such an abrupt transition

[kareina]

For weeks my life had revolved around my computer and writing up my thesis. Heck, most of the past few years have centered around my computer and working on my thesis. I found it very easy to keep track of how I was spending my time and what I was eating, as I spent many hours each day at the computer, so it was a simple matter of switching between windows up update the logs. 5pm last Tuesday that all changed. I printed the final page of the thesis, and left it on my advisor's desk to be delivered the next day to the binders (only a half an hour too late to take it to the print shop myself!). Since then I've been in travel mode. Travel mode doesn't include much computer time. Travel mode requires one to either keep one's log on paper, or give up keeping a log. Thus far, I've been stubborn enough to keep maintaining the logs, and have done the data entry to get them into the computer when time permits. I hope that this continues, because I enjoy watching the graphs change with time.

Travel mode has meant a fun day in Sydney, shopping with bamebrampton. It has meant 13.5 hours on a plane across the ocean, landing in LA half an hour before departing. Noting that Quantas planes, unlike the plane I took to Australia four years ago, has not five seats in the middle row for the economy class, but only four. Gone are the days when it is possible to push up the arm rests and stretch out across all of the seats at once (on the rare occasion that there are sufficent vacant seats). Instead the arm rests are extra wide, to hide tray tables and small personal TV screens inside. It will not surprise anyone who knows me to hear that I did not pull out the TV screen I was given. Instead I got some sleep (Yay, sleep!), worked on a new tunic from some lovely wool purchased in Sydney, and read a bit in a book written by my friend Nikki.

Travel mode meant changing planes in LA, with enough time in-between to buy an adaptor so that I'd be able to use my computer in this country, then flying to SFO, the doing a loop around the Bay Area (the massage in Menlo Park made the detour so worth it), followed by seeing a play with hrj and a friend of hers (much fun, and good company!), then driving out to June Crown with duke_flieg.

Crown was much fun! Many thanks to ktmcg, who gave me a corner of her tent to call home, to mamapduck, who provided me with pillow and doona, to western_duchess, who lent me her spare air matress, and to katerit, who had sent me a tent for the weekend, though she couldn't make it to the event herself, and to alessandro_bard and colletteshorses who tried to deliver said tent, but encountered car trouble along the way. I'm so glad they were able to make it anyway, despite the complications with their transport situation.

Spending time at the event felt so normal and natural that it was difficult to believe that it has been six years since I left the West to move to Lochac. Most of the people I care about seemed unchanged, and it felt more like a few weeks than a few years since I've seen them. However, seeing the poised grace of a friend's daughter, who was an awkward pre-teen when last we met, and is now spending the school year away from home at College really brought home the point that, yes, time has elapsed. I didn't make the time to participate in any official activity, other than attending Saturday morning court. I never heard the heraldic announcements (I rarely do, due to my hearing problems, which are tied to attention problems--I tend to assume that any sound that is too faint to hear properly isn't important, though I know, intellectually, that this simply isn't true), so have no idea what all I missed which might have been of interest. I do know that I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to see. While I didn't expect to see the ones who didn't attend the event, I know that there were a few whom I saw only at a distance, that I would have liked to spend time visiting with, and others I saw only briefly, with whom I'd have enjoyed more interaction.

One complication to my making time to see people was the fact that I spent the last half of the event fighting off a cold. The last time I caught a cold badly enough to experiance symptoms was after Estrella war in 2004, so I guess I can't really complain if, after weeks of pushing myself really hard to finish the thesis and shorting things like sleep in the process, I came down with a bit of sniffles. However, battling off that virus did take up some of my energy, and encouraged josiestraka and I to get on the road early on Sunday, to be certain that we'd have time to make our train that night. The down side of leaving early is that I missed vittoriosa's Laurel ceremony (pity I never heard when the Laurel's meeting was--if I'd have attended the meeting, I'd have known that was coming, and so would have planned to stay for it, even feeling under the weather). But the up side of leaving early is that we were able to stop by the fabric store on our way to return the rental car, so I now have a nice blue linen modern skirt (some assembly required). We left site around mid-day, and got to the Amtrack train station with an hour or so to spare before our 23:00 departure. As a result of taking BART from the airport to the train station I managed to complete the remaining quarter of the loop around the Bay Area, so I've now passed through every BART and CalTrain station in the area in one short weekend. I can't say that I recommend it, but there are worse ways to travel.

I slept for the first part of the train ride, but it was dark then anyway, so wouldn't have been able to see anything out the window if I hadn't. I woke up in souhern Oregon, and looked out the window to see Mount Thielsen, a lovely volcano of the Cascade Range, with a very pointy peak. I smiled to see it, remembering the time years ago I climbed that peak with some friends, and then hurried down the mountain, reaching the easy part of the trail just as full dark came on. Fortunately, the easy part of the trail is so good that one can feel if one steps off of it, so we were able to wend our way back to our car that day without mishap, despite the moonless night.

We finally arrived in Portland a bit before 4pm, and were met by the lovely corva, who took us home and made us welcome. josiestraka was picked up shortly thereafter by her husband, who took her to Longbeach, where they are renting a vacation place for the week. I'm to join them there soon, so if anyone in the Portland area fancies a drive to the beach with me, please let me know ASAP! It was a delight to see the Bear again, and fun to see that while he may be 14 already (where has the time gone?), I'm still the taller. He points out that in a few more months this may not be the case, but I counter that while his parents have reasonable height, there is a small chance that he takes his genes from a shorter ancestor. Time will tell, and, no doubt, much faster than I expect it to be moving, if the past few years are any indication.

My plan for tomorrow is to burn that CD of electronic appendices (I think I've gathered together all of the files, and changed the field numbers to catalogue numbers) and post it to my advisor. Then spend time with whatever other friends I can manage to meet up with before heading to the beach for another day or so and then off to Seattle for the weekend, where my sisters and I shall all be under one roof for the first time since we lost my step-dad, five years ago.