone in our group with April, May, and June birthdays. I still need to follow up with some gifts and/or cards, but I love the small-town feel of going out to eat with everyone. I’m glad we’re a close-knit group—it’s so relaxing and wonderful.

I’m also glad I was carpooling with Dayle, because I’d have been even more lost and late-arriving if we didn’t have her in the car. I didn’t realize there was a Mongolian BBQ just 3 blocks from the site of the tournament—I thought we were all going across town to “the other one.” Thanks again to Dayle!

Also, huge thanks to her for being the greatest hostess and having such a wonderful home. First, Lilya was able to crash there with me, at the last moment, and second we were able to have a bunch of folks come over after BBQ and sit around chatting till all hours. It was such an amazing dynamic because the folks there were a collection of very opininated talkative people, who really listened and shared more than you usually get with friends sitting around chatting. It seemed so facinating to me, to listen, to chime in, and yet to feel so much respect and sanity and support from one another. We come from a wide variety of religious and political opinions, we have different kinds of relationships in our lives, and we really talked about deep issues. And lo, it was good. It was one of those evenings I’ll always think of fondly and marvel at when I remember it.

Now I’m very VERY thankful to drift off to sleep. G’night.

Getting up early for the gym is good for me, and I’ll just keep remembering that. Really.

* * * * *

One wonderful thing about this new job is the speed of the local network and the lack of military firewall. It’s so nice to be able to finish work and then take a few hours to finish paying all my bills for the week, balance my checkbook, and go through my large shoulder bag to make sure that all my filing will get home in one piece, and not remain to be lugged around for weeks. The “…from the inside out” books have inspired me to be happier with “good enough” and not “excessively perfect” organization systems—ones that can be done quickly and are thorough enough without being overkill. I kinda always knew I was doing too much sometimes, and friends like Dayle would gently point it out to me on occasion. Their wisdom is making more sense day by day. Thanks folks.

* * * * *

I was very glad to see that I had brainstormed what I would need to pack for this weekend, because my plans to shop early and pack early never materialized. So when I did head out to hit the store, it went wonderfully quick and although I’m tired and need to get up really early, I’m almost completely packed and ready for tomorrow. Thankfully much of what I need for *next* weekend is what I’ve packed for this weekend, so that starting Monday I only have to wash and repack a few things then I’ll be ready again.

More later, dearies.

* * * * *
Recently Listened to: IZZ, “I Move”

Nice to know that my thoughts yesterday—about having a jet-lagged internal clock—were right. I forced myself out of bed around 5, 5:15 this morning, turned on the coffee pot, jumped into my workout clothes, packed my work clothes, put the coffee in travel mugs, packed the car, and hit the road. There is something *so* satisfying about traveling on the freeway at normal top speed the whole way and never slowing for traffic jams. Ahhh *sighs contentedly*

And then I was rewarded with the ability to pick my favorite parking space, workout, shower, dress, and wander into the office feeling alive and human and wonderful. How great is that!

The “Time Management from the Inside Out” book is rapidly becoming my favorite, and it’s encouraging to find that when I stop to jot some notes to myself, it turns out that she covers that very thing I jotted down in the very next chapter. The internal telepathy is working (yippee), and the gaps in my understanding about time management for my personal style are finally getting filled in with the tools I think I can really use.

There’s a tiny piece of me that wants to buy these books for everyone I know, but then again not only is that impossible financially, it’s silly. The only way you’ll read and apply these principles is if you have that personal internal motivation to do so. No one can hand you the book and *make* you learn to fix parts of your life that you feel need improvement.

But wow. I’m really glad I’m reading it!

