So, as you may or may not have heard, there's this convention going on here in Denver. It hasn't affected me too much yet on a personal level, but I'm finding it interesting to watch as I make my way to and from work each day. There's always something going on. Monday it was low-flying helicopters circling directly overhead; yesterday it was a combination of planes towing banners, overcrowded and delayed buses, people selling convention gear from cars parked along the side of the street, and knots and swarms of protesters and other groups gathering in the Civic Center park.

Tonight I'm probably going to head downtown all the way into the convention area proper, just to see what it's like -- I'd never forgive myself if I didn't. I'm taking my camera, too, so if there's anything particularly interesting I'll post pictures later. Wish me luck!

Tags: a day in the life

Due to work and school and suchlike, I've been running behind on things -- like catching up on my fannish TV shows -- for a while now. Not much behind, mind you; just a little. Just enough.

However, as of tonight, I'm all caught up on Eureka through episode 3.04. ( Spoilers lie beyond, yep. )

Ah well.

Anyway, now that I'm caught up, I won't be letting myself fall behind again, you can count on it; that sort of thing is dangerous.

Tags: tv: eureka
Current Mood: cryptic

It's a rainy Saturday here, and so I am encouraging myself to stay awake and get a few things done by having curled up in a chair at the Tattered Cover with coffee and a book -- and the laptop, of course. Actually, it's been raining gently for the past two days, but it's just stepped up to hard rain. It was the sound that alerted me first; sort of a soft and steady drumming that kept getting louder and louder until I finally turned around to look out the window, where I saw sheets of rain instead of the gentle steady fall of raindrops.

(I think I'm going to be here for a while yet, all things considered.)

It's been a busy week, but not in a bad way. I've taken advantage of some spare bits of time to take care of a few things that have been wanting for a while now, such as planning a trip to NYC to see my sister perform in the off-Broadway play that my brother-in-law wrote. I'm terribly proud of them, and am really, really glad that I'm going to be able to make it there before the close of the show; I wouldn't have been able to if I hadn't ended up finding a last-minute flight that worked with my schedule and which I could use frequent-flyer miles on. Mind you, it means that I'm headed out there on Thursday morning, catching the play Thursday night, and then leaving again on Saturday at practically the crack of dawn, but it works well enough for what I need, and it leaves my entire Friday open in NYC, which is also nice.

I've also done something that I think will be neat, and that's to schedule my first "real vacation" in a number of years now. I'll be taking the third week in October to go lie on a beach in Hawaii. It's the first extended non-family, non-holiday time off I've taken I've taken since... well, I'm not sure exactly when right now, so let's just say it's been a while. It's also the first trip of this kind that I've arranged without involving a travel partner or group, so that'll be a new experience, but I think it'll be a fun adventure. In any case, I'm intrigued to see how it goes.

Of course, between now and then I have about a zillion loose ends to tie up and projects to finish, so I probably should get on that.

Just as soon as I finish my coffee.

Tags: a day in the life, family, travel
Current Location: tattered cover
Current Mood: content
Current Music: the sound of rain

For the past little while, my cat Talia has exhibited some symptoms of nausea -- mostly by throwing up on the carpet, the floor, once on my bed, and once on my foot. I wasn't too concerned at first, because such things are part and parcel of life with a cat, especially her (and usually involve hairballs). Besides, otherwise she behaved as though she felt just fine, including keeping up with her usual habits of chasing shadows, climbing on things, sleeping on my lap, and begging for tuna when anyone walked into the kitchen.

A few days ago, I realized that there weren't any remnants of food or any signs of hairballs in what she was tossing up. She was still acting fine and still eating normally, though -- I saw her doing it -- so I decided to keep an close eye on her but not to worry too much about it yet.

Last night she got sick four times within the space of ten minutes.

This morning I took her to the vet.

* * * * *

Talia is in kidney failure. As a condition, it's progressive, and it's terminal.

* * * * *

The vet is keeping her until Friday for rehydration with IV fluids. Based on the lab results, it looks as though we may have caught it at an early stage, so we'll see how things go. Aside from being more thirsty than usual and sick to her stomach now and then, she seems perfectly content with her life, so I won't be facing any difficult decisions quite yet. There's that, at least.

In the meantime, if you have a moment or two, please spare some good thoughts for a sweet little snowshoe Siamese who's always loved everyone and been confident that she was loved in return for every moment of the last fourteen years.

Tags: talia
Current Mood: not happy.

First, thank you, dear Anonymous, for the virtual cup of tea! You picked the perfect time to send it, too, as I really needed tea this weekend.

On that note, sincere and heartfelt thanks are due to agonistes, vivien529, and phoenixchilde, who provided enough packing, moving, and cleaning help yesterday and today to keep me from having a complete stress-related collapse. See, the thing is that I'm very bad at asking for help when I really could use it. I'm working on getting better at that, but in the meantime, luckily my friends seem to know me well enough to step in anyway.

This wasn't the full move, by the way. This was the packing up of books and DVDs and knickknacks and things to put into a storage unit for the time being. When the time comes for the actual relocation, I'm calling a moving company to do it. I don't even want to think about trying to maneuver furniture out of here and into another place without professional help. Just no.

The result of today's effort was that the flat was ready for an open house this afternoon and can now more easily remain in 'show condition.' I am an optimist, I really am, even if a grand total of three people have looked at the place so far... including at today's open house.

Oh well. It only takes one, in the end. For now, I'm content.

Tags: houses and homes
Current Location: home
Current Mood: content

A word to the wise--

Packing books when your roommate is a preservationist?

Becomes a whole new experience.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to take direction, as the book-packing project has just been taken out of my hands.

Tags: houses and homes
Current Mood: giggling

( Reaction post, cut to avoid spoilers. )

Tags: tv: doctor who
Current Mood: [redacted]

It's been brought to my attention that the news referenced in my last post may have come as a surprise to some people. Um... oops? Imagine me with an abashed look and an embarrassed smile as I type this, and that'll be pretty accurate.

First things first: I'm not leaving Colorado, nor am I leaving the city I currently live in, nor am I even leaving my immediate neighborhood if I can help it. What I am doing is attempting to relocate from my one-bedroom condo to a house, one which will ideally have at least these three things: a second bedroom, a space that I can use for a study/office, and a yard where I can have a garden.

( There's a little more to it, of course. )

If it all works out, I'll be moving by the end of the year. I'd planned at first to not start looking until I'd finished school entirely, but the real estate market right now is such that there are things in my area that are more affordable than they'd be otherwise, so I've thrown a line into the waters and am now waiting to see what I catch. We'll see. Here's hoping!

That's it for now. I'll keep everyone posted -- and I'll do a better job of it, too. I promise. For that matter, by the time I'm done with this, you may all be sick of hearing about it!

Tags: houses and homes

One question for the flist, which pretty well sums up my week:

How does anyone manage to sell the place where they're living while they're still living there???

This post has been brought to you by the attempt to maintain a comfortable home living space in "show-ready" condition without having a nervous breakdown.

Tags: houses and homes
Current Location: home, for now
Current Mood: frustrated

Hello, migraine headache and aftermath, how I really had not missed you at all.

It's milder than it used to be, at least, which is something of a blessing. On the flip side of that coin, though -- it's weirdly attenuated, so much so that I had trouble realizing what was actually going on until it was almost too late to try to fend it off.

Oh well. It could be worse. I can work with that.


[/random babbling]

Tags: a day in the life, health
Current Location: the comfy chair
Current Mood: disconnected
Current Music: you're kidding, right?