Year End Special

It took me a long time to get into anything approaching a "Christmas Spirit."

The last two years were the best Christmases I have had since I was a child. I got to spend them with, and as part of, a wonderful family. I got to help Santa with his Christmas surprises.

This year, I spent a lot of time feeling like I was missing out. Of course this kept me from joining in, and therefore ensured that I missed out.

I got into the spirit late in the season. I didn't get any Christmas cards sent and even though I had a few Christmas presents, they didn't get delivered either. I have no idea when they will get to the appropriate people.

...

My sister sent me a book for Christmas. I have not read it yet, but very much appreciate it and look forward to reading it.

...

I have also been spending more time talking to, and hanging out with, friends. Both old and new. Some I have known over 12 years, some for less then 12 weeks.

We have played pool, video games, card games, and just hung out and talked. Oh, and listened to very good music. You should check out S.J. Tucker and see if she is singing in your area.

...

My resolutions from last year:

• I am still 25 pounds off my goal weight.


• I read 4 more books than my goal.


• You know how my writing resolution has gone.


• My new apartment is a lot more organized than my old place was, but still needs some work.

My resolutions for the upcoming year will be in a following post.

Home In My Harbour

The Passport Office didn't go as well as I'd hoped, but it went OK. There were more rules changes than I knew about...

Apparently they can no longer mail your passport to you. And you have to pick it up at the same office where you submitted your application. That meant that I couldn't pick it up at the Canadian Consulate office in Boston either.

The good news... For an extra fee of $30 they can rush the process and have it ready for me Friday. {Today} However, since I had to pick up the passport this afternoon I couldn't leave this morning and will now be driving back down tomorrow.

Not too bad since it turned out there was a major wind and rain storm until the early afternoon.

So, I had to delay my heading back by a day. {Not the worst of fates.} But I have my passport in my hand for the trip back.

...

I've had a chance to catch up with several people, some of whom I hadn't seen in about 8 years.

I've been able to get out to see McGinty three nights, and I'll be going back tonight.

Got to have a big turkey dinner with a lot of family. My mother cooked, and my sisters, aunt, and some cousins came out for it.

I need to stop it Customs and Immigration on my way back into the States for a new visa due to a change in status. {I'll need to check and see if I've written about that yet, if not you can expect it soon-ish.}

...

Anyway, I'm paying by the minute for access right now, so I'm going to go check some email and sign off.

Peace.

Heading for Halifax

Well, I'm in Halifax. I got in late Sunday night, or was it really early Monday morning? And I have been enjoying my time here so far.

Except for the time spent dealing with the passport application paperwork. Tomorrow I go into the Passport Office to drop off the application and let them make copies of my birth certificate and any other paper work they need.

I originally wasn't sure if I was going to drive up on Saturday or Sunday, but Saturday morning took care of that decision for me. Having to make an emergency dental appointment, on a Saturday no less, will kind of eliminate any other plans you might have had. And there is not much you can do to avoid the dentist when one of your fillings has broken and half of it fell out.

But the drive up on Sunday went well. There was a long wait, about 90 minutes, at the border, and all but 2 minutes of that was in the line waiting to get up to one of the booths.

The rest of the trip went quite smooth and the entire trip took about 13 hours start to finish.

I've gotten to hang out with, and get caught up with a few of my friends. I've been to The Lower Deck. Turns out McGinty was playing and so I was very lucky to get to see and hear them.

Oh, and my friend who went to The Lower Deck with me tonight was recognized from his job working at the airport and so we ended up having a drink with a couple of Finnish flight attendants.

Well, I've got to get some sleep before dealing with the government tomorrow.


Walk in Beauty.

Pink Socks and 70's Movies

I've been quiet for a while now, dealing with the changes in my life.

As I said in my last post, TWIL and I are no longer a couple. We have talked a few times since then and are still friends. The Sprout also told me that she wanted to stay in touch and we have talked a couple of times as well.

I am glad they are still in my life, even though it is not the way I thought, or hoped it would be. It might be easier to move on if there was no further contact, but I am much happier that we are still friends.

One of the hardest things has been the number of people who have said things like "I was just waiting for the wedding invitation."

...

What's been happening since then?

Well, I have been settling into my new apartment. I still have several boxes full of ... stuff to unpack. I have limited furniture that i have setup and mostly arranged. {I didn't realize how nice it is to have a couch to curl up on.}

I have had a couple of guests, something which I was not really comfortable doing in old place. One of my friends was the first to stop over and hang out for a while. And a couple of weeks ago, my mother came to visit and stayed for the weekend.

