I don't suffer from insanity,

You know the university you work for is a nerd school when the cheer leaders go to the chess games. What in the world does a chess cheer sound like? I wanna hear them!

So, lessee.

I don't feel that much has been going on day to day, and yet here I am in a life changing moment.

I start my new job on Monday. I'm still in that bizarre emotional place of being terribly sad about leaving my good friends and being excited and terrified of starting something new. I don't know. Maybe changing jobs isn't a big deal to some people, but this is such an emotionally charged event for me.

We had lunch together yesterday - all of us from the Shop in one big group. It was really delightful. I'm so glad that basically everyone at the Shop plays World of Warcraft, because that connection will allow me to "see" them often.

After lunch, we took a brief tour of the old sites the Shop used to inhabit - the one right before our current one on Mill Street, and the one before that on Smith Street.

I remember Mir telling me about the Smith Street shop, and the graveyard nearby, but I had no idea how absolutely beautiful the graveyard actually was. When we arrived in our three vehicles, we took the short stroll out there and I was in awe. It's an old graveyard - I don't think they bury people there anymore. I need to go back and take pictures, though. It was really an absolutely beautiful setting. If the Shop still had been at Smith Street, I totally would have taken picnic lunches on any promising good weather day.

So, today a new page in my life is turning. I am leaving the place where I've been the go-to person for a good, long while. Where I have good friends and people I care for. People whose weddings I've been a part of, people from whom I have received and given heartfelt confidences. I'm so going to miss Mir. She has been the most awesome boss of all time. And an awesome friend. We share so many annoying habits (like listening to the same album all day, or burning incense), that would drive any other person completely nuts.

I'm going to miss everyone.

I've spent more waking hours at the Shop than I have basically any where else, and Monday another new page in my life will turn. I'll be the new person and completely out of my comfort zone. Among strangers whom I will have to learn to like. Luckily, most of them seem very likeable. But for a basically shy person like myself, it's very scary. I know I'll rise to the job demands - I thrive on organizing and fixing things....

/sigh

So, anyway, enough about that, I guess.

Last weekend for our anniversary, Matt and I went to the Austin Celtic Festival. We left after work on Friday and headed to San Antonio first, to spend some time with Rob, Sioux and Kyr, and Siouxsie's sister's family. I had never met Leslie's husband, so that was good. Leslie's children are nice, too. ^_^ We got there around midnight, and Matt went to bed fairly early on. I stayed downstairs and visited until 3 am, and enjoyed every bit of it, although the drive home after the festival got really difficult there at the end.

Saturday morning, we woke up and had a long, lazy breakfast. Then we headed out to the festival. It was a lot of fun, and has grown quite a bit from the last time I went several years ago. It's in a city park, and the parking was packed to the gills. Luckily we found a spot, though! There were a lot of vendors and good music, plus two different re-enactment groups (a viking one and a celto-roman one, heh).

The cap of the evening, though, was getting to hear one of my favorite celtic rock bands perform - Seven Nations. So. Much. Fun! It was the first time in like four years that I'd seen them, so I enjoyed every minute of it. Best of all, I looked up their website and they'll be in the DFW area in June '08!

After Seven Nations played, we headed back home, got in the door a few hours later and promptly collapsed. ZzzZZZzzz. I'm glad we made it safely, because I don't even remember driving through Waxahachie.

This week, I've been training my replacement. She's gonna be just as confused and out of her element on Monday as I am, heh. I told her she could email me any questions, though.

Ok, I suppose that's it for now. Change is good. But not easy.

Thu 8/9: MnM game at Steve's. Our Hero High game, which was much fun. We faced a big bad guy that was tough to defeat, but of course we won in the end! However, a change is in the air. I've been told Serenity is up next, and been informed that we'll be carnies. I think carnies set in the Serenity/Firefly will be a hoot! I'm thinking a gypsy-ish fortune teller would be fun....

Fri 8/10: The werewolf game was much fun. We're an official pack and everything. I had a blast, as usual.

Sat 8/11: annawick and finari met Matt and I at our house and we joined the DFWCG at Dallas Heritage Village for a lecture on Victorian era clothes. I think the breakthrough was the fact that we found out that they almost always flat lined. Which is so much easier than the other ways to line things. Sweet!

Saturday evening had us playing our Star Wars RPG at the Stamms'. The group is much smaller now, as one dropped out due to moving to Chicago, and another dropped out due to family stuff. Now the group size is six, I think? Perfect! I think I'll enjoy the games a lot more, now. Much better than eight, that's for sure, as much as I'll miss the other two players, we'll just get more playing in.

Sun 8/12: Laundry, packing, other prep.

Mon 8/13: I woke up and it was still dark outside. I don't like dark mornings! Matt took me up to the shop and at 6am we started the long drive to Indy. I read Harry Potter book 6, and later started sewing my cap. The travel was uneventful, no rain even. I took the last shift and drove us to our hotel.

Tue 8/14: We got to the hotel at 2am. I woke up at 9:45am, as breakfast stopped being served at 10am. After breakfast, we headed in to the convention center and set up. We were done by mid-afternoon and then headed back to the hotel, where I chilled out and played some WoW on the laptop, chatted with the hubby, and got some rest.

Wed 8/15: Bryan and I went to the zoo in the morning with Pete and Cheryl and their son Will. We had a blast. The otters were awesome - one of the little ones couldn't climb up to follow the rest so a big 'un turned around and pulled it up by its head. The dolphin show rocked, of course. I also saw baby giraffes and baby elephants. The highlight, however, was the SHARK PETTING POOL!

