October 3-4, 2001 — Hoping the rest of me is on its way back

Only over the last couple of days have I really started to relax and realize that I'm more or less free of obligations. Maybe that explains why I'm still sick -- the stress and, more importantly, the adrenaline that comes with it are each starting to drain away and my body's not quite sure how to cope.

Or maybe I just caught a rather persistent bug while at a show last week. Your call.

In any case. I've spent the last couple of days reading the first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy during breaks from typing. It's the first novel I've read since that Neil Gaiman book earlier in the summer, and I'd almost forgotten how nice it is to read books that aren't about Internet usability or creating proper online communities. I'm almost one-third done the first book. I've enjoyed it quite a lot already. My father gave me his beat-up, 30-year-old copy of the trilogy, but the pages are already falling out and I don't want to damage it further, so I'm reading Andrew's copy. I took it without asking, but he seems alright with it.

Meanwhile, my Thanksgiving is looking like it will be a fairly brief and lonely affair. On Sunday morning, my parents will pick me up in Toronto and drive me to Peterborough. Dinner with extended family will be served at that point. Except that my sister won't be there because she has to stay home to look after the cat and dog. And then, on Sunday night, I'll be driven back to Toronto by an aunt, or I'll take the bus.

I'm not sure that I'd really be all the keen on going to Ottawa even if I did have that option, but it would've been nice to at least see my sister. Although I've been speaking to her on ICQ more than I did last year (twice so far -- it's mind-boggling, really), which I guess is something.

We finally got the credits from Team Cuff The Duke today, so Andrew and I did some work on their CD design. It's hard to put a huge amount of effort into anything like this when you still haven't the faintest clue as to how it's going to be printed, but we're going our best.

We also made a bunch of pins this afternoon, and I organized my shipment of 2 000 button parts into separate components in my miniature chest of drawers (that my mom painted white and that now are consistently stuck shut and that need to be forced open every time). I've also used a marker to draw guides on my circle cutter. My circle-cutting skills are reaching new heights.

When I was last at Amy and Jeff's house, Amy showed me a bunch of Web sites that I'd never seen before. Massive cliques of Toronto kids with weblogs and webcams and all sorts of other things that start with web-. Quite intimidating. I didn't feel as out of the loop as when Amy introduced me to the concept of "Bloggers" last year, but I still felt a bit out of the loop. I'm obviously not down with the scene.

But maybe that's a good thing?

So to review, I'm reading Lord of the Rings (finally and for the first time), feeling sick, not returning to Ottawa for Thanksgiving, and feeling a bit left out, but thinking that it's probably for the best.

I need to start doing things again so that I'll have something to write about.