Backposting

I believe I mentioned that I've always been very bad at keeping up with journals, yes? Well, here is the proof right here. ^-^ Although, things have been so... just kinda crazy since we moved. I think that gives me a little bit of an excuse. A very little bit of one.

Now, in a roleplay, when you fall behind this badly there is a very neat little trick that you can use to get yourself caught up again: Backposting. Basically you just post what your character was doing during all the preceding events, what they thought about them, and then what they are currently doing.

It's a good thing I had great occaision to perfect this technique during my early roleplaying days. ^-^ So, let's see where we were...

I actually had a really great last week in Alaska. I was able to hang out with my Moriko-chan, and I even found some time to get some posts done for The Becoming. ^-^ I was a bit upset that I didn't get to say a last goodbye to ALL of the WA chickys... but they were crazy busy, so I totally understand. I DID get a grand farewelling in on friday though, with my good theatre friends. What a blast we had with our theatre grandpas and everyone! When I can find the cord for my camera I am soooo putting up pictures.

That weekend was when things started gettting a bit crazy. It really was good crazy at first though... we started our yardsaling again early Saturday morning. And we sold a LOT! It was really fun actually. Our friend Sue came over to help us out both Saturday and Sunday. She even bought this really cute blue dress from Kimi-chan to go with her new, veeeery sexy, old car. I think it was... a Jaguar? *can't remember* It was blue and AWESOME, that much I remember. By five o'clock Sunday, when we closed the yardsale down, we had gotten rid of a TON of stuff, including all of our shelves and furniture. Unfortunately, we still had half a basement full of junk to sort through and toss out. >.<

Now right here, I'd like to just take a moment to say a big, big, big, BIG thank you to all of our friends who helped us out. Especially Riot and Timmeh! Seriously, I don't know what we would have done without those guys there. They stayed at our house all night Sunday, helping us sort things and toss things. I know there were some times we were all about ready to go crazy, or just fall asleep. XD But we made it. And they're a big part of the reason why.

Everything we hadn't been able to sell ended up loaded into a couple of trucks and taken over to my Mom's work, at about two in the morning. Wow, were those trucks ever piled high! O.O I remember a plastic lawn chair flew off the back of one. Mom and I had to pick it up... haha, that was pretty funny. The whole thing kind of made me feel like a goodwill ninja. Or one of those elves in the shoemaker story.

Breakfast at Sal's (fun!), some cracking and crying, and a few trips to the post office and the dump later, it was over. We were finally finished. Sitting in the airport though, I have to admit that there wasn't any sense of accomplishment or relief. I just felt really empty, staring out the window and trying to memorize exactly what the trees at the far edge of the runway looked like. There'd been so much to worry about and think about before... but now all there was was knowing how much I was going to miss my Alaska, and all the people there.

I did manage not to cry when I hugged the guys goodbye, which is something to be proud of I suppose.

I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty depressed on the flight to Anchorage, and the one to Seattle too. I did manage to get some sleep though. By the time we on our way down to Sacramento I felt a whole lot better... and when that suunshine hit me... oh yeah. ^-^ Everything just got brighter. I got some beautiful pictures of some of the big peaks in Oregon and Northern Cali too. (GOTTA find that cord)

And then there we were, California! And our family was there to meet us at the airport. It was fantastic! So sunny, and warm. ^-^ The drive up to Cottonwood was nice too, though I admit I was sleeping a good deal of the way. Hehe.

Never let it be said that I come from a boring family. We know how to keep things exciting. Barely two days after we got down here, we went mini-golfing with two of our cousins. Afterwards we went to the sundail bridge... and Kamiyay broke his leg. XD Stepping off a wall. Yeah, that was certainly an interesting night. Ashleh was fabulous. She called her mom, then 911, and pretty soon we were all off at the hospital. Ain't no part like a hospital party! XD

So pretty much what we've been doing is hanging out together here at the house, watching Heroes Season One and playing Halo.

Other things that have occured since I got here? Well, all my sisters started school. Even Kimi-chan, since she decided to go to college down here rather than flying up to Fairbanks by herself. I also got to meet Lucasa, who I've been talking to online for a while... My first online friend met RL! How cool is that? He's nice, with crazy curly hair, and he and Kami taught me how to play Munchkin. FUN! I also finally bought myself a psp. *bounces happily* I got a game called 'Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology' (yay Tales series!), which is REALLY fun. The battle system is pretty much the same as Tales of Legendia, so it was easy to get into. I've been playing it a LOT. Hehe.

