2 January 2004: An' Glahh O’Blargha Blime

Monkey Days, Year Three.

Zann is back! The High Priestess of online journalists has returned to the web, to show us where to look among the garbage and the flowers. Have you heard music in your dreams? A nocturnal orchestra so strange and beautiful that its tunes could never be duplicated in the waking world, can never even be remembered? Have you woken up in tears, crying for the music you've lost? Zann plays First Violin in that orchestra.

http://www.aros.net/~suzanne/journal

It’s Friday evening. I wrote my last entry on Monday evening. I’ve slept very little since Monday night. I’m so exhausted I just want to lean back, put my feet up on my desk, and sit here and cry until I fall asleep in my chair. I think I’m getting sick, too. If so, thank you, God, for the timing. If I must get sick once each Winter (which seems to be the case), these next several days are the only possible time at which it wouldn’t be devestating to me. Much earlier, and I’d have been unable to cope with the level of busyness at the end of the semester. A few days earlier, and I’d have been sick for New Year’s. A bit later, and I wouldn’t be in top form for the beginning of the Spring semester. I don’t want to be sick (and mayhap I’ll feel better after a good night’s sleep), but if I have to be, now is the time.

Much has happened. Most of it was glorious and delightful and good; some of it was hard. There’s too much to write about everything in detail. Perhaps some of the holes in my accounts of the past few days will be filled in by the reports of Lexicat, Stagewalker, and Geminica, in whose illustrious companies I have spent much of that time.

On Tuesday I did the laundry and dishes that had accumulated over the Christmas holiday, then I went to an early-afternoon yoga class and when I got home my parents were there. We went out to eat at Chaat Café, where we ran into Sherpa and Syrinx. Then I went to the tenth session of the Initiations lab. Turning my notes on the session into coherent paragraphs would require actual effort, so it will probably happen tomorrow instead of tonight.

Wednesday afternoon was the Fourth Annual December 31st Bone Council Brunch, held at Stagewalker’s this year. Present in the flesh: me, my parents, Dragon Lady, Stagewalker, Taarna, Galahad, Foxfire, Lexicat, Kimchee, and Gemrise. It was the smallest of the December 31st Bone Councils that we’ve had so far, but also the warmest and the best. If you were there, thank you. If you weren’t... there will be more.

Just before we actually sat down for the Bone Council proper, Foxfire phoned Moly, and we passed the phone around for a bit. I wish he had been there in person. I told him I’d call him soon, for a longer conversation, and I will.

Lexicat wins the “How Immersed in Our Pack’s Idiosyncratic Customs Can You Be?” Award for posting an online journal entry while sitting in Bone Council.

Wednesday evening was Aleph’s Ninth Annual New Year’s Eve Party (I’ve been to all of them). Lots and lots of people came, including many of those dearest to me (and also including one who was one year old, whose mother had missed last year’s party because she was in labor). But so many missing, too... I wish Moly had been there, and Ace, and Yoko, and Cogito, and Zann...

My parents, Lexicat, and I showed up together, early (Dragon Lady needed rest; she showed up much later, around 11:30). When we got there, there was no one there except Aleph, Da Rong Jo, Stagewalker, and Geminica Geminica Geminica Yay Geminica (whom Stagewalker had gone and picked up at the airport immediately after Bone Council). But by midnight, the place was packed.

I just now re-read my entry of exactly one year ago, in which I said, of Aleph’s Eighth Annual New Year’s Eve Party, “The party was a pleasant one. Neither hopping nor rocking, but characterized by warm and friendly interactions.” Same was true of this year’s party. And this year’s party also carried on the tradition, established by Geminica last year, of a small crew of us Pack elders, arms around each other, bellowing out a few too many rousing choruses of “Auld Lang Syne.” This year, however, we did it without the benefit of a lyrics sheet. And since none of us actually remembered most of the words, we sang not only very loudly and off-key, but also intentionally incoherently.

Congratulations to Moonspice and Titan on their engagement! Had a happy talk with Moonspice, the world’s coolest ex-wife, expressing our mutual gratitude for the work we did together (without which neither of us would be handling our relationships with our current partners nearly as well).

An alarming number of other people at the party were also recently engaged – some more wisely so than others.

At midnight, I kissed Dragon Lady, and then many other wonderful people in rapid succession.

The crew that slept over at Aleph’s after the party (for Foxfire’s amusement, I hereby christen them “the Wake-Up Crew”) was smaller than usual this year: just me, Dragon Lady, Lexicat, and Geminica. In the morning, we cleaned up. Other people showed up, including my parents. A party of 15 or so went out for dim sum, and then a bunch of us hung out at Aleph’s for the rest of the day, playing games, and Taarna brought Grace over.

Taarna and Grace spent the night at my place. Today I hung out with them, and with Galahad and Geminica. And then I came home and started writing this, and then Dragon Lady came over and we lay on the couch and talked for a long time, and now she’s gone to get me some soup, because she’s the best. And now I’m definitely sick, sore throat and running a high fever, and it’s almost midnight. I’m going to post this while it’s still a January 2nd entry, because I have other stuff to post for my January 3rd entry. Which I’ll have plenty of time to write, because it looks like I’ll be in convalescent mode tomorrow.

Now everybody...

Agh blargo hogg me druggle flehh
An’ glahh o’blargha blime
We’ll gakka wight gubbilly blaugk
For aauuld laaaang syyyne...