Ahira's Hangar

My holidays would've been happier had I been able to actually enjoy the outdoors, instead of it feeling like Antarctica. But time off is always nice, no matter what.

Av, you could send us just a little bit of that heat. Wandering around mountains sounds fabulous! I'd be taking pictures all day.

Haha, will post a couple when I get them off my camara. Still hot. Started applying for jobs today.

--A

Good luck with the job hunt, Av!

Ha, thanks, I'll need it.

I'm basically looking for the same sort of thing I was doing...copy and content editing and writing, preferably for online stuff. Easy work. Writing is about my only marketable ability.

--A

*missing Duchess*

The Hangar feels really quiet without her chatty posts...

Feel well soon...

I'm starting to feel a little better. The propranolol seems to be helping with both the anxiety/nerves/jittierness and with the sleeping problem. I have not had a good night's sleep in a long time, as my heart would be racing so hard whenever I went to bed - so I was exhausted all of the time. I can sleep for 2-3 hours at a stretch now, and then can lie down and go back to sleep. Even the interrupted sleep is a lot better than what was happening the last year or so, so I am feeling much less exhausted, even though I have to work day shift this month for the first time in more than twenty years.

I hate having to get up and outside in this cold in the morning. It is sooooo dark and soooooooooo cold.

Right now I am washing a load of radioactive laundry (sheets and pillow cases and pillows and blankets), and feeling awe over the news - a passenger jet taking off from one of the NYC airports hit a flock of geese which destroyed at least one of its engines and the pilots made what sounds like a miraculous emergency landing in the middle of the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey. It sounds like every person might have made it off the jet alive - 150 passengers and five crew. That pilot must be a supreme badass with nerves of steel! After the landing, ferry boats and water taxis converged on the jet and got the people and took them to shore. Just amazing stuff.

One more load of radioactive laundry to go after this one. All of the radioactive garbage (paper plates and plastic forks that I ate with) went out with the trash today, along with our old shower curtain and the lotion I was using and the soap and stuff like that.

I will have a three day weekend, and I can put the rest of the house back together and get thinsg ready for the old furniture to be hauled away and the arrival of the new furniture.

Glad to hear you're feeling a little better, Duchess, despite all the extra laundry. (Bleah, laundry.)

Yeah, that plane crash in NYC was pretty amazing. I heard on the news coming home from work tonight that the last time birds fouled the engines on a commercial flight, lives were lost. The fact that everybody survived this one is a real testament to this pilot's skill. I hope they give him a raise. And about a week off to recover....

Life in DC is becoming ever more fun as the inauguration approaches. Our office is closed both Monday and Tuesday (four-day weekend, huzzah!), which is good because the Secret Service has closed all the bridges from Virginia into DC, *and* the two major highways into the city on the Virginia side. They finally relented somewhat yesterday and agreed to let DC hospitals run shuttle buses for staff, as a lot of their folks live in Virginia and there was some concern that emergency response could be compromised if those people couldn't get to work. Other than that, Blackberry service in our office has been disrupted a lot this week, as inaugural prep is tying up the bandwidth (one of my attorneys has been severely hacked off about it -- he depends on the ability to receive e-mails while he's away from his desk at meetings). And our security office announced today that sleeping in the office over Monday night will *not* be permitted, even if you have your own couch. So it's been a big hassle and I'll be ever so glad when all the tourists go home!

Oh, and my other news (which I mentioned at the Watch) is that I might be going to Mumbai in a couple of weeks, for work. The chance is looking more remote, but it's still a possibility. Stay tuned....

Wow, duchess, I didn't realize you had been having such difficulty sleeping! Glad you're doing better now. The prospect of new furniture in the house must also be making you feel better.

Yeah, that emergency landing was incredible! What I heard was that both engines were out, so it was the sheer skill of the captain (who is a veteran) that saved the day. Apparently he walked the aisles twice to make sure there were no passengers left in the plane before he himself evacuated.

Hey, aliantha, life may be a little crazy for you there in DC, with the freakin' Secret Service running around and all, but I just think it's cool that you're in the thick of that inauguration frenzy - or shall I say, the Obama frenzy. This is one of those occasions in history that I'm glad I'll be around to witness (if only on TV).

Good for you Duchess.

Yeah, I'm always amazed at the damage soft little birds can do to a huge metal jet.

--A

I am about to leave for work, and am wondering if I will be the only person showing up today - I am thinking at least some of my coworkers will be calling in so they can watch the swearing in of the new President on TV. Not that I blame them - it is a moment for history - but man, I do hope most of them show up.

Hopefully they did, Duchess.

I stayed home and watched the inauguration in my jammies. Raised a glass to the swearing-in; raised it again when Dubya got on the helicopter. Cried a lot. Feeling a titch more hopeful today.

Then I went to the airport to pick up Magickmaker and briefly see Batty (who rode back to campus on the bus). Their college choir is back from Venice. They had a great time -- Magickmaker said the food was terrific. She's promised to show me her pictures. Probably will be tomorrow before I get to see them, tho -- she fell into bed exhausted almost as soon as she got home last night, and tonight I have to work late.

Everyone did show up, but we all whined and whined and whined because we all wanted to be home watching it all on TV.

Glad to see you're doing so well through all medical problems duchy, I hope you feel much better soon!

Well, I finally got my Tombs of Atuan dissection up today. Tam's doing great and is at work for the first time in what feels like four months. I'm working on getting a position back with the school system and just sold my car so we can pay people back and get back even. So things should, monetarily get back to normal by Tuesday, after we exchange the money through PayPal, eBay takes it's fees, I title the car in my name and sign it over. Elora Grace is doing great. She, Tam and I did our own National Day of Service on Monday picking up three huge bags of trash out of the "mini-desert" (A large tract of unspoiled land where we walk a mile everyday), and, of course we watched the inauguration yesterday-which was fabulous. I'm sorry George and Dick, but I'm not sorry to see you go...

Here's to hope and change and a relaxing night watching the season opener of LOST. Here's to anyone going through tough times, hopefully we can all help each other pull out of this mess together.

I love an optimist.

--A