Updating While Snowed In

There's about two feet of snow on the ground outside, so I figured now would be a good time to update.

I've been working at my new job for exactly four weeks, and I find that I actually kind of like it better than any of the other jobs I've ever had. Over the years, I've figured out that I prefer jobs where I can be "behind the scenes," and don't have to deal with disgruntled customers.

At my new job, that's basically the idea. I'm in the stockroom, pulling parts for the various jobs everyone in the production area does, and management talks to any customers who actually come to the building.

The dress code is good too. I can wear jeans and sneakers, but I also have to wear a static jacket and heel straps to ground me so that electrostatic discharges don't damage the electronic components. So the clothes are comfortable, and the static jacket is actually warmer than it looks, so I can just wear a tee-shirt underneath it and be comfortable, temperature-wise.

My first paycheck was only half of what I'd usually be getting, since I came in at the middle of the pay period. I was really worried at the time, because that meant I'd still be about half-a-month behind on paying my bills. Luckily, around that time, all three of my W-2s from last year's jobs came in, and I was able to file my taxes in the last week of January. I got the state return back ($618) on Friday, January 30th, and my federal return ($655) came early this past week.

I got caught up on the bills that were overdue, and then held the rest for when I got my first full paycheck (plus 2½ hours of overtime, since they'd asked me to stay late last Friday to help finish a project) yesterday.

I wasn't able to completely pay off what's left of my car loan, but going off of the payoff amount posted online, I was able to get about half of what's left paid. I also helped with this month's rent (though I couldn't afford the whole rent, what with knowing I'd have to pay my whole portion in two weeks again), paid my portion of the utilities, and paid all the bills that are due before my next paycheck. I now have about $70 in the bank, and $15.16 in cash (for snacks while I'm at the Haven) until February 19th.

I'm only going to use what's in the bank to fill up my gas tank when I start to run out--I've got half-a-tank still--and then save the rest to go toward bills with my next paycheck. It'll also be used for emergencies, if there are any between now and then.

Tomorrow, Anna and Tim have been planning to have people over for a Superbowl party, but we're not sure if they're actually going to be able to get here, what with the snow and all. Whether they do come or not, it's all good to me. I'm not even going to watch the game (I don't like football), but the three of us are already starting to go a little stir crazy from being stuck inside, so it'll be nice to have some visitors.

I've joined another RPG at the Haven. It's a game called Nobilis. It's totally dice-less, and looks/sounds really interesting. I already created my character, who is completely different from any character I've ever played before.

I usually play characters who are a lot like me (female, relatively good, interested in a lot of the same things I am . . . makes it easier to stay in character that way), but since I know the GM-ing style of the person running the game (I'd been in his Vampire: The Masquerade game for a little while a couple years ago) I decided to try something different. For one thing, my Nobilis character is a guy. For another, he's not all goody-two-shoes at all, but rather devious. It'll be a challenge to play this character, and I'm looking forward to it.

The game itself will have about 30 or so players, but we're not all going to be playing at once. The way the GM is running it, there will be set gaming sessions, and there will also be random, "Okay, who's here from the Nobilis game? Anyone up for a one-off?" sessions. We players just have to participate in only one session every two months, at the least, to be allowed to stay in the game.

Not bad, considering that the weekly Serenity game is pretty much the most regular gaming I can handle. It cuts into my sleep time on Thursday nights, so Fridays are a bit rough, but it's worth it, since the game is so frickin' awesome.

What an Awful Time to Be Sick

Yup, I'm sick. Which sucks, because that means I can't even go to the temporary manual labor agency right now. It started Monday night, when I kept sneezing and had a really stuffy nose that wouldn't go away. I also had trouble practicing my trumpet without getting dizzy (though I made it the full 30 minutes), so I've decided to amend my first New Year's resolution to include the words "health permitting."

Tuesday morning, I got a phone call from the temp place (I hadn't even gone in to say that I was available) asking if I wanted to drive for the company I drove for the first day I worked for the temp place. My head was so fuzzy, what with the stuffy nose, clogged and ringing ears, and overall blah-ness that I doubted I would be alert enough to drive my own car, much less someone else's expensive company car. So, I had to turn the job down.