Ohmygoodness, almost all the way caught up now! ^-^ The only thing left to tell is about last weekend. On Saturday we all piled into a car and a truck and drove down to Arcata, on the coast. The trip was around three hours long, and it was a BLAST. We brought walkie-talkies to keep in touch between cars. Haha, there was some funny stuff going back and forth on those! And the mountains around Redding are really pretty. Not as green as AK, but still fascinating. We even drove through Willow Creek, which is like, the home of BIG FOOT. O.O

When we got to Arcata we dropped Kami off at his friends' place (cause he' still on crutches), and then all us girls headed down to the beach. Arcata is really cool. I've never seen such narrow streets. There were cars parked everwhere, and lots of people riding bikes. The buildings were really cool too. Lots of neat styles and stuff.

The beach was fun. It actually reminded me a lot of the beach in Kenai... only there were hardly any rocks, BIGGER shells and stuff. And the waves were like, huge. In comparison anyways. ^-^ We spent a couple hours just walking down the beach, running in and out of the surf, collecting things and stuff. I even tried building my wall against the tide. Haha, it wasn't much of a success without Ryan there to help. XD But it was fun.

Eventually we all got hungry, so we got out some blankets and sat down and had lunch. Ohmygoodness, sooooo delicious! ^-^ I mean, turkey and cheese on tasty itallian bread is tasty enough. After a day on the beach? Even better. We ate till we were all happy and full, and then just kinda laid on each other's stomach and chilled. I took a nap actually. It was nice, so soothing and calm there on the beach. My sisters got up to some mischief of course. ^-^ We were all rolling with laughter before we left. It was really great.

We got to take a driving tour around the Humbolt University campus before we picked Kami up. Tetsu-chan's planning on going there in a few years, after she graduates. Pretty awesome I think. It's beautiful. Plus Kami says it's cloudy there almost all the time, and it rains a lot. She'll just LOVE that. Hehe

The trip back was possibly even more fun than the trip there. We sang Kami the Cheeseburger Song at one of our rest-stops, which sparked singing over the walkie-talkies. XD One car would sing part of a song, then the other car would sing part. It got pretty silly. Bohemian Rhapsody was featured at one point even... and the Gummy Bears theme song. ^-^ Goooood times. I love my Cali family, seriously. They rock.

Sunday, was my Momma's birthday. I'm going to be a good daughter and not say how old she turned... Ashleh and I went out in the morning to go shopping for her. She wanted to make a candy bouqet. THAT was fun, and Mom loved it.

And that's about it I guess. Nothing exciting this week... well okay, we DID get Heroes Season Two on DVD! ^-^ We'll be watching it soon. I can't wait! ^o^ I've been working on my book, and my other stories; but haven't gotten very far. Just haven't found my rythmn here yet I guess. I've been looking up things about the SCA. I'm thinking about joining sometimes after I find a good job... which is hopefully soonish. ^-^

Which just leaves me here, today, surfing around try to catch the Allyny Meister on msn...

See, isn't backposting just awesome?

Waste Not

I am often accused, mostly by my own sisters, of being a packrat. That only becomes a bad thing when you get to the point where you can't throw gum wrappers away because you just know that you're going to be able to use them as bookmarks someday. Thankfully, I've never been quite that bad. ^-^

My family is always commenting, however, on all the things that I do keep, until they are completely and utterly worn to shreds. The favorite seeems to be my purple snowboots. (Which I love dearly) I've had them since I was about.... twelve? Somewhere around there. They still fit, they're still warm, and I still think they're cute... so why get rid of them? If it's not broken, don't fix it.

Of course just because it is broken doesn't mean it needs to be thrown away. ^-^ Especially with clothes, I have a 'If you can fix it, you don't need a new one,' policy. It really doesn't come into play that much; because I am pretty good to my clothes and shoes. Usually it's my pants that I end up mending. They get holes in the knees... and on occaision in the bottom. I get very fond of my jeans and things; so I'm not about to throw them away for a little hole! As long I have a needle, thread, and random scraps of denim or cloth I will always have a few pairs of favorite jeans kickin' around my closet.

