Thrihyrne

My work trip to SF went incredibly well, I'm so glad to say. By my choice, I declined free beer, wine and other alcohol and didn't feel deprived. A welcome state of mind, to be sure.

Evan and I did something unexpected this Saturday morning; he came with me to Mod Physique and dropped me off and got the oil changed in his car while I took class. He then came by and met Jessa, the instructor, and got to see the studio where I've been going 5 days a week! Having a visual helps. :) Then we drove across state lines to go visit winnett and pick up a free sewing machine! She's moving for the first time in 15 years and was ready to rid herself of some things she didn't use. Like this sewing machine, complete with its own case. She and I were talking at snottygrrl's birthday party last month and Winnett either asked if I wanted a free sewing machine or if I knew someone who would— and since I've been machine-less since 2010, this sounded great. I've plugged it in and it does work, though I think it would help for me to find a booklet (if possible) to figure out the proper way to thread it, and it needs a tune-up. But I'm thrilled. A hand-me-across sewing machine of similar heft and style to mine that I'd had since 1988!!! :D

A ring also arrived that wasn't exactly designed for me to particular specifications, but was generally designed with some elements that I told this particular jeweler I liked, and I'm so smitten with the outcome. With a shop name like this, how could I not have been at least intrigued?

Pics would be linked below, but after spending way too much time on this, I'm linking to a Tumblr post I made so you can see the damn photos. I seriously tried to link into Photobucket, Snapfish, and Flickr as well, and couldn't get links to work. ARGH!! So here you go:
http://frealasruadh.tumblr.com/post/77533389874

Oh, and I decided today to give up playing Candy Crush for the month of March. Instead, I shall endeavor to do other things, including working on my two fics. :P

I returned last night from a 5-day (including basically 2 days of travel) whirlwind trip with evannichols to Harrisonburg, Virginia. This was a 'business' trip, to go through a large closet of my belongings that have been there since 2005 when I was filing for divorce from my to-be-wasband and my stepdad came to Nashville and we got a small U-Haul trailer and moved all of my belongings from Nashville to Harrisonburg. Since then, I've moved to Verona, VA, to 2 other locations in Harrisonburg, and various places in Portland. Now, at last, I'm stable in a wide variety of ways, including my residence. So it was time.

This was also the first time I'd seen my mother and stepfather since my acrimonious departure in fall of 2011. Since then, I've had a 180° turnaround in relations with my mother (I've never had long-term issues with my stepdad) and we've been communicating much more regularly. Still, I was a bit unsure about whether or not there might be awkward questions, or awkward expectations, and to my relief, there simply wasn't any. It was a very busy and purposeful three days, but there was also a fabulous reunion element to do with the choir I'd sung with in Staunton. We had lunch with a couple of my dear friends, there was a massive hug-fest and introductions of Evan to, well, everyone. Not only that, but my dear friend persephone100 came down to stay for a day and visit and assist. She also got to go 'shopping' for free through my stuff! So many items went to a happy new home. :) Heaps of things will go to a new home eventually, as the Harrisonburg Goodwill got another motherlode of my stuff that I simply wasn't emotionally tied to.

So now we're back, having checked 3 bags on the return flight, and shipping one rug and one plastic bin via UPS. That's it. All the rest was recycled/trashed/given away/scanned. What a relief, and a harbinger of this amazing life I lead now and plan to have for years. Now Evan knows I have a past! He had a super-saturated experience of people and places and proof that I really have received a tremendous amount of written correspondence since 1986. It's good to be home, and to return to my current life, which is a gift unto itself.

And perhaps a wee bit of text. ;)
( it's been a really frakking fabulous few days )

So!! I am so very, very happy and feeling validated and cherished and thrilled about my present and where I'm headed. I am indeed a beloved child of the Universe. ♥

It's been right at two weeks since I had a real turnaround about myself, my situation, and steps I began taking to make positive, quantifiable changes. One of those is to exercise regularly, and this morning I upped my distance to over two miles, a decently-lengthed 35-40 minutes of cardio. This pleases me greatly. I'll never become a distance runner or anything like that; this is conditioning and trying to establish revived, healthy habits. I've also been measuring my portions so that I have a much better sense of how much I'm eating, and what. I do eat quite healthfully, but I was a bit stunned at just how much peanut butter I'd been ingesting with my granny smiths, and huge bowls of yogurt with cereal, almonds and craisins. The fact finding has been most illuminating. There's also two consecutive weeks of staying in my right mind (yay!) and job interviews. Very important. I had a screening call about a position at Reed College yesterday that not only was 15 minutes late, but the questions she asked me were so dry, impersonal, and standard banal. I was really surprised, and frankly caught off guard by it. It's rare that I don't establish a rapport with someone almost immediately, but my conversation yesterday was pretty awkward. They're at the very beginning of their search and won't put someone in place until mid-July, and frankly I'd be quite surprised if I make it into a second round.

As part of continuing on, however, I have an in-person interview for a part-time administrative/desk position at a NE community center and I'm looking forward to that. I'll also head to a place called Scrap that snottygrrl told me about, which conveniently is only about three blocks from my interview site. That said, I really shouldn't buy anything as I went CRAZY at my favorite Goodwill yesterday, coming out about $65 poorer, but rich in spring clothes (suitable for the weather and climate here) and shoes in the anticipation of being back in the workforce in the reasonably near future. I didn't bring a whole lot of spring/summer clothes when I initially packed to relocate and it will be a while before I head back to Virginia for a final extraction of all of my belongings.

evannichols will be picking me up today after his workday at BHFT and I'll be with him through Monday. Not only is that fabulous, but we'll be spending about a day and a half at the coast at a beach house with friends of his sister's as part of her belated birthday celebrations. This is the Pacific beach, ruggedly beautiful with frigid water, not the Atlantic or Gulf. It's my kind of place. :)