Before I went to sleep the night before last, I took some NyQuil, because I wasn't getting any better--in fact, it seemed worse than the day before. I briefly woke up around 1:30 or 2:30 (can't remember which), took another dose, and then went back to sleep until 4:00.

I could've slept longer, but I wanted to actually do something besides sleeping that day, so I went downstairs and got some beef stew before coming back up here to read. Then a little later, when Anna came back from Mom and Dad's house, we watched the first episode of Birds of Prey (I'd NetFlixed the entire series, and the first disc came in the mail a few days ago). By that time, Tim was home, so we watched Good Eats and Unwrapped before they went to bed.

I was still pretty awake at the time, so I watched the rest of the disc, plus the little Gotham Girls cartoon that was on the disc as well. Then I came upstairs, read a little bit more, and went to sleep.

I woke up a little after 1:00 this afternoon, called Bryan to let him know I wasn't going to be playing in the regular Thursday-night Serenity game at the Haven, then called a different temp agency to find out what I'd have to do to be considered for a position they'd contacted me about a week or two ago. I took their online assessments, then called the lady back, and I've got an interview on Monday now.

Now, I just have to find some work tomorrow and Saturday--probably at the manual labor temp agency--to get some money in order to pay the bills that are due before next Monday. I'll take some more NyQuil before I go to sleep tonight, and hopefully that will help me to feel well enough to work.

The Patheticness of Me, and New Year's Resolutions

Man, you know what sucks? During the second semester of my senior year of high school, I was in both Jazz and Concert Band. Those classes were back-to-back, five days a week, from right after lunch until the end of the school day. That's a total of about fifteen hours a week, playing my trumpet.

This afternoon, after taking a shower, I decided to practice a bit on my trumpet. I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere near three hours, since I hadn't done any serious playing for almost ten years now, but I thought I'd at least crack half an hour, y'know?

I couldn't even make it fifteen minutes before my lips gave out.

Of course, it probably doesn't help that I was trying to play songs from my Disney Star Trek and theme books, which have a lot of notes on the top half of the staff. If I'd gone through and practiced some of the stuff in the books I used in middle school concert band, I'd probably have made it to half an hour, if not forty-five minutes or so.

But that stuff is boring, and I wanted to at least get half of the Star Trek: Voyager theme song played before my lip gave out. Only problem is, I'd played too many other Star Trek theme songs before I went for Voyager, so I only got a few bars in.

I think I want to start practicing every day again. Until I get a job, I'll probably go for early to mid-afternoon, for half an hour (using the boring books only), and then when I get a job, I'll re-evaluate my schedule and see what time is good for practicing then.

I've got an interview on Monday morning at an electronics manufacturing company for a stockroom associate position. The application, and the two little tests they had me take at the time, went pretty well, so I'm hoping the interview goes well too.

But enough of the depressing stuff--it's a new year! I've never really made--and kept--New Year's Resolutions before, but I think I might want to start. Here are three:

1. Practice trumpet for at least thirty minutes every day.
2. Practice guitar and/or piano at least twice a week, for at least thirty minutes each time.
   
3. Call at least two of my really good old friends (the ones I don't see all that often) at least once a month, just to catch up. Text messages, Facebook messages, and e-mails don't count--must be telephone calls.

I went to the Haven New Year's Eve party on Thursday night. It was fun. I talked to a few people I hadn't seen in a while, since the only time I'm really at the Haven nowadays is when I'm playing in Bryan's Serenity RPG, and we're sitting in the tiny gaming room where we can't see anyone else at the time.

I also creamed Steve at Warhammer--his ogres versus my Bretonnians. He literally had only three models (not units, just models) left on the table by the time we called the game at the top of turn five. He'd managed to take out my general and one entire unit though, so I only won by a little over 400 points--still a decided victory though.

I decided not to stay there for the night, since at home I had flannel sheets, but I was walking around the Haven for a while with my favorite blanket wrapped around my shoulders. It's the blanket that I got from the airport in Phoenix, on my way home from visiting Heather and Stephen back in October 2008.

Updateroo

Around the time of my last post, I was looking into starting up my own business as an insurance agent. Also at that time, I got notification that my claim for unemployment insurance had been denied. Since I thought I was going to be doing the insurance thing, I let the UI slide.

