Archive for the ‘Dear Diary’ Category

Travel travel travel travel

The Desert

The trip with Rob and Jason was amazing. (You remember: flying into L.A., renting a car, driving into the desert. OMG, we saw GWAR!)

Sekrit plans were made, bonds were formed, we laughed, we cried.

… wait, okay, there wasn’t any crying. A bit too much drinking, though.

Anyway, it was a great trip. I have an ease with those guys that I haven’t found with many other people in the world.

Anyway anyway, on the last night of the trip, (which largely consisted of bopping around Venice Beach and getting into trouble,) I was finally starting to burn out. Not with Rob and Jason. Frankly, I wish those guys were my next door neighbors.

But I was starting to burn out with … travel, the road and hotels. I was starting to miss my bed and my cat. (Also Elina, but she was already in London by that point.)

——

Of course, within an hour of seeing off Jason at the airport, I flew up to NorWesCon and panels and shmoozing and critiquing and even more sekrit plans (and even more late nights and drinking.)

Needless to say, by the time I got back to Eugene (and my cat) I was completely wiped.

… and of course I jumped right back into the day job, and … whew.

Paris, etc

I mention all this because I’m going on *another* trip in the next few weeks. Elina’s going to meet me in Paris and we’re … well, we’ll definitely make the rounds of Paris awesomeness. But I also want to see some other parts of France etc …

I realized last night I was stressing about where we’ll go first and second and third and I …

… I feel ridiculous and bourgeois. What a hugely first world problem. Should we go to Southern France or Italy? There’s also Vienna, or Edinburgh again?

Part of what makes it possible is that travel, once you’re in Europe, is ridiculously cheap.

I mean seriously, like $9 plane tickets to Turin.

Anyway anyway anyway, it’s looking like the trip will be something like Paris > train to Marseille or Nice > fly to London (where we’ll meet up with Damien and maybe a few other folks.) Maybe Elina can show me some parts of London I missed last time I was there. 🙂

All of which is a long form way of saying … *SQUEE.*

G

Oh, also … I’m on the road

Posted by Grá Linnaea ON in Travelogue

I’m currently on the road with Rob and Jason.

By the time I got on the plane to meet up with them, our sum total plans were:

  1. Meet in L.A.
  2. Rent car
  3. Desert? Boat?

…we’re awesome.

So far, our trip has taken us to a number of dive Mexican restaurants, a neighborhood in East L.A.,

a tiki-themed lesbian bar

, a vegan diner, Joshua Tree national park and a drive-in theater out in the desert near the biggest military base in the United States.

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This was all by day two.

As of this morning, I’m finally caught up on sleep. As soon as the other guys are awake, we’re going to flip a coin and head somewhere else, maybe the Mojave.

See you later …

G

Vitamin D may very well rule my life.

Posted by Grá Linnaea ON in Dear Diary


I have two general states to my life lately:

One is where I regularly take vitamin D supplements and everything ticks along smoothly.

The other (like today) is when I forget to take my supplements.

It takes a few days (I think I last remembered to take my D on Friday.) My mornings are usually still pretty good, but sometime around noon I get depressed. (I probably shouldn’t use the term ‘depressed,’ which means something specific in the therapeutic world. I guess the proper phrase would be ‘seriously blue.’)

The shift is subtle. My mood starts to drift over the last few hours of morning. I start feeling overwhelmed. I start thinking no one likes me. I start doubting all my work.

If I eat, things get a little better (thank you, delicious bowl of Bibimbap,) but generally it’ll take two or three days of consistently taking 4000 UI of D before I’ll feel totally okay again.

I guess another sign that I’m not seriously depressed is that there’s a part of my brain always analyzing these moods. I can sort of step back and go, “Oh, crap, right. Ah well, keep your head down and get through the day … and then go take your damn vitamins.”

STOP ACTA & TPP

Posted by Grá Linnaea ON in Dear Diary

Stop ACTA & TPP: Tell your country’s officials: NEVER use secretive trade agreements to meddle with the Internet. Our freedoms depend on it!

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