I have found myself a quote:
"6/5 People Have Trouble With Fractions"

Yep, that's me in a nutshell. Anyway, I do not have much to add, my life has not taken an unexpected twist in the last six hours that I feel I must discuss, but I thought it was worth noting that I have updated my Deviant Art gallery. It is a good place for the work that is neither fantasy, nor sci-fi, not that there isn't plenty of the former in my DA gallery, but if you hadn't checked it out, there are some keen photographs and I've added three illustrations that I am quite proud of. I will be updating my other galleries in the near future, likely, following the Election.

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE.

And then vote for real.

Wow, the best way to spend a day - ever ! Driving all the way across the fucking city to pick something up only to have the place you're going be closed when you get there. Did I mention it was through mid-day/early rush-hour traffic? Boy oh boy. Anyway, I was running an errand for the office and it turned out I wasn't late, no, the company just has been letting it's staff go early this week because of all the overtime they've been putting in. Crikey. I missed them by as little as seven minutes. I kid you not. I got the feeling that they were doing their impersonation of "the Flintstones" when the airhorn sounds, they dropped what they were doing, slid down their dinosaurs and went home.

Last night I had dinner with "Auntie" Karen. Initially planning to go for Middle Eastern food, we changed our minds and went to Tortilla Flats for some comforting and delicious texmex. We discussed many things, some related to work, some related to play, and some related to things utterly unrelated. It was good fun. Karen is a smart lady. Also, she is very funny and helps me to view situations from all sides, including the humourous.

When I got home, some hours later, as I did go into the Office for an hour or so following dinner, I proceded to use my time wisely by searching for jobs on the Internet and downloading, er I mean borrowing for a short time only before returning, lots of the music of the Muppets and Sesame Street. Nerd power ! I picked up some real classics, too, like "Doin' the Pigeon". In the end, I went to bed much later than I had anticipated because I was enjoying my new music collection to the fullest.

So, Tobe is a disgusting cat. Not only did she recently drag her poopy ass all over the living room floor and rug leaving figures that a champion ice skater would be envious of, but last night she puked all over my bedroom. Thanks, Tobe, we appreciate it, really.

Questions copied from Nicole's live journal.

1-If you could go back in time, where would you go?
So many places...
Late Republican/Early Imperial Rome (anywhere in that period)
16th Century Japan
Late 12th Century Low-Countries
Middle Kingdom Egypt
Late Cretaceous Period (I wanna know how the extinction happened)

2-If you could have tea with anyone (dead, alive, fictional) who would it be?
First of all, if I've got a say in it, I'd rather have coffee.
Johnny Depp, Queen Elizabeth, Mary Wollstonecraft, Botticelli, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Julius Caesar

3-What was the last book you bought?
The Wisdom of Nature: The healing powers and symbolism of plants and animals in the Middle Ages
The House of Medici: Its rise and fall

4-What is in your cd player right now?
"mistakes that are still fresh in my mind" Chickdrummer
"The best of the song books" Ella Fitzgerald
"Violator" Depeche Mode

5-What are you currently wearing?
My blue, fleece nightgown witht the polar bears on its front.

6-What is your favourite poem?
"Kubla Khan" Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"The Wife of Bath's Tale" Geoffrey Chaucer

7-Make a wish...what is it?
I have a lot of wishes, but someone once told me that if I spoke them, they would not come true.

8-What are you most grateful for?
My Mother.

9-What part of your personality are you secretly proud of?
Secretly? My strength of character.
Guess it's not a secret anymore.

10-What part would you like to change?
The feelings of guilt.

11-What is your totem animal?
I don't know for sure. Does it have to exist? If not, then a dragon, for sure.

12-If you were a tree, what would you be?
I don't know. Holly or Apple.... though Pine seems to resinate. Get it? Resin?

13-Name 3 places you would like to visit.
Egypt, the UK (in depth), Gabon

14-What part of your body do you like the most?
My mind.

15-Have you ever experienced synchronicity? If so, which was your favourite experience?
I have often experienced it. I have no favourite, it is merely a fact of life.

Before I run off and vanish into the Camp office for many hours, I thought I would provide a wee update. Of course, yesterday I attended the funeral of Ceceil's son, Tristan. It was way out in Scarborough which meant nearly an hour in my car braving mid-morning traffic. It was held in a large Anglican church because their home church, which is a more fundamentalist gospel church simply wasn't big enough. There were probably a few hundred people in attendance and I think about a third of these were students from Tristan's highschool who were released in order to attend. I didn't know Tristan even a little, never having met him, but I do know Ceceil fairly well and I like and respect her. I think she was very touched that I came out for this. She might have a Hell of a time getting me out to OPSEU meetings, but when it really counts, I am there.