But, the insurance thing fell through, and by the time that happened, it was too late to file an appeal to UI. So, I applied at a temporary manual labor place where I could work and get paid the same day.

The first job I had was only two hours long, and I was paid for four hours' work (since the minimum day at the temp company is four hours long, but the company I drove for needed a driver kind of ASAP). The second job, which I got the next day, was for a pharmaceutical company, and I was basically just sticking security stickers on boxes of medicine.

That job got me repeat tickets at the temp place for more than a week, and while I was there, they kept asking if I wanted to apply for a job there. The person who was in charge of all the people at the pharmaceutical company said that the position I'd be in would pay better than the minimum wage ($7.25/hour) I was getting from temp company--with no possibility of over-time pay--and I still had bills I needed to catch up on and would need to pay regularly come December, so I decided to go for it.

So now I work for the pharmaceutical company, and I'll get my first paycheck from them on Tuesday. I still have to pay my over-due cell phone bill (about $185), and apparently I have an outstanding tab at the Haven for $6.50, which I'll pay along with my December membership. I've also got the fee for the last couple of allergy shots I got before I no longer had health insurance to pay, and then I'll be all caught up.

I figured out a budget, based on whether or not I get overtime at the new job, and also based on how much overtime I get. The way I figure it (approximating 17% taken out for taxes), if I don't get any overtime at all, I won't be able to pay my portion of the rent, so I'll just take over the Dish, internet (Comcast), and power (Allegheny) bills entirely.

But the people at my new job won't let me not get overtime right now. I told them when I interviewed that I could work up to ten hours a day, thinking that they'd schedule me for eight hours a day and five days a week, and then if they needed me to stay a couple hours longer once or twice a week, I could do it, but then after I was hired, I learned that they expected me to actually work ten hours every day, for six days a week!

My first week, I was still at the temp company on Monday, but then Tuesday through Saturday I worked my tail off. By the time I left Saturday night (which was really very early Sunday morning) my back, feet and hips were killing me, and I was so stiff I could barely move. Darn concrete floors.

I'm still looking for a job which will pay better and have less hours, but it's going to be tricky going to interviews when I'm at my new job from either 12-10pm or 2pm-12am every day except Sunday, and if I'm not there (or at the Haven on Thursdays for Brian's game), it's either too late/early to go anywhere, or I'm sleeping off the previous day's work.

I'm looking into a mystery shopping opportunity, which I think I could do if I get up a couple hours early. Right now, I have a 7-day free trial of the mystery shopping job listing site, so I'll try it out for six days, hoping that it'll pay for itself (it's $49.95/month after the free trial). If it does, I'll do both for a while, then if the mystery shopping starts to pay off more than the job would, then I'll drop the job. If it doesn't pay for itself, then I'll drop the mystery shopping and keep looking for a better job than this one.

A couple of months ago, I submitted an application for a job at an airport and passed the assessment they had me take. They'd asked me to fax a couple of forms in for them to get more information, and I did, but apparently the number they had me fax it to before doesn't work right, so they didn't really get the forms. I got confirmation e-mails saying they'd received the forms, but they didn't really.

So I tried to re-send the forms to another fax number they gave me this weekend, but Dad's fax machine apparently can't send faxes to numbers which just forward the faxes on to different machines.

So yesterday, I scanned the forms and sent them through faxzero.com, and I hope they went through, because the cover pages that the organization gave me to put with the forms say that they have to be the first page in the transmission or else it may not work properly, but FaxZero adds a cover page onto the faxes you send through them if you want a free fax. I can't afford to send a fax that costs actual money.

On a different note, Jason and I went to the Haven on Black Friday. Jason played video games while I drew a picture of the character I play in Brian's Serenity game, Maekona Vaine. It turned out okay, I guess. I think I tend to do better when I don't have a picture to work from, but in my mind, Maekona's of Chinese-American descent, so I wanted to make sure her facial features reflected that and used a picture I'd found through Google Images as a reference point.

The shape of the drawing's face makes her look like an alien, the coloring isn't quite right for what I had in mind, and I had to scan it in two parts, so there's a really noticeable line right in the middle that I couldn't get rid of, but it's at least the basic idea of Maekona anyway:

All Monetarily Contributed Projects Currently on Hold

Thursday evening at the Haven was the first session of Brian's Serenity RPG game (played using the system from the Buffy and Angel RPGs, instead of the Cortex system, because Cortex system sucks). It's looking like it'll be a really fun game, and I can't wait until next week's session.

