Still Alive (Portal reference or Pearl Jam reference? YOU BE THE JUDGE!)

Whoo... I'd love to say that the radio silence for most of the last week has been because I've been having such an absolute blast that I forgot the internet existed, but... while I have been having a great time and things have been going wonderfully with Jack, it's mostly been a matter of exhaustion from coping with cold. Cold, it transpires, is a masterful thief of spoons from the easily fatigued.

I didn't count on this because Maryland is between ten and twenty degrees warmer than Nebraska, but it's much easier to regulate temperature inside a modern apartment surrounded by other apartments than it is in a big old drafty house, no matter how awesome the oldness may otherwise make it.

Anyways, I'm adjusting... it seems a little warmer in here today, and in a bit I'm going to go out looking for some fingerless gloves, which I've wanted for a while anyway.

Sunday will be the meet-up at Port City Java, for all interested. I'm going to be getting there around 2:00. I will be wearing a black hat with a black rose on it and carrying a leopard print handbag, so I expect to be easy to spot. The place is open to 4:30 on Sundays, and my plan is to just hang out there until then. I've decided against the back room because I have no idea how many people are going to arrive when and I'd like to keep everything visible and accessible.

Slightly more than slightly personal.

I've had so much happening and so much on my mind that when I look back at my Livejournal, I can't believe how little I've posted here. Part of that is due to the circumstances of my trip. On my way to Maryland, I missed a connecting flight due to weather delays and ended up spending a night in a different state than the chargers for my laptop and phone. This caused me to shepherd their not-unimpressive batteries a bit more than I would have otherwise.

I made it into Maryland about twelve hours later than I thought I would. This meant I was getting in at noon instead of midnight, which wasn't a bad thing in and of itself. I met Jack, and that's gone unbelievably well. We've gotten to know each other as well as two people can over phone, voice chat, IM, and email... as a result, there really haven't been a lot of surprises in terms of personality and social interaction.

(Physical interaction is a different story, of course, but one that has a happy ending.)

I was considerably more nervous about meeting Jack's girlfriend than I was about meeting him... my interaction with her before this trip amounted to a handful of comment exchanges and maybe thirty seconds of awkward conversation when Jack sprung a microphone on her. I find her slightly intimidating. Not because of anything she does, but because of her position in Jack's life and because I'm easily intimidated by people who are taller than me, or who seem to really have it together, or are people. She hasn't been anything but sweet to me, though, and she has excellent taste in DVD boxed sets (MST3K, Upright Citizens Brigade, etc.)

Of course, for as little as I've updated my Livejournal, I've also been posting fewer stories than I thought I would while I'm here. The cold is a harsh mistress, as I mentioned before. It also doesn't help that Jack's around a lot more than we expected... he works during the day but there isn't a lot of work for him at the moment. I write best alone, when I feel comfortable pacing around and talking to myself and throwing and catching small objects idly... other authors might not need to do these things, but I find them very helpful and yet terribly embarrassing. We might eventually get to the point where I feel comfortable being so very writerly while he's in the next room, but we're not there yet.

I know some people will say that I shouldn't be worried about updating at all right now, but I wouldn't have planned for a three week trip if I'd known he'd be home most of the time... not that I object to that much Jack in my life, exactly, but the idea behind the prolonged stay was that I'd be splitting time between him and work. Oh, well... trying to predict the future has never gotten me anywhere before. Anyway, that's all for now.