As well as having a couple of people visiting me here, I have gotten out to visit others as well. Two weeks ago I was at a get together a friend of mine was having. A gathering referred to as "Grill It You Bastard Friday." It was a good time with good people and good food. I was also introduced to the game "Apples To Apples."

Then, last weekend, I went to King Richard's Faire with a few friends, one of whom has a new web site promoting his music. Definitely worth a listen.

I also have a trip to Nova Scotia planned for the middle of November. I'll be in and around Halifax for a few days around the 11th to the 17th. Anyone else going to be there?

...

Lately, I have suffered from migraines. In fact, I am still suffering. The migraine is gone but it had me in such pain that I was clenching and grinding my teeth and gave myself a toothache. {Teethache? What do you call it when you have more than one at a time?} I'm dreading calling a dentist but I'm going to have to do it soon.

And a couple of times in the past few days I have found myself wearing pink socks. At least there were pink spots appearing on the white socks I was wearing. Broken blisters and dry, cracked skin on the balls of our feet will do that I guess.

...

Yesterday I was walking through the Apple Store in a local mall and had something strange happen. A woman who was being helped stopped what she was doing, stepped in front of me and said

I'm a casting director and we are making a movie set in the 70's.

You have a great look. Would you be interested?

That caught me a little off guard.

...

I am still here, and in several different types of pain. Thankfully, most of them are only physical.

Resolutions

Quick follow-up on a couple of items.

Weight Loss: 25 pounds left to lose.

Reading: 2 more books to read for nothing but entertainment.

Tendinitis: Occasional discomfort, but much better.

Relationship: None.

Forced Out

{Since I'm not ready to write about anything else yet, let's talk about the forced move...}

Around the beginning of June we, my roommates and myself, received word that the landlord's family was looking at house in order to figure out what they were going to do with it.

The landlord had been a cabbage for a while and the family had been acting as his agents during this period. However, they were limited in what they could do by the landlord's wishes. My understanding was that he didn't get along with his family and didn't want them to have anything to do with his affairs. Eventually, though, they got full power-of-attorney.

I guess they decided to sell of the landlord's stuff to cover his medical bills, being in a coma and on life-support costs money. We found out in mid-June when a letter arrived from the family's lawyers telling us we had until the last day of July to "vacate the premises or face legal action."

I called one of my previous landlords and, after a little bit of phone tag, found out he had a couple of openings. I looked at the apartments and decided to take one of them.

That took about a week.

But the apartment I was taking wasn't ready yet. And I wouldn't be able to start moving things in until July 1st.

Sounds good, right? A full month to move.

It was still a tight schedule. The move had been such short notice that I had an incredible amount of stuff to sort through, deciding what to keep, what to donate, and what to trash. And I had to move the majority of it by myself, in my pick-up.

When I say "by myself" I mean just that. It is not the easiest thing to drag a queen sized futon pad up a flight-and-a-half of stairs without assistance.

I was also limited to doing this in the evenings after work and on the weekends. Although, I was short a weekend due to spending it in New York with TWIL. But let's be honest... That was a much better way to spend a weekend.

I had everything into the new apartment by the 20th of July. {Give or take a few days.} But I had/have limited furniture.

My box-spring did not make it down here since it was collapsing anyway. My {second-hand} sofa and {third-hand} leather chair didn't come down here either. The chair had been hidden under a pile of junk in the dining room, unused for a couple of years. When it was uncovered, we discovered that at least one of the cats had not treated the chair well. You would have thought it would have smelled horrid.

The sofa on the other hand was clean-ish, but reeked of cigarette smoke, cats, dust, and old take-out. {I know that doesn't sound clean, but it had been cleaned and everything came out but the smells.}

So I have a futon pad on the floor for sleeping, a lot of shelves, a dresser, and a couple of camp chairs. Oh, and a 6-foot folding table that is currently my computer desk.

I have since I have added a nice, but small, dining set. I have also looked at other pieces, but have not picked any of them up yet.

I still have several boxes which have not been opened since the move. As I haven't had the time or the energy {Mainly the energy, but more on that in a later post} to go through them yet.

...

So now I am about half way between Boston, MA and Providence, RI. If anyone is passing through one of these areas and would like to meet-up, you can email me {WyldWoods (at) wyldwoods.net} and we'll see about the timing.

You can also email if you aren't going to be in the area. Or comment here. I'll be happy to hear from {almost} anyone.