So, Tim got a new job. He now works for Chase in their collections department. That said, we've all decided not to try an buy a house, but instead to look for places to rent. We've been looking at ads the last two days, but Anna was only able to get in touch with the people who own two of the houses (she left messages with the rest). We've looked at two duplexes so far, and they both were nice, but the first one we looked at was nicer.

Because of the immediacy of the housing situation--Anna wants to be moved out of Mom & Dad's by the end of July--we've all got to save up as much as we can for the first month's rent and security deposit on any house we end up renting. Which means I won't be able to even start finishing that set of viking chairs until August or September at the earliest.

I also won't be able to get that correspondence course about piano tuning, or to make a Tri-D Chess board, like from Star Trek yet either. *Le sigh.*

I got the Star Trek DVD set last week from Amazon. It was actually the second set I'd gotten of it--the first set was missing season 1, disc 2, so I had to send it back. I'm on the fourth or fifth episode of season 2, and as soon as I finish this entry, I'm going to watch it.

Mom's birthday is coming up on Tuesday. I got her Highlander season 1 on DVD. I was looking for Kung Fu season 3, but they didn't have it at Record and Tape Traders, which is the only store I've been to since I got paid yesterday.

Next week, if I remember, I'll post a list of things I might like for my own birthday.

Okay, I want to sleep now . . .

After work (which was extremely frustrating, but in the end fruitful), I had Dad look at the job I'd done on my closet as soon as I got home. I'd put the bar back up on Saturday after six months of having no closet (plus the two months in the camper, where there wasn't a closet anyway). When I finished, it was level and seemed sturdy, but I wanted to be certain before I hung my clothes on it so I asked Dad to have a look.

It was fine, so I hung up my stuff and put my spare blankets on the rack. Then I arranged my shoes, toolbox, kite, luggage and laptop case on the floor.

From there, it was just a matter of getting things organized. I started by getting the trash (various papers I'd originally wanted to save but really had no use for in the long run, books which could go under the bed with the rest, things like that) out of the middle of the floor. Then I cleaned the Sterilite plastic storage . . . thing that Jason left when he moved rooms so that I could put stuff in it.

I got a lot of stuff off of my floor, and what wouldn't fit well into the storage thing, I just organized as neatly as possible, as close to the wall as I could get it. For instance, I've got the candles I bought for the large brass candlesticks in a basket in front of my ergonomic keyboard, which is sitting propped up against the wall. And the DVDs and scratch tape which I've been working my way through watching and/or re-watching (i.e. MacGyver, Firefly, Serenity, etc.) are all stacked neatly in front of the storage bin on top of which I've got my TV and VCR/DVD-R sitting.

I've run out of storage things and/or flat, elevated surfaces, so I'm leaving everything else as-is for now. Maybe I'll buy a small coffee table or something. I know my desk won't fit in here, and even if it would, that doesn't help me to organize the stuff I've got in here already--the desk is full as it sits in my storage unit. So I think I should probably get some sort of cabinet or dresser. That could help with the "gotta find a pair of socks in the next five minutes" thing I've got going every morning, what with living out of the laundry basket (which is where I've been keeping my clean clothes; the dirty ones are all in the hamper) and all.

And then there's all the other stuff that still needs organizing if I'm ever going to be able to consolidate these bins. But that's a project for another month--I've got to buy groceries after I get paid this weekend, and also need to save some for Anna's bachelorette and wedding gifts.

After I finished with the room, I took a shower and watched a movie (G. I. Jane), took a shower, and then was too awake to get to sleep. If I'd tried to go to sleep before the shower (when I was actually inclined and sleepy enough to do so), I'd have been wide awake by four in the morning or so, and been dragging my eyelids long before class is over tomorrow. Trying before the movie would have also resulted in a too early awakening. Going to sleep after the movie would've been ideal, but I was still too awake, so I got online and checked my e-mail, among other things.

Now, I'm pretty much just rambling, and I think I'm actually sleepy again, so I'm going to pop While You Were Sleeping (or maybe Sydney White) into the DVD player and set the sleep timer on the TV with the volume down way low.