* * * * *

After work I went to see a friend who just got back from Wales and London on an almost 2-week trip. She’s also my massage therapist, so we caught up on life, her trip, AND I paid to get a massage. Turns out I’ve actually been stressing (almost injuring?) my shoulders and the connected muscles in some of my workouts. I have almost no mobility to stretch my shoulders and arms back behind me, and what I thought was just working hard to gain mobility was really over-working the muscles and working too hard, too fast. So she gave me some stretching and exercise tips, recommended I take ibuprofen for a while to take down the inflammation, and NOT exercise those muscles on the machines in the gym for a while. Good to know.

Afterwards, I met up with Kristin (my best friend from college) for dinner. She’s been on the road, training software installations for her bay area company, and occasionally she’s been in town near me. So we’ve actually been able to catch up and see each other over dinner twice in the past month or so. We had this wonderful meal at Houston’s, one of her favorite restaurants and one I’d never heard of or tried. She claims they were the real/first inventors of spinich dip (the artichoke, spinach, cheese heated piece of heaven, served with chips) and I agree—it was amazingly yummy. Some day we may come back to order just two orders of spinach dip and a side of veggies or beans & rice for dinner. I opted for their veggie platter, which sounds boring as “chilled asparagus, grilled cauliflower, tomatoes, and couscous” but was actually very VERY flavorful and yummy. The asparagus was in a lemony creamy sauce, very savory, and the grilled cauliflower was also in a cheesy sauce (very light). And the couscous had yellow raisins, currents, peanuts, chopped herbs, mint, and spices and was really sweet and wonderful. Definitely worth ordering again! The warm apple cobbler was a let down, but since we were sharing and mostly full already, it didn’t break my heart to just put down the spoon and ignore the cobbler.

The drive home was very VERY tiring, and thankfully only 20 minutes or so. It’ll be a long day tomorrow, so g’night folks.

* * * * *
Recently Listened to: Iona, “Beyond These Shores” and IZZ, “I Move”

I think I’ve figured out why my internal clock is so confused. At the old job, I had a minimum 90-minute drive in most traffic, but I could cut it to 66 minutes if I left the house by 6 am, no later than 6:15. Everyone took lunch pretty much at 11 am, and so my day started really *really* early.

It’s my eighth week at the “new” job (whoa. two months already?!), and everything’s shifted several hours. I can still get to work by 9 if I leave by 8—I never could leave as late as 8 at the last job. And even more, everyone seems to eat around 1 pm. I’m usually starving by that time, but at the same time, around 11 am I feel like I’ve just started to dig into the work of the day.

I probably need to re-evaluate what time I get up, get to work, go to lunch, etc. to set all my inner cycles back on track. The luxury of sleeping in needs to be fine-tuned quite a bit.

* * * * *

I did make it to the gym again, finally, this afternoon. Around 2 I was just tired, sore, and cranky at my desk. I was daydreaming about sitting in a hottub, so I leapt up and worked out, just so I could clean up and stand under a hot shower for a bit. My shoulder’s been killing me—I think I’ve been sleeping on it wrong, night after night.

It was worth it—the exercise and the feeling of satisfaction was exactly what I needed to get back to work again. But it did show me how ridiculously off my clock was, since it was so late in the afternoon.

A few weeks ago, I was in class at 8 am five days a week, and most days I made it in to the gym before class started. I’m thinking that maybe I need to set that in motion again.

* * * * *

It may be tough to write for the next few days, in preparation for the tournament on Saturday. I’ve offered to bribe friends with what I call “coffee of splendoor” to get them to show up early enough for setup. I hate seeing only 1 or 2 people there on time, struggling to set up a large pavilion. So I’ll be serving coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and hot spiced cider for anyone who’ll show up early. So tomorrow night will be spent shopping and packing, Friday traveling, Saturday at the event, Sunday at church, and Sunday evening clearing boxes from the garage to help my roomies who are coming down with a moving van with the rest of Geoff’s boxes. And next weekend is a big camping trip, so it’ll be a bizarre next week.

See ya when I can!

* * * * *
Recently Listened to: Tori Amos, “To Venus and Back” (Disc 1: Live and Orbiting)