Hey, look, I'm back!

I've been hanging out over at Xanga for the past few days, since I got home, where you can find me as 'Lilla', but I intend to start updating here again as much as I can remember to. Getting back into the way of remembering to check my e-mail every day, and to update blogs etc. isn't as easy as you'd think it'd be. I've missed being online, but at the same time, after three months I've grown accustomed to not having constant net access. That I can check my mail anytime I want isn't something that instantly occurs to me. I'll get back into the habit though, I'm sure.

In the next couple of weeks I'll decide what I'm doing with my blog - whether I'm going to maintain this blog as well as a xanga, or streamline them both into one. I'm not yet sure. Anyway, I've missed you guys, and it's nice to be back.

And just in case Shan, Kate, or Laurie are reading this - RIDE THE TWINKIE!!!

I don't know if anybody still reads this, or if all you smart people have said "she's not updating" and stopped checking, but I just thought I'd check in while I have a chance and let you know I'm still alive.

Work is boring, but what work isn't. The town is nice, if small, and I've met some lovely people.

Off to Cincinnati for ScaperCon on Thursday! Wheee!!!

Well, I'm here. Washington DC.

It's incredibly warm here - warm in the way that you can feel the texture of the heat in the air when you breathe. People from around here would probably think I was nuts, but it's a totally different atmosphere to the UK.

There's too much to say to begin to say anything, really. We've seen some lovely places - NYC, Philadelphia (a little dull, but pretty to look at), and now Washington. We have until Saturday to do all the stuff here, the Capitol, the White House, the Hoover Building etc. Although I found out today that the White House is no longer doing tours, and has not updated its website in a hell of a long time.

Ate dinner in a lovely little tex-mex place tonight, and have been reading "Holiday In Death" in the living room type place in the hostel for the last hour or so. It's nice to relax for a little while, and I'm definitely looking forward to not having to carry my rucksack around tomorrow.

[soundtrack: there's a basketball game on TV, it may or may not be the Lakers...]

"She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist"
Jean-Paul Sartre

Somebody tell me how I can make that into a fic. I love it.

Thanks, McB, for the link.

So, this time tomorrow I'll be pretty close to landing in NYC. I'm excited, really I am, but at the moment it's being buried underneath my obsessive need to double check I've packed everything every five minutes. As usual, I'm convinced I've forgotten something vital, and I won't remember what it is until I'm soaring over the Atlantic.

I'm not sure about this 'no computer for three months' thing. Especially because I haven't finished my Wing Swing fic yet. Unless I can finish it tonight I'll need to do the rest of it longhand and then find a computer to type it up on once I get there. And Plums... Tea, what are we gonna do about Plums?!

Okay, chill. I'm going to have a fabulous three months in the US of A. Quit being neurotic.

Oh, hey! nostalgia wrote me birthday West Wing slash. Go here and read it. And give her some feedback! Thank you, darlin' ;-)

[soundtrack: i won't dance - will young]

'No human being, to my knowledge, has ever been forced to look at the person they love through a force field, knowing that one or both of them is facing imminent death. I just love the way they are nose-to-nose and can't touch each other.'
Martin Wood on "Divide and Conquer"

::yawn::

Spent today in town with Ellie, which was nice except for the fact that we were both practically asleep on our feet. I missed my train coming home though, and had to wait half an hour for the next one, which resulted in me going to FOPP and buying the Norah Jones album, then going to HMV and buying the Pop Idol album. Missing trains is bad for my bank balance (which is already in the minus figures!).

I have this feeling that there was something actually interesting that I was going to say here today, but damned if I can remember what it was.

[soundtrack: i get a kick out of you - pop idol album]

I haven't been online in five days. I haven't checked my e-mail, I haven't read fic (well, I perused a couple that live on my hard-drive, but other than that...). It's irresponsible of me, because I'm supposed to check location and approve members for SJUK, which I obviously haven't done in almost a week, but part of me thinks it's a good idea sometimes to just live in the 'real world' for a few straight days at a time on occasion.

Birthday was fun, I guess. Somewhat uneventful, despite all the celebrations planned (another going on tonight), although I did have a good day on the actual day. Thanks for that, Ellie and M. Sorry I made you make decisions though.

I set all my mailing lists to 'no mail' this morning, getting set for going away next week. A couple may make it back onto digest when I get to Lake George and find out what the mail checking situation's going to be like, but at the moment I'm getting reading for a list-free summer. It'll be strange.

People who want to contact me while I'm away, btw, can do so on a different address than usual. I've created a new account to keep private mail separate from list mail, so if you want to talk to me - and please do - you can do so at cartouche@softhome.net

[soundtrack: i'm not in love - tori amos]

There are all these fic ideas floating around in my head. Some of them are more concrete than others, but they're all there, and they all want to be written. I don't have time to write them now because of my exams, and then I'll have just over a week before I go to America.

I won't get them all written in that time, because I have to sit my driving test and I have to get ready for three months in another continent, then there are three months during which I won't have a computer... I can't write fic longhand anymore, it just doesn't work, and so I can hear the collective screams of around 10 fic ideas all dying of suffocation.

Fun.

[soundtrack: letters - stroke 9]

I watched "Window of Opportunity" last night, just before I went to bed, and about five minutes ago it all came back to me suddenly and I desperately wanted to start spinning on my chair.

Damn the library for having swivvel chairs at the study carrels. Although, they are more comfortable than the crappy old chairs at the computers, where I'm sitting now...

Anyway, I managed to resist spinning, and went for a little walk to the computers instead. In 25 minutes I get to go buy a sandwich from Tesco. I wasn't born for a regimented life.

[sountrack: a million and one keys tapping]