:smiles:

Training was rather stressful today, mostly due to the ridiculous pressure I put on myself to learn everything all at once and sound confident about it [I must say; working for AAA in an area to which I've just moved 3 weeks ago does, perhaps, put me at a geographic disadvantage], but I'll buck up.

This evening post-work I called a couple of people and managed to make a dent in replying to fandom and, mostly, non-fandom-oriented emails. Then I met shinyholly for dinner in the rather eclectic Hawthorne district, where so many of the colorful people are. I'll keep this to a minimum, since she's new to my LJ and I want to respect her privacy, but this is one of those grand scheme unexpected serendipities. shinyholly and I sang in the same choir in the mid-to-late 90s in Nashville, and we've kept up ever since, primarily through occasional letters and some email. She moved to Portland in 2000. Tonight we saw each other for the first time in many years, but there was no awkwardness at all (at least not on my part!) and such a delight to get to renew a friendship in real time in an area far, far away from Nash Vegas. In speaking with her, my longing to sing again has been rekindled. Given my new schedule, I doubt a church choir would work, but there are many other singing groups in town, and she has contacts. This is a really great thing. It was a fabulous dinner, and then we parted ways, both walking home, albeit in different directions. That's another great thing about Portland, I must say, and where I live. As I ambled home, I passed all kinds of people out enjoying the balmy Thursday night, and didn't think a thing about walking the blocks home, many of them in the dark. The clouds overhead were a dusky grey against the near-black; we're supposed to get rain tomorrow morning. But there were always the echoes of voices, and as I approached my place, my hallmate was outside on the front porch swing with a big mug of tea, murmuring some discontent at her boyfriend who was an hour late. Still. So she asked me about my dinner and I told her how great it had been, and the social stuff in general.

"See?" she said. "Pretty soon you're going to be totally busy with that and work and writing, not that you could write more than you do." [during a kitchen-based conversation I gave her my website]

"Yeah," I said, feigning guilt. "I may even try to get into a singing group again. I'll try to keep it to just one."

It was an affirming evening. It's still so very, very early in my time here, but perhaps I'll end up picking up the vibe after all. I'm treating myself to a cruise on the Willamette River on the Portland Spirit boat Saturday, so I should be able to post some pictures again. I'm really looking forward to it. There will also be Ithiel-centric fic writing. And another Ikea trip to buy a decent mattress so I can sleep. :P