Flight of the Bumblebee

It's been a little while since I've updated, and I have a bit of time, so here goes...

Since tooth stuff happened first, I'll start with that! Went to Dr. Beavers the day after Christmas to begin the crown work on my tooth. They drilled and pushed and prodded and poked, and gave me nitrous and Valium to help relax me. I was completely out of it by the time it was all over. But they filled the gaping hole they created and told me to come back in six to eight weeks. If you think this seems a little long to wait for a temporary crown, then you'd be onto something. Apparently the decay in the affected tooth was so extensive they had to drill dangerously close to the nerve. There are two ways this could go from here. The nerve exposes itself, causing a lot of rather intense pain and necessitating a root canal, or the nerve pushes itself a little deeper and builds a new protective coat over itself. If the latter happens, they can go ahead and put the crown on with no problems. Guess which outcome I'm rooting for? :)

New Year's was incredibly awesome, mainly because toob came down and I was able to ring it in with the person I love. When he's not around I feel better than I've ever felt because he's simply in my life, there to push and challenge and accept me no matter where I am. When he *is* around, I feel all of the stars have aligned correctly and everything is just so, perfect as it is to the point of being timeless. When I'm with him there's no ego telling me I'm imperfect, or I use the wrong words, or these thoughts will completely be out of left field and no one will get them if I voice them. I just am, and I can do anything. He makes me feel amazing. I'm in total, horrible love. :)

But then he had to leave on Sunday and I watched "The Notebook" to keep from being too depressed. Whoohoo, first movie of 2006! It's not a bad movie; it's very earnest, in fact, so despite the fact that it follows the most predictable patten of 'boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, nothing-keeps-boy-and-girl-apart-ultimately' the movie really makes it on its ultimate sweetness. There is something true about the love presented there, so despite the fact its straightforward and not so engaging, it's...engrossing. There is a twist, but you see it coming before the movie even gets properly set up.

Since then, I've been moderating napoewrimo with an absolute iron fist, making sure every member posts every day. If they don't, I send two pipe-hittin' niggas over to their house to break a finger. So far it's worked. Though there was a bit of a flame-war over the nature of haiku that, I think, no one really saw coming. It's been taking up a lot of my free time, reading all of the poems submitted (even if I don't comment to all of them)...but it's really worth it. We've got a small, but growing, passionate community; I'm hoping that we'll continue to discuss and support after the January hell-month is over.

As usual, all of my poetry is on writerrabbit if you want to take a look.

I've also been fairly engrossed in my Tuesday night D+D game. The setting is starting to grow legs by itself, and the story is snowballing away from my grasp. This is definitely a good thing; it took maybe 12 games, but I'm beginning to feel that the town of Oak's Home (where the group is based) is its own living, breathing entity. I'm not creating so much any more as channeling, and making sure things maintain an internal consistency. It's started out as a Twin Peaksish mystery kind of game, but stickypawz is an elven magic user, and let me tell you that not much escapes a properly motivated elf with a knowledge of Divination spells under his belt. His badger familiar, Jhori, has also been a thorn in my dark and shadowy, mysterious side for quite some time now. ;) Between those two, a lot more has been uncovered a lot more quickly than I anticipated. It's a whole lot of fun DMing this game, but it's difficult and requires a *lot* of work to make sure everyone's satisfied. Still, it's worth it; we've got a bright and fun group of gamers (we miss you, daroneasa!) and Tuesday nights are a highlight of my week now.

Work is work is work. Nothing different or new to report there, except that Charles continues to be wonderful, endearing and annoying all at once. He's still one of the best bosses I've ever had and I'm proud to be working where I am. Even if this keeps up for much longer I'll be popping antacid before too long. :) Mariah is working the computer, putting books on-line that I nor Cara have had the time to, so checking mail and sending messages and LiveJournaling is much much harder to do these days. Ah well, it means that I'm a bit more productive than usual, which is good no?

New Year's Resolutions: to borrow Tube's terminology, 'stop farting around'. I spend a lot of time in useless worrying or figuring out what I want to do, and I devote a lot more time to just doing things. It's worked out so far.

Also, I'm going to try and be a bit nicer to people. Those local to me know how snarky and catty I can really be, and I'd like to tone that down a bit. So far it hasn't been too bad, but man those first few days I really slipped. ;) Me and Virginia and Cy have come up with the concept of the Mean Jar, where we put a quarter in for every infraction we make. After a while, we gather up the money and buy someone who could use it a gift. I like the idea, but I'm sure V and Cy have been a lot meaner than the jar suggests. :D

( Look ma, an unexpected rant! )

And, I think, that about catches me up. Now off to work and writing. :)