Just Laughing - You all crack me up. Have I told you that enough lately? You make me smile, giggle, chortle, guffaw, and fall right over on to the floor. Thank you.

First, the silliness of the "Daily Eilidh" (pronounced "AY-lee"... you know, rhymes with "Daily"). Okay, I'll give Jason the props on this one, and I'll try to remember not to sell myself short. Some of you really *do* look for my updates on a (near) daily basis, following my journal (blog, notes, RSS feed, Facebook, Myspace, email notifications, whatever). Some of you only skim the posts (hee hee, I would too). Some of you read every single thing, and comment regularly. Then of course, some of you follow me on twitter, and even comment back to me on twitter. Some of you text my phone, send me photos, email, call, even occasionally put letters in the mail. (Have I mentioned lately how much I *LOVE* postal correspondence? I miss having friends I could write long-hand or post-cards, more often. Email me privately, if you'd like to be "traditional pen-pals" sometime...)

But seriously. I've got no market for a published "page-a-day" (probably copyrighted/trademarked) calendar sort of thing. *falls over laughing* I guess you'll have to settle for the web 2.0 version of me, and just find me via RSS, myspace, facebook, twitter, LJ, journalscape.... *wink*

Laughing at Singlehood - The good news about all this laughter is how often you all remind me that my internal stress is just petty and silly and not worth the stress. So what, if I'm single? Who else has the freedom I have to go gallavanting around? So what, if I'm single? Who else can drive friends to embroidery class, or babysit for 5-hours, or chat at 1am on facebook when someone's searching for God? So what, if I'm single? To quote Brenda from Cast-on, "If you're cold, put on a sweater. That's what they're for." You all are my sweaters. Thank you for warming me, when I'm cold.

As for advice about how to find someone to date, marry, be with, whatever: I have only one theory on this matter. I will either (a) find someone in my existing social circles, (b) find someone in a new social circle I wasn't expecting, or (c) find no one at all. *shrug* That's really the heart of the matter. And to be honest, I could "find" people all day long, day after day, but that doesn't mean they'll find me. The likelihood that someone I like will also like me back is so astronomically small, it's any wonder anyone ever falls in love at all, ever. I can hardly believe anyone ever finds anyone, with the odds against us in the world.

So either I seem unapproachable, or too busy, or too well put together, (or too desperate, who knows?!?)... or really there aren't any guys out there who are single already, who like me "in that way." Oh well. *shrug* I guess that's my lot.

I don't know *why* that's my lot. I suppose my only real ponderable is that: Why am I the one who's strong enough to keep going anyways, without a partner? No idea. *shrug* Edited: (Okay, I know I'm not the only one. It just feels that way sometimes.) [Not to say my friends in partnerships aren't strong on their own... not what I meant at all.] But I guess that's just some strange destiny of mine. I can still sigh wistfully, and weep over passages in books, right?

I was in an odd mood last night before picking up Jamie for the embroidery night at Meala's place. I indulged in a bit of harmless improv, singing sweet lilting tunes, designed to sound like they were about sunshine and kittens and cupcakes, with lyrics that would blister your brain, filled with vitriol toward arrogant, good-looking men who are above noticing women like me. It was probably only amusing to me, and definitely not worth keeping as a tune. But wow, very cathartic. *giggle* And it was funny to imagine the looks on the faces of such men, as they're lulled by the beauty of the soaring, lilting melodies, when the reality of the lyrics might have sunk into their brains. And it's amusing to hide harsh language in soaring, pure, high tones. Plus, I rarely sing soprono, so it was doubly silly. *wink*

Today, I'm in a much better mood. Perhaps I'll keep that trick in my bag for any time I'm feeling depressed about singlehood in the future.
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Bardic Sunday - Some friends opened their home for a big music gathering on Sunday afternoon/evening, and so after working on some artistic projects at Rae and Renata's house, I headed over to Beathog and Domhnall's (pronounced "bay-oak" and "dole") house. They'd just taken a break, so everyone could have some dinner, so I arrived at the perfect time to socialize and say "hi" before singing and enjoying the music.

It was a WONDERFUL evening, filled with every kind of holiday music possible, as well as some just-for-SCA music. We had guitars, violin, piano, harp, concertina, vocal song, and story-telling. We even did a bit of improv (local barony friends can watch for our "14 Days of Christmas" rendition in the next newsletter), and *lots* of laughing. I just adore the way friends can wrap one another in harmony, and even better when instrumentalists can figure out my song compositions and add the accompaniment that's only been in my head all along.

I took zillions of photos on someone else's camera, so I'm not sure when I might see them. I may have to meet up with my friends, and copy the files for my own photo album too, if they'll let me. I'm sure I can swing something.

Embroidery Monday - And then last night, a huge gang of us descended on Meala's home for the monthly baronial Arts and Sciences workshop. Eowyn brought examples and her own expertise on Blackwork and Embroidery, and especially the historic nature of the development of different types of Blackwork in the 16th & 17th Centuries. It was wonderful to see the various types of patterns, shapes, and techniques that were popular in different eras, and to compare this to the modern concept of blackwork. I also got some of Eowyn's and Angelina's input about some 14th Century embroidery for clothing that I'm interested in, and I was really pleased to get that too.
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The rest of this evening I need to put myself to the grindstone, and crank out some documentation at work. So, enough of this narrative, and back to work I go. Have a good evening, my dear friends.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Jamie, it was lovely to spend time with you last night