Hopefully, I'll fall asleep before the opening credits are finished. Last night, I got to at least "Pick a Little, Talk a Little"--possibly further--in The Music Man before I was out.

Vacation - Part II

We went to Red Robin for dinner on Monday.  We had some chips and dip for an appetizer, as well as a plate of fries and lime sauce--the waiter brought the fries out because the cook was taking so long with our order.

After dinner, we had a little time before the movie, so we stopped off at Borders.  I got a new game called "You've Been Sentenced," plus a couple of those mini-book things.

We did end up seeing City of Ember.  It was a good movie, and as it should have, left me wondering what happens next.

We all went to sleep at a somewhat more reasonable time then.

Tuesday, I woke up around ten in the morning, and decided to let Heather sleep until I woke her up at noon.  So while she was sleeping I got breakfast and checked my e-mail and stuff.  Heather was still sleepy though, so she went back to sleep for a couple more hours and woke up a little bit before Stephen was due back.

We went to the Arizona State Fair, and had loads of fun.  We didn't ride many rides, but we did play a bunch of games.  I won a couple of stuffed animals, and I'm hoping they'll fit in my luggage, but if they don't, I'll have to get a box and ship them to Maryland.

Wednesday morning was about the same, only I let Heather sleep until two in the afternoon before trying to wake her.  She stayed awake this time, but was still a little sleepy.  When Stephen got back from work on Wednesday, we all went to Subway for dinner and then went to Bookman's to look at the used books and stuff.  I got The Origin, a comic about how the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer was actually different from what Joss wanted it--it didn't look too different from what I remember, but it was still fun to read--plus two more novels.

Yesterday, I woke up first, and then let Heather sleep until she decided to wake up--that was much more satisfactory, even though I was awake for five hours and she wasn't.  We decided to go to the mall nearby so that she could buy some essentials at JCPenney.  Then we walked around the mall for a while.

I got us pretzels at Auntie Anne's, and we looked in a few stores including Bath & Body Works.  We also looked at stuff in game stop, plus two other stores.  One was a music box/clock/glass figurine shop, and the other was an Asian-themed store where they sold anything from little Buddha statues to rice-eating sets with chopsticks to Japanese swords.

We finally decided to have dinner, so we went to Villa Pizza.  Heather had two slices of cheese pizza, and I had Chicken Marsala with a side of potatoes and a side of steamed vegetables.  Yummy.

After dinner, we headed over to Master Cuts, so that Heather could get her hair cut.  We wanted to go back to JCPenney so I could get some new shirts and such, but they were closed, so we went back to Heather & Stephen's place.

We finally played my new game--it was pretty fun--and then Stephen went to sleep.  Heather and I stayed up for a couple more hours, watching Haibane Renmei, an anime series that's kind of corny, but cute, and gets a little more interesting as you go.

After the first two disks, we decided we were both sleepy and went to our respective rooms, but I wanted to watch the bonus features on Heather's copy of Serenity, since my copy has none.  I had no idea they would take so long--I didn't get to sleep until after five this morning!

But for some reason, I was still not able to sleep any later than eleven.  And I had a weird dream too--something about werewolves and this interesting-looking building which might've been a cross between a log cabin and an airport.

It would be really neat if . . .

. . . there were an RPG for Pern, don't you think?

End thought.

On with the updates:

Kayla and I didn't actually get to see the new Batman movie the day after my last post, but we did see it eventually. It was awesome. Of course, with my little knowledge of the Batman universe, I was kind of spoiled--I just knew that Gordon couldn't really be dead, 'cause he had to become Commissioner first.

Heath Ledger was awesome as the Joker; if I didn't know it was him, I wouldn't have recognized him--his voice was completely different from usual, and the makeup was (necessarily) heavy, of course.

A few Sundays ago (I don't remember exactly how many), Anna found O'Malley (one of her orange tabby cats) on the staircase, struggling to breathe. She rushed him to the animal hospital, where they found that he had fluid in his lungs.

There were four things that could have caused that, and various solutions to those problems which could have been implemented. But each solution had its down-side, and none of them would have guaranteed that he wouldn't have fluid in his lungs later on, so he had to be put down. He was five years old.

Anna was devastated. We had a little funeral for him out back that same night, and Anna painted a cinder block brick with his name on it for a headstone.