The service was presided (is that the right word?) over by Father Scott, the Anglican minister and he invited three of the so-and-sos of the gospel church to join him. Father Scott was lovely, very articulate, very sensitive; two of the men from the other church were also well spoken and generous in their speaking, but the third, "Preacher" Dan, really creeped me out. When he referred to the Christians of the gospel church, there was no question that he meant that they were the only 'real' Christians. Father Scott's jaw visibly tightened at that and also when Dan said, not mincing his words, that the only way to salvation was through Jesus' love as taught through his church's sermons. His not-very-well disguised final message was that everyone else was pretty much going to burn for eternity without seeing the light. Holy shit. This is a funeral, NOT one of his sermons, and lots of people there were devout in their own ways, and did not need to be told they were doomed. They were there to offer support and to show their love for the deceased. And above all, what made this guy think it was okay to slam other Christian sects while the whole funeral was being hosted very generously by an Anglican parish?

Other than Dan and the nastiness that ruined all the nice things he had previously said about Tristan, the funeral was really nice. It was the longest funeral I have ever attended (no mass was observed, either). Many of Tristan's family and friends spoke, including some classmates that read poetry they'd written, two who sang a gospel duet, and most amazingly, one classmate who played the steel-pan drum. You have not experienced anything until you witness a sixteen-year-old girl, dressed in black, tears running down her cheeks, playing out the congregation with Amazing Grace on a single steel-pan drum. There wasn't a dry eye in the church. It was awesome.

Anyway, I was only aware of one other ROM staffer at the funeral, Julian Kingston, head of Education (Ceceil's department), which was sort of shocking, but I hope many others attended the viewings held the previous two days. I hope. From there I went to the museum to work.

And now for something completely different, or at least not recently seen: neat quizzes that have nothing to do with my sexuality (whoa...).

You are the High Renaissance and absolutely
bursting with ideas. Sometimes, your
versatility is overwhelming and you have to be
careful to do justice to all of your talents.
You love the artistic world, culture and
classical civilization.

****** What Time Period are You? ******
brought to you by Quizilla


Samuel Clements, otherwise known as Mark Twain, is
your kind of writer. Like you, he has a deep
connection to his past and a lively sense of
humor.


Who is your Literary Soulmate?
brought to you by Quizilla


And, since we all know that I come up with Earth and dragons a lot in tests, etc., have a vulnerability to coffee, and I have been known to be utterly intimidating, this is just... weird.

Become a God or Goddess. by zerogirl
Name:
God/Goddess of	Fear
Element:	Earth
Animal Companion:	Dragon
Weak against	Coffee
Weapon:	Dagger
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

...
EDIT @ 5:12pm... see bottom.


I love concord grapes. Other than pumpkin pie they are probably my favourite seasonal fruit. Yum. Sure, they turn my fingers and tongue kind of purple, and they're full of seeds, but my gosh are they ever delicious ! I bought some for the Camp office yesterday and I am pleased to see that the basket is nearly empty. Speaking of seasonal foods, last night Sierra and her Mom, Carrie, came over for pumpkin carving. Sierra enjoyed sorting the seeds from the goop and frequently showed off her orange, slimey hands. We roasted the seeds in the oven and that was a treat I hadn't enjoyed in many a year. I think I was still in single digits the last time I ate home-roasted pumpkin seeds. Yummy !

Anyway, I had an interview today. Actually, I had two interviews. The first one was at an employment agency, the second was at the employer. Both went well, though I'm not sure I did terribly well on the agency's data-entry test, but it was a ponderous, old system quite unlike any data form I've ever filled out. I must have done well enough in order to be sent on to the prospective employer. Both interviews went very well, I have to say, though I am still waiting to hear back as to whether I'll have a paying job to attend on Monday. I actually ENJOYED the interview with the employer and somewhat inconceivably one of the interviewers actually worked with A---- and B------ on the campaign back in Montreal when they were students. The world is small. Very, very small. Hopefully this little bit of synchronisity will help me.

