A long, strange trip.

Jerry Garcia certainly had some applicable insights now and then, didn't he?

I'm just getting over a major flareup, which is why it's been so quiet. I don't think I've had one that bad for a long time, and the constant pain is something I don't look forward to experiencing again. Man oh man! I mean, I've had, "It hurts when I do that," kind of pain, but this just didn't stop. It's ebbing now, though, which really makes me appreciate how incredibly wonderful days without pain are. I could play Boogedy with the cat. That makes me happy.

We got home from New York, and Lennart tricked enticed me into venturing out to Lewisham with him. There was an O2 store in the shopping center there, and he claimed that the new iPhone was out, and we would get one. (See, Lennart and I alternate new phones. Lennart just got one fairly recently, and mine is several years old now. But even if it's my turn, it's still a new gadget that he gets to play with.) But, alas, he read the date wrong, and all our hopes were dashed in one fell swoop when the shop-person said, "No, mate, those don't come out until November." Lennart felt foolish and I pouted at him. We ordered pizza and watched new episodes of Stargate Atlantis that had downloaded to iTunes in our absence. All better.

(Speaking of downloading episodes, Amazon unboxed won't allow foreign downloads. Pah! I say, if I'm happy to pay for them, why can't I watch them? Lennart's going to check if he can VPN-tunnel to someone in the US, because that's just dumb. No wonder people pirate stuff!)

Shopping for clothes in New York was fun again. I had to buy a size smaller pants! (No, not underpants...I know I'm not British in many of my phrasings, but just think how silly I'd sound if I started using "wee" to refer to small things. You just can't do that without the right accent. So I'll go on saying "bathroom" instead of "loo" (or "boggy boggy" (Sorry, Satnam)) and "sidewalks" instead of "pavements" and I'll still think that "Way Out" is showing the way towards the drug-soaked 60s.) I've not had a size smaller pants in "donkey's years"! (Okay, I used that one, but just because it's so ridiculous!)

I have some actual freelancing projects! Hooray! And so far, the clients seem happy. I really have hope for this. It would be so wonderful to have something that I love to do be a kind of income that can move around with me wherever Lennart needs to go. Living away from him just can't be an option for me anymore. Loneliness can drown out love, if left to fester for too long. So getting the copy editing thing going will be a truly wonderful thing for me, on so many levels. I am going to need someone to do my taxes though. Sheesh...complicated!

Saturday, off to Sweden to be a Greek goddess at a Halloween party at friends'. Lennart will have a humongous brown afro. I'll try to get pictures. :)

Another brush with celebrity...

Walking back to the hotel from Les Halles (Anthony Bourdain's restaurant) on Park Avenue, there was suddenly a bunch of extremely loud firetrucks passing by, and Lennart had to gawk a little, because they were stopping at a building nearby. We saw no smoke, so Lennart speculated that it might be a jumper. And as he did this, a lost and confused-looking Robert Duvall rounded the corner, sucking his teeth, and was less than a foot away from me. I had to lean into Lennart's ear and say discreetly, "That's Robert Duvall standing behind me." And Lennart turned to look and said, "It sure is!"

He's looking a bit ragged around the edges these days, and Lennart says, "Whenever I see celebrities, they always look older." And, well, yes, I guess, since makeup and good lighting does wonders. Still, a bit of celebrity spotting can be slightly fun. :)