Done yesterday (20110611 Sa)

[mdlbear]

0611 Sa
  * up 6:50; W=196.4; drugs, nose, teeth, dishes, coffee, light, laundry
  @ Why I Want Google Offers And The Entire Daily Deals Business To Die
  @ Solar is Ready Now: Ferocious Cost Reductions Make Solar PV Competitive
  * YD to JC
  * call for wedding info, since can't find the invite (510) 522-5243 -> 4pm
    ' {Good bear!  Brave bear!}  (Susie, I think)  {Of course it was me, you
      silly bear!  Just try not to do that again!}
    ! *laughs quietly*  At least the office got cleaned!
  * 15min:  added lp and ij to printers on Algol.  Not clear why it can't see
    them; Nova says they're shared...
  * print map/directions for wedding
    Buddhist Temple of Alameda 2325 Pacific Ave. Alameda, CA 94501
    (510) 522-5243 -- what I don't have is the time.  invitation missing. 
  * 15min:  time to wash the bedding.  Probably be at it all weekend
  * wrap wedding present
  @ Voluptuous by HauntedSummer on Etsy via The Rotund
  * 15min: second washer-load of bedding 
  * Left for the wedding at 2:30, to allow plenty of time for getting lost.
    As it turns out, it wasn't enough -- instead of the Southern Alameda
    County Buddhist Church, I went to the Alameda Buddhist Temple, some 20
    miles away.  Then got lost when I finally got to the right
    freeway exit.  I arrived about half an hour late, but fortunately in time
    for the exchange of vows and rings.  Whew.
      Veggie Indian food for the reception.  Yum.  The only people there who
    I'd met were the groom and, once very briefly, the bride, but I had a good
    time and talked to several people.  At least 6, maybe 10.  Doing well, for
    me, I think.  
    ! And I kept my calm and sense of humor through the whole thing.  At some
      point, it seems, I get my detachment back, especially when all I can do
      about a bad situation, especially one of my own making, is laugh at it.
      But I'm tired now.  {He's learning, anyway.}
  * came home and did more laundry.  Made the beds.
  * 10:30 bath

So in the morning I called (what I thought was) the wedding venue, got transfered to the right person, and got the time (which was 4pm). I should also have said "yes" when asked if I needed directions, but at least I allowed an extra 45 minutes or so for getting lost. I should have allowed an hour, because I ended up at the Alameda Buddhist Temple instead of the Southern Alameda County Buddhist Church, some 15 miles closer to home. I would still have made it in time if I hadn't gotten onto the wrong road at the off-ramp.

I did manage to catch about 2/3 of the ceremony. They used the same reading from The Prophet that we used in our wedding :), among others. I wasn't the only one who didn't know any of the other guests, and spoke to somewhere between 6 and 10 people at the reception (which was vegetarian Indian food -- yum!).

The surprising thing to me is that I stayed calm and cheerful during the whole long day. This seems to be easier to do when I'm by myself -- if there's anyone else present I tend to get frustrated and defensive, especially if there's a bad feedback loop going. By myself, I just stay detached and can be amused by the whole silly situation , especially if it's all of my own making in the first place. {Just try not to do it again, silly bear! Next time someone asks you if you need directions, say "yes, please!"}

(The voice in braces is Susie, by the way. She's a pocket-sized kangaroo who hatched from an egg given to me by pocketnaomi, and the oldest of the named voices in my head. Her job appears to be mostly encouragement, good-natured commentary, and occasionally advice.)

The day also included three loads of laundry (time to do the bedding; I'll do the blankets today) and configuring printers on my new desktop, Algol. For some reason it's not seeing the printers on the server even though they're supposedly shared and browsable. But it can print to them if you give the URLs explicitly.

A couple of links in the notes. It was a good day, on the whole; I didn't realize just how tiring it had been until I started falling asleep in my chair about 9:30. I am not an extrovert.