In other, less exciting news, much sadder news, my union local president, Ceceil, at the ROM, just lost her teen-aged son. I'll be attending the funeral tomorrow morning. I don't know any details, only that he was about sixteen years old, and he died this past Saturday. How horrible for her. I can't attend the viewing tonight and missed it yesterday, so the funeral it is. That reminds me, I must buy a card for her.


EDIT: So, I just phoned the agency and spoke to the woman who interviewed me (the agency owner) and she's totally irritated with the employer because after the interview that I nailed, they informed her that there was an internal (no shit) referral who they will interview tomorrow. For the love of Pete, why the heck didn't they disclose this little tidbit of information earlier? As the agency owner said, "They say nothing about the internal when I send them two so-so candidates, but when I send them the perfect candidate? It's not fair to me and it's certainly not fair to you. And I mean 'perfect', okay?" Ya, okay. It's the curse of my life. So, maybe after the funeral, when I'm at the ROM, I'll hear from her and the news will be good.

Waking up at 6:30 in the morning is a painful process for someone like me, especially when one is awake until 2am the night before. I had not intended to be awake so long, but my brain was just so full of thoughts and musings that sleep was thwarted. When my alarm went off, I was utterly confused. It was dark in my room (depressing) and Willi was there lying against my hip and I just couldn't understand why my alarm was going off in the middle of the night (so I thought). Then I realised that my stereo was talking and I knew that, indeed, it was time to rise. I think we turn back our clocks next weekend so at least I won't be getting up in darkness. Instead, I'll be leaving the office in darkness. Joy.

The cats have been getting along very well recently, though there have been some wee fisticuffs from time to time. They play together sometimes. What used to be antagonising before has become a game, such as the door game. This is played with either one of them behind the door and the other on the reverse side, both of them staring at each other through the little crack between door and wall. They push their paws under the door and thump at each other and then, once in a while, who ever is behind the door leaps out and they start a new game. The chasing game. Initially, they would whip each other up by running up and down the hall, but not after each other, rather, first one would go, then the other moments later. Now they actually chase each other and mostly, it doesn't end in hissing.

I think I'm going to go home for a nap before beginning another run of work here in the evening. I'm flat pooped. POOPED.

After much tumult, the Camp office is now quiet. I'm doing the work I most often do, which is about as exciting as it ever is - that is to say, not overmuch. A few people are out on Sign Crew, but apparently most everyone else is not keen on staying late in the office after 8pm on a Friday. I can't imagine why. I was also at the ROM this morning/early afternoon. I've been given a four-hour shift at the front desk for each Friday of this month. I also have yet to invoice for the contract I was working on earlier this month and before I went to New York.

I was invited to my friend Megan's Alice in Wonderland theme party tonight, but I phoned with my regrets. I shall have very little in way of a life for the next three-and-a-half weeks. I am fairly excited that tomorrow I get to play D&D at A&C's house, but they're all going to a movie before hand and I will be... putting up signs. I had these great intentions toward a Hallowe'en costume, but I probably won't get around to that. Maybe I'll just stay at home and hand out candy to the kids. The thing is, my neighbourhood kind of sucks for costumes. Most of the kids come around in pre-fab, cheap, ill-fitting costumes. I'm spoiled, you see, having grown up where I did, in a community where parents' made their children's costumes by hand. I do get to turn Sierra into a vampire, though, which should be fun.

I'm rambling somewhat. Probably because it's so hard to focus on anything but work. When all this is over, I plan to sleep for a full 24 hours. I also intend to have a long, bubbly bath for most of a day. I am entertaining the idea of going back to New York to help Alfred clean up his apartment, as well; paint it, clean it, organise it. He could use the help and I really like staying with him in Manhattan. All the plans I'm making that relate to a social life pretty much have to take place after November 10 (Election Day). For instance, Rick finally came through on a promise that is something like two-and-a-half years old - Lion King tickets. Better late than never, I suppose. *laugh* Anyway, big thanks to him for that.

My mother's close friend, Ray, is moving away from Peterborough tomorrow. He's leaving for Deep River, north of Ottawa, in order to be closer to his daughter and her family. I said goodbye to him on Sunday night when I was there for Thanksgiving. I think he is both excited and sad to be making a fresh start. I know my mom is a bit sad that he's leaving because they spend so much time together. I will miss him, too. I wish him lots of luck and fully expect him to visit both in the Petes and at the Cottage.