A few days later, someone stole the power adapter for the camper. I came home from work that Wednesday (or maybe it was Thursday?) to find that there was no power going to my TV, my alarm clock, my VCR/DVD-R, or my computer. I tried resetting the breakers both in the house and in the camper, but nothing worked. So I looked at where the extension cord got plugged into the camper, and there was a piece missing, which allowed the extension cord to have the camper plugged into it. It still hasn't been found.

So, the day after that, Anna and Kayla cleaned out Anna's old room (Kayla had already moved out of it into Kimba's old room, since she moved into a house downtown), and I slept in the empty room on Anna's "nook" pillows for a night with a few "essentials." The day after that, Jason got his room cleaned, and moved into the empty room. That Saturday, I was able to move
all of my stuff into Jason's old room, and slept on Anna's pillows until last weekend, when I setup my old daybed.

After Anna gets married in February, I'm going to move all of my stuff (except the daybed and my books) into my old room (currently Anna's), and we're going to use the room I'm currently in as a guest room which will double as my library.

Or that's the plan, anyway.

A few days after I moved into the house, Tim (Anna's fiancé) got a new puppy. She's a shepherd mix, and he named her Brian, after the dog from Family Guy. She's so tiny, and cute--too bad she'll have to grow up and get all annoyingly big and everything.

Yesterday, Anna, Kayla and I went shopping for various things, including lingerie and new pillows for me and groceries for all three of us. We also picked up the dress I bought at RennFest a few years back, since we're going there tomorrow--both Anna and I have Labor Day off, and Kayla has agreed to come, as long as we don't make her wear any garb. I said that was okay, as long as she at least tried Anna's dresses on yesterday and looked in a mirror; she did, and then promptly took them off and got in her regular clothes again.

My Friday night D&D game is no more. Actually it was technically a "new to RPGs" game, so since at least two of us had gotten GM memberships at the Haven, we don't really need "instruction" anymore--not for playing, anyway. Instead, Gene started up a new game, based in the World of Darkness. He's doing a GMs-only, mostly one-on-one Changeling game.

Pretty much, the concept is, he'll work with each of us players individually on certain days of the week (my day's going to be Friday), and we'll have to post on the message boards within 48 hours about what our character did during the latest session. We'll also be able to have one-on-one sessions with the other players, I'm thinking as well. The world itself seems interesting, and I'm looking forward to playing it. I created my character two nights ago, but I forgot to give her a name.

My D&D 4.0 character went into the "Old Characters" section of my RPG player's binder. I've also got a GM binder for my Serenity game, as well as for a series I'm writing for the Buffy RPG.

Ahhhhhh

Yesterday, I got my birthday present to myself--an hour-long full-body massage from the FMH Wellness Center in the FSK mall. Oh man, was that a great idea!

I'd've gotten it on my birthday (since I've taken off work that day), but the massage therapist I usually go to isn't working that day. She's all booked up for the Saturday after, and isn't working the Saturday before either, so I went yesterday instead. I should've done it months ago--the tension headaches were coming more frequently, and it sucked. Today, there's a little tension, but not so much that I feel a headache anywhere near coming on. I feel sooooo much better.

I need to go to my storage unit today and search for my bundle of index cards. I've looked through all of the bins in the camper here, but I can't find them, so I think I packed them with the stuff I don't need from day to day. Maybe I'll grab MacGyver season one while I'm there, so that Jason can watch the whole thing from the beginning--he's been watching season two, since that was the season I was on when I moved--I'd already packed up season one.

The day of my birthday, I'm going to wake up late (I'm thinking 9 or 9:30 will be good, 10 or so, if I can stay comfortably asleep that long), then go to the Haven until about 4-ish before I come home and have dinner with my family. Which reminds me, I have to choose my birthday dinner food!

The group of people playing in my Serenity game has decided that we'll be playing the day before my birthday, instead of the day after, since one of them (the guy playing the captain of the ship) won't be there on the 24th. I'm hoping Heather can come with me that evening and see the coolness that is the Haven. Or at least that she can come with me on one of the few evenings she's here before that, since she'll be leaving the day of my birthday and might be too tired the night before to come hang out. Either way, it'll be good to see Heather again. (Hi, chica!)