Maybe, with luck, I can pass them down to my own girls someday? Patchwork ought to be back in fashion by then. ^-^

Memories of Worth

Yardsaling (that seems to be the way one would spell it) is an interesting experiance. Not that I've never done it before; it just seems different now. The last time we really and truly had a big yardsale was when we moved up here to Alaska from Susanville (CA)... about twelve years ago. So, I guess it's not really a surprise that my perspective of it has changed.

I can remember being eight, setting up my little blanket out under our great big tree in the front yard, and carefully arranging all of the little items I'd decided to sell. I even had tags by everything to say how much it was. An old toothbrush, some kind of little plastic dog, a very pretty costume necklace with pink plastic gems, and lots of ribbons are the things that stick in my mind when I think about it. That and the excitement. We were moving, and I was going to help! I dug around in the bottom of my toychest for little things I thought someone might want. I was going to make soooo much money to help us all get to Alaska... maybe even ten whole dollars! O.O

I didn't care about what was leaving, and the things that we were leaving behind. I was just so wrapped up in the fact that we were going. Well, now I'm all grown up and things are a little different.

I'm still excited to be moving, back to where our family is. I've really missed them. It's exciting to be starting all new down there... but this time I'm leaving a lot more behind. Eight to twenty is a HUGE chunk of your life. This move not only came with more emotional attachments, but a lot more baggage to be shed as well.

Yesterday afternoon, while I was sitting out with my Mom, it was so strange to watch people looking through all of our stuff. I thought, "It's like they're poking through twelve years of memories." And most of them weren't too excited about it really. It made me sort of mad, that they didn't seem to want any of the little things that we had collected over the years. And some of them acted like our prices were way high. One whole dollar each for paperback books that had been loved and cherished and read over and over? Ten dollars for a pretty lamp that had held back the frightful flights of over-active imagination for a young girl of 13? Outrageous! How could they turn up their noses at such treasures?

And then I felt sort of strange for feeling mad because, well, HOW could they know the wealth of special memories they were getting with almost every single thing out there? All they could see were the THINGS. Even if I could manage to somehow package all those memories up with each stuffed bear or necklace, they still wouldn't be worth as much to others as they are to me.

Worth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Luckily memories of worth aren't about things, but about people and hearts. So, no matter what happens to our twelve years worth of junk, the memories will always be mine. I'm going to remember that, remember all the special things I'm KEEPING, and also try very hard to remember an eight year old's love of adventure and change when we put out the yardsaling signs again next weekend.

Things To Be Known

I've never had a blog before. I've had a diary a couple of times, and technically I still have a journal... I've never been good at keeping up with any of them. Really, the only reason I decided to start a blog at all is because I'm moving at the end of July; and I have so many friends here in my beautiful Alaska who I KNOW I'm going to forget to call. So this is for them really, so that they can know what is going on with me. ^-^

That being said, there are a few things which must be understood:

*Updates here may be slow for several reasons
1. Because other writing commitments are taking up all of my time
2. Because RL things are taking up all of my time
3. Because I have nothing to say
4. or because I have simply forgotten. (which is probably the most likely ^-^)

*Don't expect deep and detailed accounts of:
1. Everything that's going wrong in my life
2. Relationships
I have a hard enough time writing about those things in the journal which I HIDE, very cleverly I hope, in my room.

*DO expect a lot of chatter about:
1. Things that I am writing
2. Roleplays (online text-style and otherwise) that I am involved in, and the characters thereof
3. Games I'm currently playing or that I have heard about
4. Books that I'm reading, have read, or am looking forward to.
Cause I'm a total nerd and very proud of it. ^-^

*I do not promise proper grammer, punctuation, OR spelling. So, do not lecture me about it... (sideways glances at Loralin and Baltimore) unless it's in some piece of official writing I put up to show.

*All written material and photographs that end up on here ARE MINE, unless stated otherwise. I own the rights to them, and stealing them to claim as your own IS a crime... just so we're all clear on that.

And finally, you should know that several names of real people are being changed for the protection of somebody somewhere...or just cause it's fun... except for mine. Why? Well, because I like mine. Jennifer Lynn Post. It's a really great name. ^-^