I am sitting in the Camp office and honestly, I thought it had been several days since my last posting because my sleep schedule has been so weird over the last few days that my internal clock is all confused. Yesterday night was Super Secret Sign Ninja Adventure Night. I gave Stew no choice but to come along when I bounded up the stairs in order to pick up some clothing that was more appropriate to the evening's events. We put signs together and more signs and then we broke into crews and packed up various vehicles including Scarlette. I was put on crew (Team G-Force/Team Discovery Channel) with B----- and R----- and Stew. Our job, that we chose to accept, was to install signs throughout a specific area of the Ward. Rick, who also came for Sign Night (and we thought Hallowe'en was fun...), was put on a pedestrian team with Lauren, a very fun chick. Pedestrians were responsible for the small signs while vehicle crews were responsible for the massive signs that required long stakes to be hammered into the ground. There were three vehicles out and at least another couple foot teams and we got a few hundred signs posted for sure. I know that we did 45 large signs and slightly more little signs for David Miller who is running for mayor (and who is a very honest guy with tons of integrity *hint*).

It's terribly exciting to go out in the middle of the night (Midnight Madness, in fact) to pound signs into people's lawns. Having never done it before, I was not disappointed and actually had more fun than I already thought I would have. Stew had a lot more fun than he'd expected, too, and we were all quite hyper as we set out. By the end, people were getting punchy, threatening each other with power tools and finally getting quiet as the adventure drew to a close. The weather was not the best, being a bit drizzly at times and fairly chilly, but it was not enough to dampen our spirits. Also, it was great to see that we really out signed our rival, only seeing one crew posting for her. There were some minor injuries, including B------- smacking his head on Scarlette's trunk and cutting it open. I got to clean and dress his wound. How very dramatic.

Okay, that's enough of that. I have broken my rule of posting about campaign stuff, but it was just too much fun to skip. Lauren told me today that she had a blast walking around with Rick and thought he was a really cool guy (see? I'm not the only one who thinks so, Rick). They couldn't find a couple of streets and ended up circling the Cadbury factory something like three times. You should know how that puppy smells. Mmmmmm, good stuff. Anyway, it's time to finish up what I was doing before I started this.

After the amazing Indian Summer we had over the Thanksgiving weekend, autumn has now arrived. It is dreary outside, cloudy and wet, and all I want to do is go back to bed. I can feel hibernation mode setting upon me. Where there was colour on the trees, now it is on the ground, the intense gusting wind and rain speeding the fall of leaves. It's cold now, too, reminding us all that November, the most depressing month of the year, is soon to be upon us.

And, much in the spirit of rain/snow on Hallowe'en, tonight I'm on election sign crew and you can bet I'll be wearing layers.

I've spent some time today (at Mom's) trying to make her Internet connexion work. Okay, the connexion is fine, it's her email that is doing bizarre things, but she tends to call it all the same thing. I -think- I have solved the problem, but now I'm waiting for the various test emails to arrive in my account. Somewhere along the way, they disappear. I am still inclined to blame Hotmail, since I recently received several of the same email over the course of three days. One never knows, though. Sympatico is often worth blaming, too, so it's a toss-up for now.

Anyway, I do not have a lot to say, though I did have a nice time on Monday night at Julie's house for Tania's birthday, but I just can't be bothered to write about it. I'm just too sleepy.

A few people have noted that my journal has not been updated. This was not due to a lack of trying, however; only wiggly connexions at the Camp Office prevented me from succeding and I hadn't copied the text elsewhere so it was lost. Tonight, I am not doing anything at the office, nor am I unduly bogged down in work - I'm working, just not with a deadline looming out of the dark night before me. And it is dark, isn't it? Despite the glorious weather over the last few days, the city is swallowed into blackness just past 7pm. How very sad. Soon enough, we'll all be winding back our clocks and then it will be all the darker.

Regardless of the brightness outside my door, I've been working my butt off on various things since my return from New York. What is it that they say? No sleep for the wicked? I am not sure I am exactly wicked, but I am wickedly busy. I've been jumping from the ROM to the office, back home (where I work) and then back to the office on a regular basis. I've been out canvassing in the evening and at the crack of dawn. I am actually making some money doing this, too, which doesn't hurt - thank God for contract work. It does certainly eat into personal time, though, and my whole life now pretty much revolves around campaign socialising and events. I am enjoying it very much, even if my stress level has sky-rocketed. I was speaking to Nick last night and we discussed the merits of me going for counselling, if for no other reason than to learn some coping mechanisms for everything that is going on.

