Whew

So I got about 15 hours' sleep total and feel much better. When I did get up, I got ready and went out by 10:20 am to do errands. It took me until 3 pm, but I went to the bank, to Kroger for game snacks and shampoo, to Subway for lunch, to Supercuts for a haircut (not the best I've ever had, but serviceable), Gabriel Brothers (more on that in a moment), and then to Lowe's for something for a friend and to get African Violet mix since I have a plant that's produced two babies at work. I got everything in two reusable Kroger bags, and took the bus three times. The stores themselves are all within about a mile of each other, so I walked a good bit, too. Now I'm home, in my jammmies, and warming up (it's supposed to be in the 50s today but so far it hasn't gotten past the low 40s, and there's a wind), so I'm glad I wore a sweater and my duster, although some gloves and hat would have been good.

As far as Gabriel Brothers, I'm trying to be conservative with money, so I didn't go in to gather but to hunt. I wanted as small a purse as I could find that would hold my wallet, my Kindle, my phone, and my diabetic supplies. All my purses are pretty big. I lucked out because the one I liked didn't have a tag, there was no other with that style, and the clerk, given those circumstances, pulled out a particularly ugly purse from the clearance rack (where I'd found mine) and told me to have them ring up that instead and take the unmarked one. So I got it for $5. Score. It's small enough to fit in my backpack on days when I need my umbrella and Birkenstocks or have other things to bring with me. It's brown (I would have preferred black, but that's okay), but for $5 I am not going to complain. I took the purse I had with me, which was too sad to even give to Goodwill (the strap was broken, and there were several torn places) and just transferred everything there at the bus stop and threw the other away.

So now I'm home. I'm going to take a few minutes to warm up and drink something cold, and then I'll start the game notes. I kind of want a snack, but don't really have any fruit or something small in the house other than the ones for the game, so I'll pass and then have a peanut butter sandwich for dinner. I would have liked to have started transcribing the notes earlier, but the errands really needed to be done and I knew it would take awhile and the bank was going to close by noon. If I start at 4, though, I'll probably finish by 8 and still have some time to do other stuff. I need to figure out how to juggle some money so I have enough for my rent and for food both, since I went ahead and paid my cable bill. Sigh. I haven't really been behind in awhile, but since I quit the gas station, that's about $250 a month I don't have, and it's meant that I've come down to the wire several times, with having food in the house the lowest priority. Still, I've built up some food in my drawer at work and have some canned goods here. But the good news is next pay day I get my raise, which should translate into about $25 more a period, I think, after taxes, etc.

I'd also like to get some reading done. While in Subway I started reading A Discovery of Witches, a novel by Deborah Harkness, and I'm enjoying it so far, if for no other reason than the wonderful descriptions of the Bodleian Library, as it is set at Oxford (Harkness is an historian as well as fiction author). The main character is an historian and witch who has pretty much sworn off her heritage, but comes across a pampliset on alchemy that every supernatural creature in the area seems interested in. A vampire is trying to protect her, and I gather there's going to be some romance. So far she's fleshed the main character out pretty well, and she switches occasionally from her part of the story to his for a fuller picture of what's going on.

PS I was reading my e-mail earlier and found out that Chaosium has a new line of roleplaying books based off of Charles Stross' books about the Laundry (a secret spy organisation within the British government that deals with paranormal and Cthulhoid things). I need to check with the game master to see if he saw this (I know he gets the newsletters, too.) I think it might be good to get some modules for story lines. I don't think the system has to be converted; it seems to be the same we use. I'm not sure he's read the books (although I know the same omnibus I have), but I enjoyed them quite a bit.

Game Master's Day is March 4th (the anniversary of the death of Gary Gygax, who was a creator of Dungeons & Dragons), so I need to see about going to the Rusty Scabbard and getting something for the game master. I missed last year.