and boy are my arms tired

ok, i'm back in portland.

i had a really good time visiting with y'all... thank you for coming out and drinking with me. i was really worried that this trip would be badly-timed in my process of getting settled out here (i only left 3 months ago!), but in the end i think the visit was perfectly-timed. those 5 days were well-placed. i had begun to lose my head a bit out here, behaving uncharacteristically and reacting to things too emotionally. i think i had just lost my center. but this trip to NC helped me find that again. i'm feeling good.

last night i saw the boy for the first time in weeks (we'd been experiencing polar opposite travel schedules), and we had a great time together. we saw eric bachmann open for josh ritter (we both MUCH preferred eric to josh; in fact we left only 5 songs into josh's set), then grabbed some late-night dinner at a wonderfully-named restaurant downtown. suffice to say, having been away from each other for so long, the date continued late into the evening. ;)

and now i'm trying to furiously try to work ahead in anticipation of my trip to visit rossi in sicily. i leave a week from friday, and there's a lot do to at the station before i leave. which is ok... i haven't been there long enough to have earned the right to paid vacation, so the whole 9 day trip is unpaid leave. working overtime right now will help financially. a little.

i think i'm going to stay in town over thanksgiving, too, and try to work as much as possible. time-and-a-half will sound really good by that point.