Anyway, I should get on to talking about New York in all its wonderfulness and sadness. The first three days that I was there have sort of blurred as they were the hardest ones to get through. I took the red-eye bus to NYC and arrived just at the beginning of rush-hour. In retrospect, perhaps I should have taken a cab to Alfred's apartment, but I was too tired to care and it's not like I'm afraid of the subway. We went for breakfast upon my arrival near to 7:30am and then I took a nap for a few hours. It was hard sleeping in the room and bed that used to belong to Robert and for the first few nights, I cried myself to sleep. When I awoke from my nap, Don, Robert's good friend had arrived and once I was dressed and ready, the three of us walked to the funeral parlour. There we met friends and family over a few hours with a break for dinner. People kept saying, "Oh, doesn't he look good," in response to seeing Robert laid out in the casket. I politely agreed with them, but the whole time I kept thinking, "He doesn't look anything like how I remember him... Actually, he looks dead."

The following day was the funeral held at the family church. It was a nice service, I suppose, but I didn't find it particularly moving. I guess I rarely do at the funerals themselves. It is at the wakes, viewings, shivas, etc., when everyone is interacting and reminising that I feel the pangs. Or, if they play Ave Maria. One thing I learned is that if it isn't Christmas, I do not know any of the songs. Most people were singing along with the hymns and prayers, and there I was, front pew, thinking that somehow my choir education was lacking because it did not include enough non-Christmas music. Nevermind that it was a secular choir in the first place.

Following the funeral, once everyone had hugged and cried and said their good byes outside of the church, Don, Alfred and I went around the corner for breakfast. There, due to the stress, Alfred had a seizure. Now, I want to set something straight here. There is this weird myth about how New Yorkers ignore each other and what not, but when Alfred collapsed, three different people immediately came to his (and our) aid. One called the paramedics immediately, one sprang up to get him some orange juice, and one helped us get Alfred outside and make him more comfortable. Then there were several others who just buzzed around trying to be helpful, both inside the diner and out on the street. Sadly, having seen things happen on the streets of Toronto where I have been the only one to react (like when someone hit a homeless man in the street and drove away), I know that if any city deserves a reputation for ignoring those in need, it's definitely NOT New York. Anyway, returning to the story, I got to see upper Manhattan disappear behind us from the back of an ambulance.

All was well once Alfred was dosed with his anti-seizure medication and had some food put in him. Don and I took him home and watched him to make sure he was alright and when it was clear that he was going to be just fine, Don went home. The following day, Friday, I did things around the house, including cleaning the bathroom from top to bottom. I simply aimed to be helpful and supportive, but Alfred spent most of the day on the phone talking to well-wishers and friends. A neighbour in his building brought him some dinner and as I went out to buy suplies, people in the hall and on the stoop asked me how he was doing.

Anyway, I was in New York until the following Wednesday, and I didn't spend my whole time in the apartment or with Don and Alfred. Originally I was meaning to come home on the Sunday night, then I extended it to the Tuesday morning in order to appease Gina, my half-sister who couldn't visit with me on the weekend like I had hoped. Finally, I was persuaded by Don to stay one more day after that in order to be around when Alfred had a series of tests run at the hospital. They would have kept me around longer had they their way, but I was serving as a distraction from the real business of getting on with things and dealing with the pain. Besides, I do have responsibilities here in Toronto, not the least of them, my cat.

I visited with the younger of my two half-sisters, Nicole, on the Saturday. She, her grandmother, and I wandered around the not entirely charming area of Brooklyn known as Flatbush and De Kalb (not pronounced as I thought as "dah cob", but as "dee khay-lbh"). Now, this did involve a trip to Junior's (home of the world's greatest cheesecake, which I sadly did not have room enough to try), and the city has been trying to fix things up a bit planting bushes and trees in what had been a desolate land of concrete and more concrete. I helped Nicole shop for school uniform shirts, picking out a gorgeous one that she went on to where first thing on Monday after our visit. I dragged her into shoe stores, of which there are many across all of New York, and we made fun of the really weird 80s-inspired trash-rock stiletto boots and other things. Nicole does have a good sense of humour even if she is often too shy to actually open her mouth. One utterly remarkable thing about her are her eyes. She inherited Papa's amazing almond-shaped eyes with the thick, long, black eyelashes, except unlike Gina, myself or even Papa himself, her eyes are blue. We all have nice eyes, deep and sad, but hers are AMAZING.