Anyway, I'm going to read some more before I head over to the storage facility for those index cards (the gate to access the units is open until 10pm, 7 days a week)--I need them to prepare for the Serenity game, since I'm so disorganized and didn't even know how much until I ran the first session (the very first session of the very first RPG I'd ever run, and I hadn't even played this particular system before either) and had to stop frequently just to check rules or find my place in the story line again.

I got a tip from Brian (the guy playing the captain) about using index cards for NPC stuff, and I might also use index cards to take notes on the storyline itself, instead of just reading straight from the story, since I accidentally printed four PDF pages per each 8-1/2 x 11-inch sheet of paper, and the print is tiny. I can read it, but it takes a minute to find where I am again. I don't want to waste more ink and paper though, so I'm not going to re-print it. Index card notes should work just as well.

It's a good thing my Serenity GM screen came in the mail this weekend, or else I'd have to look for rules such as weapon damage and armor stuff during game play again. And since my rulebook is a first-printing, it doesn't have an index, so I pretty much have to remember which chapter and/or section the rule is in, or be screwed (in which case, I just make up a new rule based on my somewhat spotty memory of the actual rule, which is bad).

I hate moving.

It's just way too much work.

Anyway, I am now living in my parents' camper in their back yard, with a few bins of stuff which I might need from day to day or week to week (like clothes and my computer). It's actually kind of cozy, even though the roof leaks in a couple places and the power goes out every few days or so. This morning the power went out at least two hours ago, and it hasn't come back on, so I've been trying to figure out why. It's the outlet that the camper is connected to on the outside of the house.

I tried every breaker inside the camper, plus the breaker for the outlet in the house, but the power still wouldn't come back on. So Dad said to try taking something electric out to the cord and the outlet to see if the power is even coming to the camper at all. I took the little hanging "lantern" out to the place where the cord plugs into the camper--it didn't turn on. Then I plugged it into the outdoor outlet--still didn't turn on. Finally, I brought it into the kitchen and plugged it in there--it turned on. So I need to find another outlet which the extension cord can reach before I'll get power in the camper again. I'm typing up this entry on my dad's computer inside while he's at church with Jason.

Bart from the Haven helped me get my furniture and most of my other stuff to my storage unit last weekend with his "Mobile Opression Palace" (a huge SUV)--thanks, Bart! Then Kayla and I went back to the townhouse on Wednesday to pack up our dishes and such. We left all of the tupperware-type containers for Jenn and Amit, since we didn't really have anywhere to use them. Then yesterday I went back to the townhouse and vacuumed my room, Kayla's old room, and the living room, then cleaned my full bathroom and the half-bath on the second floor--Neha helped me with that one. After I swept the dining/common room, I was done.

Speaking of the Haven, things are going well there. We finished our last Friday night 3.5 dungeon crawl a few weeks ago, and Gene and Steve decided to start teaching us D&D 4.0. We created our characters last week, and then this past Friday started actually playing. We killed a few kobolds, and then stopped for the night. My character is a dragonborn warlock.

On Thursdays, we have what I like to call "Crazy Thursday." Three Thursdays ago, Bart ran a Buffy game--although it was just creating characters, since we've decided not to play with the original cast anymore in favor of a setting in the Gold Rush time period. Then two weeks ago, he ran a new D&D 3.5 game, in which I play a gnomish cleric, with a dwarven fighter/cleric cohort.

This past week was the first session (in which character creation was done, and not much else) of the very first RPG I've ever run. I'm running a Serenity game, and I'm hoping it's going to be awesome. The only reason we couldn't do more than create characters this week was because the guy who will be playing the captain of the ship (once the crew has a ship, that is) was home sick. Next week is either going to be a free week, or the week which we start the actual Serenity game, if Brian (ship's captain guy) can make it both next week and for the July 24th session. Truthfully, I'm pretty nervous about running my first RPG, but hopefully it'll be fun. I've introduced a concept that I haven't seen done before--transient characters. There were a bunch of people who wanted to play the game, or watch the system, and I could only handle 3-4 actual crew members, so I introduced the transient characters idea so that some other players could get into the system at least every once in a while.

Not much more to say now, except that I wish the power in the camper was back on.

Finally, an Update

A lot's been happening the last couple of weeks, not all of it productive in the strictest sense of the word.