Walk in Beauty.
Namaje.

Not what I was expecting to post

Don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night.

-- Philip K. Dick

I had been planning and working on a lengthy post, but last night it got scrapped. So for now you are getting this short post.

• Back in mid-June I found out that the house I was living in was being sold and I had to be out by the end of July.


• I have a nice new apartment, but with little to no furniture.


• For the past month work has completely sucked and had me stressed past the breaking point.


• Things happened last night which really threw me for a loop.

My mind is still racing around in circles chasing its own tail. This had me on the phone with my sister until sometime after 1AM. And then lying in bed awake, pacing, etc. until 4AM or so.

I know this doesn't tell you anything, but if I didn't post anything right now, I'm not sure when, or if, I would start posting again. Plus, I told Ricardipus that I would be posting something "in the next few days."

Seven Random Things About Me

I was tagged by Ricardipus, so I guess I should do this. And I guess I am behind on writing the standard "X Things About WyldWoods" post. So this will be a start to that one.

1. I have performed 1 legal wedding. With a second one coming up next year.

2. At 14 years old I started giving hand-me-downs to my father.

3. I learned to drive at age 11.

4. I never got drunk until I was legal age. Although that does not mean I never tasted alcohol until then.

5. I have never been to any Disney theme park.

6. The most I have ever lost in a single trip to a casino is $400.

7. On a trip to Canada's Wonderland there was a roller coaster I could not go on because I was too tall. (I'm 6'5")

I think I'm now supposed to tag seven other people; however, I don't know if I even have seven readers. So I'll just say that if you read this, and haven't already done this, you can consider it your turn. Or not. The choice is yours.

Peace.

I'm off to spend the weekend with TWIL.

A Good Name For A Rock Band

Well, I'm back from Rites of Spring and I've been back to work for a day...

I need a break.

Rites was very good, and I came back feeling great. The people at work were welcoming and went out their way to make me feel ... back. Now I just need to sleep some more.

Last year I was a member of a small group who ran into a black bear on the road. This year we didn't have any encounters with bears. The most dangerous animal I saw would have to be the rabid chipmunk. {Which lead to the name of this post.}

It was good to see people I don't get to see enough. To catchup with what friends are doing. To be involved with a spiritual gathering of about 400 people.

And of course, to spend 5 nights together with TWIL. We spent time together during the day as well, but we also spent a lot of the day doing our own things.

I'll be back here soon, but for now I'm off to bed.

Walk in Beauty.
Peace.

Time Keeps On Ticking, Ticking, Ticking

I don't know what to say, so let's just cover a few quick points before I go off to bed.

...

I was going through a period of "hermiting" and didn't really talk to anyone other than TWIL for quite a while. I'm pulling out of it and have talked to several {for me} people in the last two weeks.

...

I leave for Rites of Spring in less than a week and I have not really started my packing yet.

Packing for a week in a tent takes a while. Possibly longer than I have if you wanted to do it right and lighten the load. At this point I will probably end up packing some extra stuff just because I don't have enough time to properly go through and figure out what I really don't need.

And when you are talking a week in a tent ... in May ... in New England ... you can't count on the weather at all. Over the nine years I've been going {this will be number ten} I can remember days that got up to 30C, at least on that got to 34C, and nights that got down to 5C. There were years where we barely saw a single cloud, and other years where we barely saw the sun.

A rule of thumb seems to be "if you don't bring it you will definitely need it." This applies to sunscreen as much as thermal underwear.

...

I am tired from travelling. {Which is really not helping get my packing done.}

I was in Austin, TX for work all last week. I had a good time, but didn't get back to the hotel any night before 11:30. Factor in the hour time difference on top of the jet lag and it wasn't enough sleep. Especially since my sinuses went nuts as soon as I got there and haven't quite recovered yet.

I flew back Friday, getting back to the house a little after midnight.

Of course, I then got up Saturday morning and drove out to spend time with TWIL.

After being there for a little under 24 hours I drove back. And I was back in the office here Monday morning.

When do I get to stop moving?

...

I wanted to write but couldn't get anything to come from my fingers that I was comfortable willing to post here. So I started another journal.

Let me point you to it...

That's it on that shelf right over there.

I have renamed this as my Public Journal. The new one is paper, is for me only, and is my Private Journal.

This gives me a much needed outlet for the thoughts I need to get out, but am not ready to share. I'm hopeful that this will mean more posts here. After all, as the private thoughts are dealt with in the other journal, I shouldn't have as much blocking the other thoughts.

