Life as a PenPal - Did anyone else here grow up as a penpal? Did you send away for "girl, any age, any country" or "boy, my age, Europe" or any other such thing? Or was that out-of-style even by the time I was enjoying having penpals?

I know that people often lament, "kids these days don't appreciate the things we had when we were young," and then launch into a nostalgic golden-back-then kind of rant. And in every generation, as people age, they think "kids these days" are more brash or more disobedient or... name your society ill here. Most commonly, I have friends who hate that "no one ever RSVPs anymore" or "no one writes letters / sends thank you's" in these ages. But I digress.

Have you ever picked up a book and felt an instant connection to the author? Ever felt like if you could sit and have coffee with them, you'd possibly be fast friends for life?

I've been feeling a lot of that lately, and I (teasingly) blame Bill for introducing me to the on-line writings of his friend Jason. I'm mesmorized by his writing style, his literary flair, his observations about humanity and religion and culture and politics, and am fairly certain I'd love to have dinner once a month with him and a gaggle of like-minded friends. Now, some of this is the bias of shared experiences. I think we all instinctually lean toward liking people who'd been through or do some of the same things we do, and I rarely meet someone else who's studied the same languages I have.

Maybe that's the root of some connections we make in the world -- it's a matter of the "same language." If you're a theatre person, when you meet someone else from the theatre, you end up "speaking the same language." If you are raised in a religion, regardless whether you believe the same thing now, you have a common language that you share with others. Even in college, watching two friends find out they were both raised Prespyterian reinforced my idea that those two shared a common language that I didn't share with them in the same way. We shared a "Protestant upbringing" in our language, but it's rare I meet someone raised in Disciples, and I *always* feel a kindred of "hey, we share a common jargon."

Or, consider hobbies. I gravitate towards those history buffs who do textile arts, because we share a common language. I'm close friends with sword-fighters, but I'm not (yet) one of them. I've heard the language, but I'm not fluent.

All that to say, it's always heart-warming to read the work of someone with whom you make that language connection. It made me wonder if some of *my* readers feel similarly. Am I speaking your language? Or do you follow my journal because you're friends of mine, or family, and you're curious what crazy things I'm up to next? Or, are some of you "my people" and feel that connection of language?

You don't need to respond, but I wonder these things to myself all the time.
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On to the adventures version of this journal! Let's see, what have I been up to? Oh. Right. I'm unemployed now. *sigh*

I last left off Tuesday evening. I had a nice hair appointment with Brittany (who looks amazing, having lost 45 lbs and been working out at the gym nearly every day... I think she inspires me right now). My white streak is now brighter than ever since the rest of my hair is much darker again. It's almost long enough to pull into a single ponytail again, which I believe is much more age-appropriate in appearance than two pigtails. Sure, I look almost *twelve* when I wear pig-tails, but really!

Wednesday evening I was headed out to fighter practice on time, but had to go back into my apartment for my forgotten phone. I got distracted by my computer for over an hour (!), so I missed out on exercising and walking with Aliskye for the evening. But I went over late, had some wonderful time chatting with Noah, Eliada, Robert, Janice, and Aliskye, then had a nice "dinner" at IHOP with everyone afterwards. I usually order just coffee, to try not to have extra calories in the evening, but I finally tried out the black cherry crepes. (I *love* black cherry!) They were yummy and not too filling, so that made me happy. And I still lost a pound this week, so I did okay on caloric intake.

Thursday *and* Friday were heavy data days at work. I finally compiled the last six weeks worth of updates into my final reports, and sent them out either late Wed or early Thu. Then I figured out who needed zipped archive files on CD for responsible data transfer, and made certain I knew how to burn all the copies correctly. [Sounds straightforward, but remember, I was working on a military base. Not straightforward.] On Friday I managed to package everything up neatly, correctly, and turned in the key to my building. I missed getting to the "Passes and Decals" office on time, but I'll drop in first thing tomorrow, to turn in my DoD stickers and access cards. I have no guaranteed job lined up, so I cannot transfer the cards to another assignment. Best to be diligent with these things.

Friday I also had an interview with Meala's favorite head-hunter. They are a professional staffing office, and I really enjoyed meeting Yosef. He was rushed (but apologetic) and we have some follow-up work on Monday to tailor my resume for a possible job opening.

I also had a good conversation with an old co-worker from the Marine Corps base, and she had some pretty good leads. She knows of 3 different people hiring or possibly hiring, so I'll look into those on Monday, too. My subcontracting company also approved all my final timecards plus cut a check for all my vacation accured, and sent the whole package overnight.

Saturday was Angels Anniversary, and also Meala's prize -- a special challenge field for rapier sword-fighting. But sadly, I still didn't have the local newsletter done, and at midnight on Friday could no longer keep my eyes open. So I slept, ran up the event, provided all the court scrolls and calligraphy to the Queen, helped the heralds have everything organized to run court and present the awards, and then had to regretfully leave without watching her Prize. But her new outfit that we worked on together looked wonderful, so I felt like I got to contribute a little bit to her special day. I hear it went really well, and I look forward to seeing Jon Thomme's photos, seeing his article for next month's newsletter, and hearing Raphael's bardic tale for the event.