As of last week, I've joined a Buffy RPG game on Thursday nights. The story is set after season 3 episode 4, and I'm playing Faith. So far, we also have a Willow and an Oz, and room for two more players.

The Friday night game is going well--last weekend, we spent a "year" training and fighting in the plane of Akron (don't know if that's the correct spelling or not). My character, a ranger named Laina, gained a point of strength (for a total of 16) and lost a point of constitution because she'd been beat up so much (for a total of 12). Everybody also was given a level of dual-classing in fighter, with most of the extra stuff that comes from leveling. Next time I level though, I'm going to have to decide whether I want to be ranger 5/fighter 1 or ranger 4/fighter 2. Not much of a huge dilemma, but it'll be fun to figure out which would be best.

After we all figured out how dual-classing worked and made the necessary changes to our character sheets, we got to another plane of existence and found ourselves in Sigil, the City of Doors. We looked for a way to get back to Eberron (the world we're playing in), but it would cost us 500 gold per person, and even I'm short at least 80 gold (I'm the least broke of the party), so we looked for a job to do. This guy sent us to find some magic fungus in a cave rumored to have Medusae in it (wouldn't that be Gorgons though?), but when we got there, the Medusa was an illusion--we were actually fighting Driders instead! Laina took 10 points of temporary strength damage, 7 hit points of damage, and got stuck in a web for the last half of the combat. Then we were done for the week. I can't wait to find out what happens to us next! We still have to find that fungus.

When I got home on Friday, I watched episodes 3-14 (plus special features) of Firefly. Yes, you read that right, 3-14. I was so psyched about finally getting to watch the whole series (what little there is of it) that I didn't want to turn it off and go to sleep--so I didn't. The special features finished around 9 Saturday morning, so I put Serenity in the player and started it going. About fifteen minutes later, I was dead to the world. Good thing I'd already seen the movie.

Three hours later, Anna came over asking me stuff about Pittsburgh and New York, but since it was my "stay home and clean" week, I told her I wasn't going to come.

I went back to sleep for a while, and somewhere in there I remember eating some leftover boxed mac 'n' cheese, but I pretty much stayed asleep until around 5:30 on Sunday morning.

I layed there in bed for a while with my eyes closed, 'cause I couldn't make them stay open, then I popped MacGyver in and watched an episode before I went downstairs to get some cereal. I watched another episode while I ate, and by then it was about 7:30. There hasn't been much luck on the roommate finding front, so I started packing my movies and books. I got all of my stuff on the first floor packed up, plus a good portion of my books on the third floor, before I ran out of empty packing tubs. (I use the Rubbermaid 21.5 gallon things.)

At that point, I was kind of physically exhausted, but nowhere near sleepy, so I watched a couple more episodes of MacGyver before heading out.

Dinner at Mom & Dad's was kind of quiet, what with Anna and Kayla not there, and Kimba taking her dinner to her room. I pretty much hung out with Dad and Jason for the evening, and then after dinner we played video games. Kayla got in around 11 or so (Anna left again after dropping her off), and then I went home a little later.

Before I went to sleep last night, I watched the last two episodes of MacGyver season 2, so I can put that season in the tub now, and start on season 3 next time I watch.

I always pack my movies and books first, because no matter how much I like to have them out and organized, I know that they're actually the least necessary items in my possession. So I pack them first, and then I pack everything else with increasing necessity over the course of a month, ending with things that I absolutely need from one day to the next. And I put sticky labels on the lid of each tub with semi-detailed (but concise) descriptive words. That way, I'm not stressing about losing something, or not being able to find it later. Plus, I'll know which rooms to put which tubs in the next time I have a place to put them and I won't need a million cardboard boxes, just a dozen or two Rubbermaid tubs.

You're probably wondering where that drabble I posted earlier today came from.

Well, they added a new forum to the Haven message boards specifically for creative writing. So I suggested that we have weekly drabble challenges where someone contributes a challenge word, and anybody who wants to posts a drabble based on that word. The first word was "silver," so I got to thinking of thieves and then I thought to myself that it's pretty much a given that you should never trust a thief, but you should never hire a thief who has naught but two coins to rub together. And then I wondered if that were necessarily true, and decided to write my drabble based on the assumption that it wasn't.