...

I'm not sure what the will leave to be posted here. It might be stories from my past. Maybe just what I did any given week. Maybe just random links that I want to share.

Feel free to leave any suggestions in the comments. I'll feel free to read and ignore them.

I guess that wasn't as quick as I thought it would be.

Walk in Beauty.
Namaje.

When Slang Terms Collide

Overheard in the hallway, from a male voice:

She was outside shagging them, and I figured if she can do it, I should be out there shagging them, too.

I don't think anyone else around at the time is aware of the British use of the the term "shag" and I certainly wasn't going to point it out. Even though that was the first use into my mind, being the most commonly used in my experience.

...

I know it has been a long time since my last entry, and I don't know if anyone is still hanging around here or not.

There has been a lot going on. At least my brain seems to have been working overtime, with so many things swirling around that I was getting motion-sickness. However, my sea-legs are starting to come back and hopefully I can get some of these thoughts written down and stop them from overwhelming me.

My Life Is In My Own Hands Again

It was that time of year again. and I had to leave the country.

I dislike that time of year, and always find it stressful, because there are so many things about it that are out of my hands. What if the BCIS agent is having a really bad day? What if the Threat Level changes while I'm en route? Etc...

{The threat level has been changed while I was en route before... Almost to the point that they would have closed the border.}

But there were no problems this time, except for a rather large delay while they processed all the people in front of me. Including photos and fingerprints.

Now I need to get a passport before next year. Or before I fly, whichever comes first.

From the "What were they thinking?" Department

I don't usually post news stories, but more people need to hear about this.

Have you heard about the marketing campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Adult Swim? It lead to a few problems, and arrests, around Boston. The story can be found many places, including here.

A couple of quotes form the article:

Authorities have arrested two men in connection with electronic light boards depicting a middle-finger-waving moon man that triggered repeated bomb scares around Boston on Wednesday and prompted the closure of bridges and a stretch of the Charles River.

and

The devices displayed a "Mooninite" -- an outer-space delinquent who makes frequent appearances on the cartoon -- greeting passersby with an upraised middle finger.

Makes me wonder how much thought wass put into the planning.

Of course, I also wonder about the people who saw the "device", a circuit board and battery, and decided to shutdown Boston for a day. Apparently the other 9 cities didn't get shutdown, or at least didn't get any coverage.

Resolutions, and Updates

I guess it's about time to share some of my resolutions for the new year. But first, a couple of updates...

• The tendinitis I have is DeQuervain's tenosynovitis and it is getting better with treatment, but it still hurts.


• Way back when, I set a weight-loss goal of 60 pounds. {Actually, it was 65.} Well, I have lost 30-35 pounds so far.


• Shortly after I moved my blog from my own hosting to Blog*Spot, Blogger added support for Custom Domains. I am thinking about using them, but wondered if anyone else is using them yet and what their experience has been.

Now, on to the resolutions...

• Lose the other 30-35 pounds that I didn't lose last year. {Maybe more, we'll see how it goes.}


• Get in much better physical condition.


• Keep better control of my diabetes. Specifically, my bloodsugar.


• Read at least three books for nothing more than entertainment. {In addition to the audio books I listen to.}


• Write in my blog more often, and keep up with others better.


• Get organized.

Some of those don't sound like much, but overall, it seems like a lot. Got to get moving on them.

Peace.

That @#$%#-ing Hurts!

Well, after seeing my doctor I have found out what the pain in my thumb is...

I have tendinitis. She even told me what type it is, I just can't remember off the top of my head, and I don't have the paperwork in front of me. {I'll update this when I have the information.}

Things are fine as long as I don't move my thumb or try to lift anything, although it is finally starting to get better. I guess the anti-inflammatories and exercises are helping. I was already wearing a brace I picked up at CVS.

I used to be able to pick up The Sprout, a touch over 100 pounds, and hold her there. Then, the other day, I picked up an 8 pound cat and it almost made me pass out. It wasn't too bad until the cat twisted in my hand.

Painkillers would seem to be a good idea, too.

Happy New Year!

I don't want to be here right now. I spent the weekend, and welcomed the new year, with TWIL and The Sprout. But I have to go back to work in morning, which meant leaving this afternoon.

Now I'm back in Boston, and about 300 miles from where I really want to be. The only consolation being that I'll be with them again soon.

In the meantime, there's work and there's life.

Happy New Year, Everyone!