Lately

Just spent two long, exhausting days at a conference for work. Some of the sessions weren't so great. Got some good ideas, though, so it was all right. And on my way out, I ran into our former Membership Director (he left the org in 2011). So it was nice talking with him. Can't believe his daughter is 7! Feels like we just held the baby shower.

Last week was the Gaithersburg Book Festival. I brought 775 books and came home with NONE books! (Okay, that's not entirely true. I bought a few books at the library used book sale there, and melydia gave me 2 books--one by David Levithan and another about Alexander Hamilton). The weather was miserable and rainy for half the day. I treated myself to a Chai which ended up not agreeing with me. That's what I get for treating myself. It was otherwise a lovely day with friends and books. I also ran into one of my coworkers and his family there.

The next day, I went to a library used book sale and bought $15 worth of books (probably about 150 books) to make a good head start on books for the April book festival. The weather was hot and icky. I came home and had to eat two sugar free popsicles to cool down.

Then I went to my local comic book shop for a fun event. We had our monthly book club--talking about Thanos Rising this time, a Thanos origin story. I read it the morning I saw Infinity War. The discussion was short but good.

After that, we were walked through character creation for D&D and then played a short one-shot campaign. I had been working on my character mentally all day, and barely got a chance to do anything with it because ELEVEN people ended up showing up for that part of it! That's a huge party! heehee We ended up *gasp* splitting the party to make it a little more managable for our DM. I got to play a Rogue Gnome--super sneaky and quick. In my mind she (Misti) has a badger as a pet and is only about 45 years old, so pretty young for a gnome (just out of school and off on her own in the world for a little while). She's super talkative and loves gems, having grown up in the mines. She had a badger as a birth pet, and prefers them as companions now. But I didn't get to go into any of that (I even had a cloak and stuffed badger I brought with me that I decided would be too geeky to pull out as no one else had props). So I hope I get a chance to play her again some time in the future--or maybe write some fic with her. Anyway, I used dice I got for my birthday, and on my very first roll (which was for initiative for the whole campaign) I rolled a Natural 20! Whoohoo!!!! That meant I got to go first, which I was kind of nervous about doing, but it went all right. We had a wizard in our party who managed to put 5 of our 6 threats to sleep. So when it was my turn, I grabbed my short bow and took the 6th guy out in a second. Yeah. I'm that good. When my turn came around again, and while my companions were busy looting the sleeping bodies, I made my way to the edge of a cliff in the underground cavern we were in, took aim with my short bow, and took out one of the other party's enemies in another second. I killed more of the bandits than anyone else, I think! I'm super proud of Misti. I'm not really a fighter, but my character was. And I feel proud that I did her justice. She is small (only 2 feet tall) but she is mighty!

I'm rereading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell right now in preparation for a book discussion I'll be leading next month. I'll have to reread Carry On before then as well. Oh, how terrible ;-)

I don't know if I mentioned A Gentlemen's Guide to Vice and Virtue here yet, but it is literally my favorite book in the world right now. It's like the giant hurt/comfort slash fic I wish I'd written.

Speaking of slash and h/c, BOTH panels I proposed for CON.TXT were voted in! Whoohoo! One's on hurt/comfort and the other is about one-shot fics. I'm super excited about both of them, though I wasn't expecting both to make it through.

My workouts haven't been going so well, but I'm still eating low carb, low sugar, super healthy. I officially hit 30 pounds lost this week! Also, my blood pressure reading on Friday was normal for the first time all year! So I'm really proud of my body for starting to cooperate. My stomach's still a pain (literally) but that's something I'm used to.

SO EXCITED about my boys making it to the Stanley Cup finals! WHOOHOO! They worked so hard. I'm so proud of them.

Am binging Smallville right now (one of my 101 Things in 1001 Days). I'm halfway through season 2... of 10. I've got a LONG way to go yet.

Cleaning my house this month isn't going well. I've done a lot, but it hardly feels like anything. That makes me a little sad. But all I can do is keep at it.

I have a BUSY June! I'm possibly going to my first Cuddle Party. Sense 8 finale hits June 8. On June 9, I'll either go to the Pride Parade in DC or a Harry Potter meetup. On June 16, I might go to a proper Celtic Festival for the first time in a decade. And my 101 Things in 1001 Days list #4 will be ending. I'm still hoping to break 90 completed items, but it's going to be a lot of work between now and June 28th!

In July, I get to see Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban with a live orchestra and the next day I'll be seeing Hamilton at the Kennedy Center! Also in July I'll be leading another discussion for my HP group, going to our annual Harry Potter birthday party, and attending CON.TXT, a wonderful slash con. I got a hotel room this time, so that should be a nice mini vacation (and the hotel room has a kitchen in it, so I'll be able to eat well the whole time without worrying; there's also free breakfast... I'm a sucker for free breakfast).