The sad truth is that life has been kicking my butt lately. All in good ways mind you, but it has been so busy that I’ve not had time to blog, to write, or basically do anything beyond putting one foot in front of the other for the past six weeks or so. After Dragon con, life got caught up in a whirlwind of activity involving moving to the west coast, starting a new job, and relocating and reorienting myself.
I owe a great big thank you to my former roommate Sandra, who helped me pack and load (And threw a nice little party). Annie & Greg who showed up unexpectedly with pizza and starbucks (OMG guys, thank you SO much!) and to my lovely and wonderful boyfriend Steve, who drove out from California, helped load, spent a night on the floor of my empty house (sorry!), and then hauled the big trailer back for me.
The drive out to CA was lovely, with only one minor snafu – a ticket that was entirely my fault.
Then things got interesting.
I started out life in Los Angeles with a little bit of sanctioned B&E. My landlord didn’t get me the keys to the new place on time, (he didn’t even have them!) but he thought the place would be unlocked and that I would be able to walk right in. Not so much. We got to the place and it was locked up tight, the guy that DID have the keys wouldn’t be back until evening, and I had movers coming. Oh, and it was raining. With the help of the neighbors we found an unlocked window, popped the screen out and made like cat burglars. Of course this was a high up utility window, so I ended up climbing a tree, wiggling in through the window, and dropping down inside so I could unlock the place. It was obvious the maintenance guy had been working on things – there were cans of paint, slabs of sheetrock and a variety of tools scattered about. There were also, most handily, two new door lock kits waiting to be installed. Those got installed quickly. And then we waited… and waited… and waited for the moving guys to show up. Two hours later they finally arrived. Apparently confirming via the written form of email, giving them all the details, and getting a confirmation reply was not enough for them. Anyway. I digress.
My first day on the job was equally exciting. The CEO (my boss) decided that it would be best if I started in the middle of their largest trade show of the year. It’s surprising like working at a convention, minus the cool costumes, and with a heck of a lot more overt misogyny. (Not so much from my co-workers, but from the rest of the people there.) And for the first time I did actually see rented booth babes. I felt sorry for them – but that’s an entirely different blog.
Starting a new job during a trade show event is a bit like being dumped off the deep end of the pool. You learn to swim really quickly, and on the whole it was fun working the floor. It wasn’t until after we closed up shop for the day that it got really interesting though. I kid you not, they took me to a rave, at Disney, and all of them got entirely, smashingly drunk. There were even glow-sticks, flashing rings, and eyelashes made out of feathers. Also, I wish I had video of everyone dancing.
And that was my first two days in town. Thankfully it’s slowed down a little bit (not much) since then. And I’m trying to get on writing the November Story for Story of the Month Club.
Oh. And did I mention my boyfriend is awesome? 