Oh, yes indeed. You did in fact hear that correctly. A pool of water in which you reached down to PET the SHARKS as they swam past. Ok, so they were like little sharks, only about three feet long. But I still made sure their heads were past before I stuck my hand in to touch them! ^_~

After the zoo, we headed back to the convention center again for some minor set-up tweaks. I also met the man in the booth behind me. I managed to be civil and even possibly friendly. Luckily, I didn't have to interact with him much during the course of the show, as we were just too busy. And as the show went on, I got over it and by the end of the show, it was a "sure, whatever" feeling. Hooray!

After the minor tweaks, back to the hotel and ZzzzZZzz for me!

Thu 8/16: Thursday morning had me up before daylight again. Yuck. Ron, Matt C and I headed in for a 7:30am meeting with a distributor and breakfast at the Marriott. The meeting went as expected, and then we headed into the convention center and saw show start with the opening of the exhibit hall and incoming throngs of gamers.

The only real downside of the exhibit hall this year is that the convention staff didn't run the attendees out quick enough. Or at all, really. They just made the announcement and seemed to trust that the attendees would leave. Bleh. They did, it just took them forever.

After the exhibit hall closed, I headed over to the miniature room for pizza in the evening with demo team. I sat and visited for a while and worked some more on the cap.

Fri 8/17: I spent the morning in the exhibit hall, and then had a noon meeting with our German distributor, which went as well as expected. Then back to the exhibit hall for more work. I had Chipotle for dinner with demo team, then an early, anti-social night. Yay!

Sat 8/18: Saturday, of course, was the busiest day, although Sunday felt just as busy - the hall just closes two hours earlier, so that's the only reason we don't do as much. After the exhibit hall closed, per our annual tradition, we had dinner with Wayne & Ged, their two friends Tim and Jen (who were cool), and our sculptors and staff. It was really awesome to see Ged & Wayne again, and Ged gave me this really cute Magenta & Jinkx hoodie from her website Strangely Familiar. I adore it!! (I have plans for her this Christmas, too. Muahahah!) She and her friend Anne are the designers/owners of that site, and I love the stuff they're creating there.

There was big time drama at the restaurant. Whee! I sent Janice, one of my volunteers, to the restaurant to get the ball rolling, as we had twenty-five people that we were feeding. There, the hostess told Janice that she'd "need to see Benjamin or Jackson if you want to get seated before two hours." Janice wanted to know exactly what that meant, so the hostess and her friend came up with the price of if we wanted a half hour wait it would be $10 per person, or an hour wait at $5 per person. Wow.

Matt C, when he heard about it, stomped right on in and read her the riot act. Then he read the riot act to the manager, saying stuff along the lines of the fact that we eat there every year, and that we would NOT be extorted out of our money just to be seated and served. The hostess tried to defend herself saying it "was a tip." Yeah, right.

Anyway, we got seated shortly after that (about a half hour wait, total), and got lots of free food, too. Either everyone in the restaurant wanted to distance themselves from the hostess or they really didn't like her, because several of the wait-staff came to thank Matt C for getting her fired...

I don't think anyone spit in our food, but I ordered shishkabob just in case....

After dinner, Bryan, Linc and I headed over to the White Wolf party where I did some socializing, and a little dancing. We called it early, though and were gone by midnight. Too loud to really visit in there, and I just wasn't in the mood to dance, I guess. It was fun, though, over all. A cute boy with absolutely beautiful dreadlocks flirted with me, which was flattering.

Sun 8/19: Whee, Sunday! Last day of the con. Pure chaos and take-down. Much tiredness.

I scored a copy of Changeling: The Lost. I also got to chat with Ethan Skemp, although I avoided talking about WtF. Turns out he's a HUGE fan of the stuff we make at the shop. It's funny how common hobbies makes talking to "icons" of the industry no big deal. It happened that way with Wayne (Ged's husband), too. Matt thinks Changeling looks like a great NPC sourcebook but I think it looks alright. Although of the nWoD books, I think Mage is still my favorite. Hm. But I haven't looked into Scion yet...

We had dinner together with what was left of our staff and artists at the Steak N Shake near our hotel, and due to the sheer exhaustion (and some cultural differences in pronunciation), some silliness ensued:

"I desperately need a root beer float," said Erin, from Minnesota, flipping through the menu.
"A what?!" Bryan (a Texan) asked, extremely startled.
Erin glanced over at him, puzzled. "A root beer float..."
"Oh. I thought you said I desperately need to rip your throat!!"

Also, on our return from dropping Erin off at her hotel, Bryan and I took the most convoluted and wrong-exited way back to our own hotel. The signs said "Detour" but we both concluded that it was "de Tour" since it was certainly the scenic route with signs placed especially for us by the Anti-Destination League of Indianapolis.

I also maintain that we took those exits to avoid taking the wrong ones on our way home on the following day.

You know, to get it out of our system early.

Mon 8/20: And the exodus home. I co-piloted for about 8 hours, then slept about five, and watched Neverwhere for the rest. Thanks to Patrick, we did NOT get involved in an accident only ten miles from the shop (right in front of the UNT stadium).

Yesterday, I woke up at noon. The hubby got off work early so we went out for sushi. We came back home and watched movies and lazed the rest of the day. Today I'm back at work. Whee! It's not as crazy as I expected it to be, either. Sweet.

This weekend, Werewolf on Friday, and a late, late game at my brother's house on Saturday evening.