Sun May 7 - For those of you wondering, nope, I'm not dead yet. (This is what my college best friend and I say when we haven't kept in touch for a while.)

Let's see, what have I been up to? When I last left off, I was headed to Collegium. The weekend with friends was wonderful, and the classes were pretty okay. I really enjoyed several, and was bored in about two. But my friends were the best part of the weekend, so I'd call it a success.

Since then, lots of this and that. I started to work on a journal entry one morning while doing laundry, got tangled in doing too many things at once, and managed to lock my keys in the car. Wow, I haven't done that in forever. But Triple A got there in under 15 minutes (wow!) and I was back to sipping my coffee and folding clothes in no time.

Work has been work, but I'm enjoying going from one project to another lately.

I took two days off last week to go up north and help a friend move to California from Minnesota. Let's say I know he'll be shopping a lot in the next several months because he's living up near the Bay Area but in-land about 1.5 hours drive, and I unpacked his clothes and hung them up in the closets. He has =so= many fleeces and sweaters and jackets that are going to hang there and get lonely, in this California weather.

The whole two-day adventure for Gauge's moving-in party was an absolute blast. I drove, taking Diego and Marcos with me. Gauge endured his car breaking down in Reno, getting into town a day later than planned, the apartment being locked and no landlady answering, breaking into his own place, and the key to the padlock on the trailer was left in the car in Reno. I was on hand to drive his friend Kim to the San Francisco airport, after she helped him drive across country for three days. We bought bolt-cutters in the morning and managed to unpack everything. And we spent all afternoon unpacking boxes and assembling what truly looks like a livable apartment. It was a wonderful time to spend together, all four of us, and we also met the local SCA Baroness from town. Definitely a success.

The drive back was uneventful, with the exception that Diego is a wonderful DJ, mixing up five hours of music from two iPods and keeping us entertained (and awake). Plus, my friend Ken was driving home from Portland, Oregon on his motorcycle and passed us on the freeway, pausing just to beep and wave and then zoom off ahead of us.

This week I got a little bit sick on Friday, and have been fighting a cold all weekend. But I had a successful trip to the eye doctor Saturday (my retinas look healthy, and apparently getting my eyes dialated isn't that bad of a deal after all). And had a lovely afternoon/evening hanging out with my roomie, Cat, and Lot last night. Today is Alan's birthday, so I'm about to head over to the park for a big turning-30 bash. I'll probably sit and take it easy at the park, and I'm taking some hand-sewing with me. I hope I can finish it and start another project next.

Finally, my next 6-7 months will be busy as I've been invited to be a Lady-in-Waiting on the next Queen's Court. She's an old friend of mine, and I'm *truly* looking forward to being a part of her court. Expect to see lots of reports on the sewing and projects I'll be working on for the rest of the year! *grin*
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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Adrienne, for being there when I'm not a very good sick patient.

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Weight Loss: This morning, registered at 18.2 lbs lost total. Been bouncing around for three weeks between 15-21 lbs, and know that I need to get back to "cooking in little boxes" again. I've plans to go walking with a friend every two weeks, and need to start my daily "walking at work" again. After turning in my 21-day challenge, I didn't walk much after that. Fresh page every morning!