settling in

Hugs and good thoughts to Karen, who decided to go ahead with a musical presentation for the Mars Society as a tribute to Lloyd (she and Lloyd were supposed to perform together). "Life is full of bitter-sweet moments," Karen wrote recently in Blatherchat. "Lloyd had been so excited about the Mars Society songwriting contest to write a national anthem for their hoped-for colony there. I performed that song at their conference tonight, knowing that that is what Lloyd would have wanted. The perfomance got a standing ovation, and Lloyd and I won first prize. It was a terrifying and emotional experience to go on without him. But at least I was able to fulfill that dream for him. I just hope he was watching from somewhere."

Michael Liebmann came up with the wonderful idea of funding the planting of a grove of trees in Israel in Lloyd's memory. Both he and Judith Hayman are collecting funds for the tree project, which has the support of both Karen and Lloyd's family. I'm a bit confused about whether these are two separate projects or the one and same, but ultimately I think Lloyd would be touched by how united the filk community has been in supporting Karen, and how news of his death has affected so many people.

Today's blatherpic is one I took of my niece Annie and my sister Ruth, who were visiting recently. Sara insisted on calling my apartment "Auntie Debbie's hotel" since my Real Apartment was obviously still in Toronto. Both Sara and Annie brought me gifts...Sara gave me a set of tiny containers filled with different colours of nail polish; we were going to have a nail painting party, but sadly ran out of time (I was secretly relieved, since I have no nail polish remover). Annie brought me a Magic Washing Cloth, which was shaped like a small heart and that expanded rapidly when immersed into water, decorated with the smiling visages of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. My brother-in-law fiddled with my remote control and got my tv working!! The cable people had told me that the cause had been hopeless, and that I might have to get a new tv. I now have access to nearly 80 channels. I tried watching an episode of Survivor on Wednesday (I had heard so much about it) but only made it through 10 minutes before losing interest. There must be something wrong with me.

This past weekend, my friend Cathy came to visit. We visited the historic area of Philadelphia, visited Reading Terminal Market (farmer's market, but more so), South Street's wild assortment of unusual shops, went for a carriage and horse tour. It rained almost the entire time, but we still had fun. :-)

Gradually getting adjusted to my new work environment. Many thanks to Lyanne Quirt for sending me a handmade "Cubicle Companion"! Ironically, I will be moving out of my cubicle pretty soon...the company's growing so quickly that we're moving into somewhat more crowded quarters; no cubicles, just folding tables. My shared cubicle space will just be a fond memory. :-) Every so often I peek in on my old office to see what Doug and the others are up to. I have a terrible suspicion that no one has watered our Office Plant since I moved away.

I'm practising my harp every night, even just for a few minutes; it keeps me from getting too homesick and also reminds me not to get too stressed by things which (in the ultimate scheme of things) aren't that important. I've learned 4.3 songs so far:

All Through The Night
Drink To Me Only
Planxty George Braxton
Scarborough Fair
Water Is Wide (1/3 way through; this is a piece that is way too advanced for me but that I couldn't resist gradually learning)

If you see me with a harp, feel free to request one of the above and I may play it for you (especially if you offer me chocolate at the same time).

I haven't had a chance to have any harp lessons yet. My general routine these days is to wake up at 6 am, do some work, go to the health club to work out, come back and work in the apartment the rest of the morning (usually eating breakfast in front of my computer; I'm so bad), go to the office for the afternoon (typically 75% meetings; tomorrow is an All Day Meeting from 8 am to 5 pm), get home around 7:30 pm, bed by 10 p.m.

I started working at the apartment in the mornings out of sheer survival instinct. I'm used to multitasking heavily, as well as working at odd hours of the day and night...my productivity went into a major dive when I started working in a corporate cubicle environment. I know, I know...zillions of people do it every day! Ten years of basically working by myself, however, has definitely had an effect. (Yeah, I feel like an antisocial curmudgeon, so shoot me :-))

I finally got the rest of my furniture put together, woohoo! No more sleeping on the floor. I also went out and bought some posters to put on my unbearably white walls, as well as sticking up some drawings made by my nieces and a card from Andrea and a letter from Lyanne. I got tired of not having enough time to go shopping for a vacuum cleaner and microwave (by the time I got home from work, the shops were all closed) so ordered them online. Now if only I could find a good online grocery service that delivered in the evenings, I'd be set...