Mon Jul 10: Drive North, Textiles "guild" - So after the amazing-post-that-went-on-for-nine-pages (sorry about that, I hope the links helped)... my afternoon was filled with more chatting online with everyone who wanted to know how things went. I also really wanted to send a note to Mateo and Michael, but since internet is spotty out at the Resort, I copy/pasted the journal entry into Word, wrote a personal note to the boys at the top, and a hand-written note at the end and put it in the mail.

By the way: More people should send each other letters in the mail. I'm just sayin.

*wink at Leona*

After all that, I drove up to my home shire, picked up my mail, grabbed a quick latte, and dropped by Textiles workshop. Albra was demonstrating some embroidery and specifically metal-thread embroidery, we all passed around some amazing books, and Astra and I worked on pearls for Angeline's Investiture gown. Astra was also tossing out fabric scraps, and I managed to limit myself to just two small pieces: Some periwinkle brocade that will BEAUTIFULLY match some periwinkle material I have stashed away for something fabulous some day, and some bright blue linen-look that I think is a perfect match for some that I already have on hand. Even if it's not a perfect match, I'll use it for some heraldry-designs appliqued on cotehardies in the future (for the uninitiated: Picture a floor-length over-dress with coat-of-arm designs quilted on the dress).

I went back to Dayle's house to stay overnight, and we sat up chatting for just a wee bit.

Tue Jul 11: Brunch, Baronial Council, Coffee - Several times I've gone to Dayle's house to stay overnight, with a vague idea of "let's have brunch in the morning." But you see, my idea of "morning" and hers is vastly different. This time, five of us decided to do "brunch" by meeting at 12:00 noon. Hmm. I always pictured "brunch" as being a 10 am or so average time of morning, but I can go with "lunch that's called brunch" just to be with my friends.

I managed to sleep in past 5:30 am this time, and didn't leave Dayle's until at least 6:30 or so. I had a lovely, lazy breakfast at one of my favorite spots in Ventura, read several magazines and opened all my junk mail, then wandered off to Barnes & Noble by around 9:15 am. I should have set myself an alarm to get back to Dayle's earlier, but at 11:20 I finally remembered to check my watch. Eeep! But I found several amazing books, didn't find a new journal (I really wanted a small leather bound book that would feel dreamy to my fingertips, but nothing was quite right), and got back to Dayle's just barely before noon. We walked over to Morgana's, everyone finally arrived, and we headed off to the beach for a little hole-in-the-wall place called Mrs. Olson's. Lunch was yummy, although I should have ordered the fruit--it looked amazing. Back again to Dayle's to get all my things, and everyone went their merry ways.

It dawned on me that Baronial Council was tonight, so rather than fight all the LA-traffic all the way back to Long Beach, I just found a way to hang out in the shade, read for a while, nap, and then head over to the public library where the meeting is held. Council was nice, and I got to help the seneschal (the guy in charge like the club president) by taking notes for him throughout the meeting. Afterwards, the group likes to wander over to a fast-food joint for dinner and socializing, so I joined them for a short while before heading over to the coffee house where my household goes after fencing practice.

So it was a wonderful day filled with relaxing, reading, shopping, friends from my Shire, my Barony, and my household. *Ahhh......*

Wed Jul 12: Job-Hunting Day 1 - So now I'm back into the full-time job hunting mode, organizing the updates to my resume, surfing Monster.com, and sending resume after resume. You can expect a little summary of my day's job hunting, which I'll start off right now, at 1:45 pm on Day 1. Catch you all more later!

Time Spent on Job-Hunting so far today: 3 hours
Job Descriptions Read: 35+
Resumes Sent or Uploaded: 3
Job References Contacted: 4
Phone Calls: 0
Interviews: 0

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Shava, and our budding friendship