I got home after opening court, started soup for the Sukkot dinner, picked up the overnight closing paycheck, dropped off rent, deposited money in the bank, bought challot for Sukkot, bought cream cheese and sour cream for the soup, bought a new steering wheel cover (yippee!), and raced back home to work on having a newsletter draft to edit on the drive to San Diego. Meala came over after her prize was done, we packed the car, and hit the road around 6 pm.

Sukkot is the Harvest festival for Jewish holidays, and it follows right after Rosh Hoshanah (New Year's) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Just the span from RH to YK is technically the High Holy Days, but since Sukkot is a week long just a week later, I always feel like it's still the holiday season. Last year was the first time I got to share dinner during Sukkot with friends, when Matt/Jaime took me over to dinner with his friend Josh and their friends. This was my first Jewish dinner with friends who primarily were *not* SCA friends. We had a fantastic time in the sukkah (basically a "hut" built outside, with a roof covered with greenery so you can see the stars), discussing the holiday in general, discussing religion and culture and careers and politics and education and friendships... meeting new friends, learning new songs and prayers, and of course eating an amazing banquet of warm, autumnal foods. (Have I mentioned lately how much I miss the seasons?) So, at last year's gathering we shared a non-meat, dairy kosher meal. I made a fall or winter squash soup that was well-received.

So this year, we opted for non-meat, dairy kosher -- and I made another crock-pot soup. The base was sweet potato soup, into which I tossed some red potatoes, corn, 3 types of carrots (orange, white, and purple), plus some garlic and onion sauteed in ghee (clarified butter). I dashed in some cinnamon and some "powdre fines" which is a blend of pepper, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, grains of paradise, and saffron. After a while, it seemed too soupy, so I tossed in some cous-cous to make it a more hearty stew. Wow, the cous-cous soaked up some liquid! But wow, was it a warm and pleasant stew! I brought both cream cheese and sour cream, in case someone wanted a dollop of one or the other in the stew. (I prefer cream cheese, most friends of mine prefer sour cream.) Then there was a harvest bread (carrots, nuts, etc), a very savory salad (greens, tomatoes, almonds, vinegrette), a side-dish of cous-cous (ha!), two kinds of challah (plain and raisin), mushroom blinzes with sour cream, olives, nuts, and probably something else I'm forgetting. At dessert time, there was an apple strudel (homemade), cream puffs (Kelsey's first attempt at hand-making them from scratch, and they were very good), carrot cakes (almost melting with good frosting), and again I'm probably leaving something out.

Thea was our hostess, and being way down in San Diego, she hasn't been able to join our group up in the LA and Orange county areas for any of our holiday dinners. So four of us were able to drive down, another San Diego gal made it over, and the three of them in Thea's home made a total of eight of us for dinner. It was wonderful. Besides the good food and good company, we had wonderful weather for sitting outside and enjoying the stars, and some fantastic dinner conversation about being raised in different faiths, and having friends from different walks of life.

Of course, most of the rest of the evening was the joy of our different SCA crafts and pursuits, since we all had overlapping hobbies. Thomas shared some wonderful calligraphy projects with me and Meala. Several of us wandered through Thea's textile library and tools collection. She showed off her brocade project with real gold. Ludmila had some of her Russian pearl embroidery work with her. Hours of conversation later, we all yawned and pulled out the folding futons, and had a small sleep over.

For breakfast, Meala was naturally up early and making pans full of challah french toast (one of the seven wonders of the culinary world, in my opinion). ("Remember: The Secret Ingredient is Heat.") After showers and fresh clothing, several of us sat around quietly and amiably working on various projects. I got my newsletter draft editing done, Meala got her rapier helm hood flippped from white-side-out to red-side-out, Thomas repaired a portion of one of Thea's looms... a wonderful lazy Sunday morning.

Then Meala and I went out for a quick lunch, a short browse in a bookstore, and met some of the fiber artisans at Starbucks for their monthly get-together. I got to help Meala finish understanding the kumihimo weaving disk she made based on my class at Collegium last week. I finally spun on her spindle that she was giving to me, and after finishing the wool, I plied it up and gave it back to her so now she has the wool yarn that includes *her* first (and only) spinning so far. She now has a dyeing and weaving project to use that wool in, so she gets to keep her first spinning. Thea worked on the gold-brocade project, Felice dropped in with some dreamy super-wash maroon marino to spin (and we all lust for Bosworth drop-spindles). Karen (now Ceinwen) arrived with her knitting, and a young lady who's name I didn't manage to learn dropped in with her spinning wheel. By then it was time for Meala and I to return home from San Diego. I was glad I got to spend the weekend with Thea (and I miss spending time with Thomas), so I consider this a wonderful weekend.

On the drive home, Meala and I got to have some fantastic discussion of "new year's resolutions" (since we just finished the Jewish New Year holiday of Rosh Hoshanah) and evaluating where we were a year ago and what we've accomplished in this year. It was a fantastic conversation to end a fantastic weekend.

Now I'm dedicated to finishing and publishing the newsletter in the next few hours, then it's full-time job-hunting (or should I say job-acquiring?) for me tomorrow. There's another Arts and Sciences meeting at Meala's tomorrow night, and then Great Western War starts this week. My arrival date at GWW depends *completely* on how soon I secure new employment. I don't leave town until I have a full-time job secured. Please wish me luck, say your prayers, and think happy thoughts for me. My dream would be to have a job secured as early as possible this week, so I can actually go to GWW before Friday.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Thea and Thomas (and Kelsey). I've missed you, and I am =very= grateful to have shared the weekend with you.