Jeff’s Journal

After how down I felt about bizness in general, talk about needing a getaway of some sort. Luckily, this past weekend came at precisely the right time.

1) After work on Friday, I picked up Ann and we went to Old Orchard Beach in Maine. My parents rent a place up there for a week every year, and they invited us up, and we took them up on it.

I had never been to OOB. Ann spent time there as a kid, only living about 15-30 minutes from the area, but my treks north rarely left New Hampshire. It was entirely different than what I expected - more of a shoretown-type atmosphere with a random carnival in the middle than the spectacle that Hampton Beach or Wildwood provide - and that was kind of nice. It does have a bit of an older flair to it, though, which was different. The crowd may have been influenced by the people we were with - namely my parents - but it was more an interesting, unexpected thing than anything else.

I’ll say this much, though: bar-hopping with your parents is something everyone should try once. We ended up at this one bar (my mother insisted it was Irish, I’m convinced she thinks all bars are) that was essentially a fortysomething bar with the worst of the 80s and 90s pumping on the stereo. Patently absurd, Ann & I were the youngest people there by at least 15 years, and yet, in the end, it was totally awesome. If they had a better beer selection, it would have been even better. We hit a second beachside bar afterwards with a crappy cover band and a crappier drink selection before getting a slice of pizza at midnight and calling it an evening.

Apparently, it was correctional officer week at OOB, though - my father must have known about 30 people at the various places we ended up. Completely weird.

2) Saturday, we went from OOB to Little Sebago Lake to see Ann’s mother’s family. My parents came, since they were only 40 minutes out as it were, and it was a good time as usual. It’s always interesting to see them because we don’t see them much, so it’s hard for me to keep track, but year. We were there 6 hours or so and then came home, caught a late movie, and yeah.

3) Sunday was D&D day. After the rough grind of the session prior, I know I was looking forward to better results this go ’round. So, naturally, I end up the target of two hobgoblin archers and nearly get myself killed. Again. Never mind that I had cover and threw a shield up, I just got absolutely pummelled. I know there’s an aspect of “Wizard: You’re Doing It Wrong” if I keep dying like this, but this felt like total dumb luck.

Regardless, a VERY fun session yesterday for no specific reason, except that I feel it was fun and that’s what matters. We left things on a very interesting note, which is great, and yeah. I’m really excited about the upcoming game. As long as I don’t keep dragging everyone else down what with the dying and stuff…

Why did I wait until I was 27 to pick this up?

4) Upcoming plans: househunting tonight, gatherings galore in the next few weeks, work, life, etc.

In no particular order. Ann went to visit Boston, so I largely had to make do on my own, which was cool.

1) Seeing Lee Anne. We were trying to figure something out all week, and finally she just decided to come up to Manchester and hang, which was great. We hit the local bar/food joint of choice where I had fried pickles for the first time - they were AMAZING. We also wandered around Manchester proper a bit and hit an Arena Football game, which was all sorts of weird and awesome all at once. Even without all the fun stuff on the side, spending an afternoon with Lee Anne is always a good thing. Adding fried pickles to the mix just makes it that much better.

2) Nerd Alert #1: Civilization Revolution came out this week. I love the PC series, and they made a console version which is pretty great, if not a little flawed in places. But I did pick it up and was able to save $20 on it with some skillful eBaying, so that’s good.

3) D&D yesterday. I’d say that the rounds we had yesterday were probably my first experience with some significant grinding - a couple tough battles combined with some difficult preparation for a confusing magical item. It was the first time my relative newbieness really reared its head, as I was both trying to do things that didn’t work, made things a little more complicated than they needed to be in some places, and didn’t quite catch onto another idea Mike had in one battle where we were getting more than a little punished until it was almost too late. Still a fun afternoon, but yikes. Still, the whole episode opened up a few cans of worms, and has completely opened up a new idea for my character I hadn’t thought of. So that’s something.

Ironically, the punishment debacle in the second battle? My character didn’t take any damage. Granted, I’m playing a wizard controller-type, which means I’m not supposed to get into the melee, but there was something annoyingly amusing about that - annoying for everyone who nearly died, amusing to me. Then again, if any of my dice rolls decided to work properly in that battle…

A shaming exercise, because I have been slacker extraordinaire over the last week, moreso than usual.

Things to Do Before Sunday:

* Finish updating all D&D stuff before Sunday gaming. Tonight is a good night to do that, with no Red Sox and no wife. This includes, but is not limited to, adding information to the group wiki as not to put Bill at a disadvantage, and getting my level 2 character sheet finished up for quick transition when I theoretically level up on Sunday.

* Reply to e-mails. Three in particular that I’ve put off more than 7 days, which is unacceptable in every way.

* Clean my desk. I don’t normally get bothered by the desk situation at home, but I’m at critical mass and can’t operate.

Things to Accomplish Before the End of July:

* Consistency: For every political blog I put up, write a non-political one. I’ve meant to do this anyway, but I haven’t been, and keeping myself on a tighter schedule is important, and it’ll annoy fewer people as well.

* Actually visit some houses and get paperwork rolling. Less looking online, more looking in person, stat! We’ve seen two houses(!) we like, and one condo which is still on the market from the last discussion, so why lollygag?

Things to Improve as Time Rolls Along:

* Contact. I’ve gotten better, but not great - it dawned on me this week, for instance, that the last time I saw Georgy was last August. That’s a bit ridiculous, and there’s no excuse for that. I’m guilty across the board - Lee Anne and I haven’t seen each other since hockey season, I don’t make it to Worcester as often as I should, etc. I know I keep saying I need to change that, but I need to change that. If I can find time twice a month to get into a game, I can find a couple hours to meet up with people for drinks after work or something, bare minimum.

* Get to work! The book has fallen by the wayside and that’s bad. I’m capable of spending 15 minutes a night compiling research and sending e-mails right now, which is where I need to be, so I just have to DO IT. Enough nonsense.

Things seem to happen in weird waves, I guess.

1) I came down with…something last week. Your typical cold, runny nose, hacking up a lung thing with a little digestive irritation to boot. There was some minor fear that Liz infected half the universe with whatever she has/had, given that I know at least a half dozen other people who had a similar thing, but my throat stopped being sore and now I just cough and poop a lot. I’ll be better, for sure, but I’ve gone through so many tissues lately it’s ridiculous.

2) The 4th was fun - Ann & I ended up in a parade in Amherst, NH, for the summer reading program. The Amherst librarians did a book cart drill team, which was fun, and we got to lead the charge and make sure no one ran into the shriners. We then spent most of the day with Jackie and her husband and their friends, playing Guitar Hero and French bocce ball and just having a good time. We pretty much bonded instantly with their friends, which was a great feeling and made the day that much better. I knew things would rock once we met people up here.

3) Sunday, I headed down to Somerville to help out Chelsea with her entry for a short film competition. The initial plan was to hit Somerville, run my shots, and head to Worcester, but the Worcester plans fell through (which is why I didn’t get ahold of you, Georgy - I was right down the street, too), so I ended up hanging a bit and lending a hand where I could. Chelsea needed me to play a Tom Lehrer-type, which was both wicked fun and rekindled my joy for Lehrer. I did have to lose the beard, so I’m facially nude for the next week, but it was totally worth it - Chelsea totally knows what she’s doing and what she wants, and she pulled together a great group, and now I’m all creatively inspired and stuff again. So awesome. So thanks for the opportunity, I can’t wait to see the final result.

4) Outside of all this business, life feels rushed, but sane. I finally feel like a routine is coming back again, the finances are finally normal and the only downer is that the Tampa Bay Rays are for real.

That’s not a bad shake, all things considered.