I have no idea how I spent my Sunday, but I think it involved a lot of hanging out around the apartment and resting. I know I really started to feel at home at that point, though. I visited with Gina on Monday, again with her grandmother in tow. We went to Prospect park, the big park in the middle of Brooklyn that was designed by the same guys who created Central Park (and also High Park, here in Toronto, from what I understand). It's a real gem in Brooklyn. It's big and rolling with wild areas and sports fields, a lake and Botanical gardens. We explored a strange building in the middle of nothing, called the Tennis House, I think, and I surmised that perhaps, once there were tennis courts near by. Gina and I experimented with eating acorns (not entirely revolting by the way and perhaps tasty if roasted) as well as salty pretzels, hot dogs and icecream all from the same vendor. New York really understands what a street vendor should be. Yum.

On Tuesday, I brought Alfred with me to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's almost directly across Central Park from his home. We could have walked, and I have walked it, but his feet and ankles ain't what they used to be so we took a cab. Cabs, by the way, are pretty reasonable to ride in there. At first he wasn't sure how much fun he was going to have, but I did want him to get out and be distracted. I, in fact, had a migraine that day (I had two while I was there, I suppose because of the emotional stress), but I was certainly not going to balk. Anyway, as soon as we went in, I got distracted too (and the double dose of meds didn't hurt either) and we ended up having a blast. We did the entire, vast Egyptian collection, at least what was open of it, they like the ROM are renovating, so there might actually be more than what we saw. Let me say this: Holy crap do they have mummies. Out the wazoo, if you know what I mean. We also enjoyed the extensive Medieval arts section and armouries (I liked the armoury in Philadelphia better, on a side note) and finally we wandered throught he gorgeous historic American room lay-outs. There was one that came out of an old mansion in Buffalo, NY, back when people didn't make fun of the city, that blew us away. Following that, I took Alfred for a fantastic dinner at a place near his apartment called, French Roast, where we feasted on mussels and the most incredible hamburgers I have ever eaten.

I spent Wednesday packing up and addressing envelopes for Alfred while he was at the hospital with Don. He came back and was deemed to be all clear and we had a final dinner out on the town. They also took me to the store that Winners wants to be and really fails at, Filene's Basement. Now THAT is an incredible bargain store. First of all, it is laid out nicely and looks like a real department store, it carries a full selection of name and designer brands that run the course of style and fashion, AND it has a FULL selection of sizes including plus and petit. Yes, Winners, which I have only ever found to suck, has a lot to learn from Filene's Basement. Anyway, Alfred decided to buy presents for me to take back to Mom (jewellery and some incredible cashmere and fur-lined leather gloves) and Don insisted on buying me something, too, so I got a fine pair of lined, wool pants. I'd been there earlier in the week, too, when I bought myself some excellent jewellery and some terribly exciting Sesame Street panties. I went on a panties/bra binge while I was there. I experienced Victoria's Secret for the first time, too, and the bras... *swoon* Wow. Anyway, following our shopping excursion, we all took a cab to the Port Authority and they saw me off at the bus terminal.

You can see how it was both incredibly sad and kind of scary, as well as wonderful and enjoyable, too. I have even left many things out that made the trip so special, but my fingers are getting tired. I have a standing invitation to return whenever I want, and I hope to do so following the Municipal Election. I would like very much to help Alfred clean up his place, repaint it, etc. His place needs it, as does he. I hope I can afford to go back for that. It has also caused me to reconsider moving there, an idea that I had put away in the closet when I realised that the computer animation dream was fading. Well, I am considering it again, though not for the next half-year at least, and everything sort of rests on what happens in the election.

Anyway, there is a not-so-brief update that has been a long time coming and now I must return to what I was doing when I started this an hour ago. By the way, I have updated my sci-fi gallery in Elfwood and I have a new gallery where I can post any form of art (including poetry and photography) as well at DeviantArt.

I have returned from a trip that was at once awful and wonderful, sad yet affirming. I went willingly to New York, though not with much hope of enjoyment, and then, as we find, once in a while, it was a marvellous visit that brought me to my first home in a way that was closer, more honest, than any visit before. There was laughter with the tears and as much celebration of a life lost to us as there was lamentation. It was an eye-opening experience and if I ever thought before that I was without much family, I know even better now that I make up for it in friends. Dear friends who even as they struggle have a place in their hearts for me. I will write more soon. Tonight, I am too tired.