Sewicked

It's Monday. I just sucked down 16 ounces of diet coke, and I still don't feel awake. Hopefully, this will not last. Thank goodness I have reminders on my calendar to remind me of time sensitive tasks.

The last weekend of the fair was great fun, but boy was I tired. Saturday, Sharon Hill, a seamstress in the Village, loaned me a dress to wear. This was a good thing as my silk blouse was still drying & the substitute was less than satisfactory. The dress is a reproduction of an 1810 dress & it is comfortable & flattering. Sharon & I both benefited. I went to buy a new garment, something to extend my Village wear and she offered to make that dress. I got to see if the dress would be comfortable, etc while I tatted and I was a model so that other Village craftswomen could see how the dress looks on someone who isn't slim. I need to check my fabric stash for 5 yards of suitable calico & 4 yards of a coordinating calico for the apron/pelisse. If I don't have it, I may buy some. Then I'll send it to Sharon & she & her daughter Beth will sew it for me. Then later I can make my own from that. Wheee! Lots of dresses. I got a picture of myself in that outfit too. Must send a copy to Mom.
(15 minutes & I'm still on hold)


Sunday night I helped Anitra & Steve pack the booth. Anitra & I slept in on Monday while Steve went to get the booth hardware, display case for the Village History display & breakfast. Steve took care of the birds, daily task, while Anitra & I went to the Fairgrounds to pick up our entries. (20 minutes & I'm off hold, whew). We stopped by the Village to say goodbye to the last folks packing up & to give 'drive by' hugs. Peter Blum & his sister were the first folks we saw. Wow, they look different in jeans. Then, everyone does. After we left the fairgrounds we stopped by Reader's Corner, after all, I had a 5 dollar check burning a hole in my pocket. That $5 is the 3rd place prize money in Infant's Wear, Other category.

I found a copy of Perfect Patchwork Primer, the book that inspired me to start quilting. I also found a copy of Diplomatic Immunity in hardback as well as War of Honor and some other assorted books. I bought a book on hemp braiding as a gift for Nora, Amanda or Hailey. The War of Honor isn't out in paperback yet (insert gloat). I spent more than I hoped but less than I feared at Reader's Corner.

I made it home about 1pm and started unpacking. Well, I got my dirty clothes out of my bag anyway. I settled down to read one of my new books & relax. About 3 pm my throat started hurting. Sure enough, I'd caught Anitra's cold.

Monday night, people finished their characters to test play Diana's supplement. I had finished mine but it disappeared so I wrote it again. Then we went through the first encounter. We'll finish it, hopefully, on the 10th.

I called in sick on Tuesday. Then I drank soup, hot tea, and lots of soda & juice. When I could I watched tv & read. Frankly, I was too tired to really pay attention to anything. Tuesday afternoon, I called in sick for Wednesday. Linda handled Tarheel Temps for me. Wednesday was a repeat of Tuesday, except I slept later. I took a 3-hour nap Wednesday afternoon, skipped gaming & went to bed at 10 pm.

I wasn't feeling any better, but no worse so I went to work on Thursday. The dayquil was worse than the cold. It made me feel dizzy, in addition to the sore throat, runny nose & sneezing. The zinc lozenges, while tasting nasty, did more good. According to my co-workers I was looking a little pale, even for me. I took care of some time sensitive tasks and then headed for home at 4pm. I stopped & mailed my latest letter to my mom. Thanks to an accident of Farrington Road I finally made it home at 6pm. Bleah.

Friday, I felt better, consumed more lozenges & actually stayed & worked until 5pm. I was all alone in the office. Mike, Ira & Jim are at a conference. Rut was in DC & Susan almost never comes to this office on Fridays. I picked up a little candy on the way home, changed into something vaguely costumey, and was ready to answer the door for Trick-or-Treaters.

We had 2 groups. The first one was two little girls; a fairy & a princess. The fairy complemented me on my braids; I had unbraided my hair & then re-braided two plaits next to my face. The 2nd group had 4 kids, one still a baby being carried, dressed as a bumblebee. The first child took all but two pieces of the candy I had. The 2nd child took the next to last piece & the 1st child took the last piece to put in the 3rd child's bag. Momma was not happy & told the 1st child to put that candy back. The child did so. When he put one back that wasn't mine, I told him to stop & gave it back to him. He was sooo cute. If I'd known that was the last group I would have let him keep the candy.

I was up later than I should have been, watching tv. So I slept late Saturday. Barely had enough time to clear the dining room table for gaming & go pick up Ted G. He's a student at State who was going to play in our session of Birthday Bash, RolePlaying Gamer's Association Living Greyhawk game. Since we were meeting him at Foundation's Edge, Chris picked up his comics & I bought Forgotten Realms: Underdark. We ended up with 6 players, Chris, Rosemary, Ted, Jenna, & Bill D. It was a fun game & not as bad as it could have been. But we had some close moments. My character, Nadia, is a senior squire, so she was mentoring Ted's character, Julia, a junior squire.

I basically changed clothes, ran out of the house & made it to the COTE board meeting barely on time. Anitra is still sick so she wasn't there. It was just Steve & I. So we worked on the lanterns for the ritual and then went & picked up supper from the Jade Garden. Steve had brought Digdug, a burrowing owl from Utah that had just arrived at the Refuge last week. Digdug was perching on his shoulder as I arrived & I did not see him/her until Steve brought my attention to him/her (we don't know which gender she is yet). Part of one wing is amputated from a car collision injury & Steve is training her/him to be an education bird. It's a very cute owl.

Things went well Saturday night. But I didn't leave until 11:30. So I called Chris & I crashed on Steve & Anitra's couch. Again. Their dog Siesta was glad to see me again so soon. Anitra & I caught up (on the whole week's worth of doings) and then off to sleep. Anitra drove me to my car on Sunday, I drove home, showered, dressed & made to Foundation's Edge in time to run my Ironclaw demo.

I had 3 players. One who had played my Jadeclaw demo and one guy who had the book but who had never played before. He had a character half-made and I helped him complete it. I ran until 6 pm & then headed home. Chris played Halo all day, so we had pizza delivered for supper. I went to bed early, 9 pm. Still had trouble waking up at 6 am.

It's a beautiful Monday morning & I will wake up at some point. It was almost 9 am before I saw anyone else from my department. I was feeling very lonely when Linda finally stopped by. I was just exclaiming about how alone I'd felt when Paula walked in, too. Very funny.

Off to more work type stuff.