From the secret fortress in London
OK, it's not a secret and it's not a fortress. But, it is London. And despite a long list of nightmarish obstacles , I've made it here safely.

And I having fun yet? Ummmmmmm yes!

Oh yes, and one more thing- I couldn't reach the other half by phone either. So I couldn't even moan and cry about how miserable and nightmarish my day was.

So there.

I suppose the next thing tha will happen is my flight will be hijacked or bombed.
I can just tell this is not the end of it all.

When a day goes bad, it goes right to hell!

Today was one of the genuinely worst days of my life in terms of things going wrong. FUCKING EVERYTHING WENT WRONG. This is beyond the laws of mere chance, this is beyond random. This is diabolical. I planned carefully, made arrangents, orgazined, and set up everything so carefully for today..and son of a bitch, each and every thing that was supposed to happen today was totally screwed up. None of the packages that were shipped, all sent overnight special air, UPS, extra cost to absolutely positively arrive today, arrived. All are mysteriously delayed. Each in a different way and for a different reason. My check didn't arrive. Another packaged sent US Post priority mail didn't arrive. I could go on and on. And to top it all off, the supreme treat, I had no cigarettes and couldn't leave the house because I was waiting for the deliveries.

Bastards. Kill them all!

Bored, bored, bored. I'm wasting my time today waiting around the house for things to be delivered. It's driving me nuts. This is my last day in the US before I fly off to the UK at 8:20 am Thursday morning. I'll be back - but not for 10 days. Meanwhile I'm waiting for stuff to be delivered. And it's all so time critical.

I need the packages and my check to be delivered. I need the damn packages delivered reasonably soon so I can take the check (assuming the postman delivers it) to the bank and deposit it so I will have money in the UK. And what's more there is another package waiting at the post office for me to pick up - but I can't go there untill the packages have been delivered. So I'm hoping everything will be here by 3pm so I can leg it over to the post office.

I was hoping everything would be here by 10am so I could run down to Chinatown and pick up some tea from Ten Ren to take with me. Ain't gonna happen. This is sad.

And worst of all, I'm out of cigarettes.

Arrrgh!

Did the time at the TechXNY Expo yesterday at the NY Women in technology booth. It was good because I need to professionally network more. I also met an old collegue from AboveNet who may be a good contact for a new job.

If you love something let it go free. If it doesn't come back, you never had it. If it comes back, love it forever.

-Doug Horton

This is shaping up to be one hell of a week.

Sunday I did my good deed and helped the Lunarians move their boxes and shelves and stuff out of their old storage room in Connecticut and then into their new storage room in New Jersey near Newark airport. Quite exhausting for me, I'm still in one of my episodic, seriously anemic stages. My dieting doesn't help either, but that's how it is. I was supposed to call and arrange to meet my older son Adam afterward. However, by the time I got home, I just flopped down on the bed and slept. By the time I woke up it was 7:30 pm and he had left for home. I hope he had a fine time in the city shopping for food goodies.

Then I went online, and I was gobsmacked to find an email waiting for me from my old friend Bo. We hadn't spoken in so long. Can it be almost a year? Time passes too quickly. We parted at the time with the friendship in tatters. And then suddenly Sunday I get the email. Subject: From the dead. With a very familiar, "Hi Barb". I posted a brief reply, saying how lovely it was to hear from him again and hoping he was well. Even better, I then went into Fed2, and there he was, waiting for me. It was really lovely talking again. I really missed him. He's a very special person. I hope we can rebuild the friendship. I think we both want that.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be helping staff the NY Women in Technology booth at the TechXNY Expo at the Jacob Javitz Center. Hoping to do some networking, make some contacts to help get a new job. NY WIT is a great group.

Wednesday is shaping up to be complete madness.
1. I have to get down to Chinatown and buy 2 special kinds of tea at a marvelous tea shop called Ten Ren. They have branches in several countries but nothing in the UK. So every time I fly to London I check if we need a resupply.
2. I also have to buy a liter of Sapphire gin. I have an early flight on Thursday and Duty Free won't be open. I know Virgin sells it at their in-flight duty free cart but they usually sell out in First Class and are all out when they get to the cattle class seats.
3. I have to take my check to the bank and deposit it so I'll have money in London.
4. i have to pay my phone bill. Luckily I paid the credit cards last week.
5. I'll pray to the internet gods that the cigarettes arrive with the mornign mail. If not I'll have to buy some crappy English ones from in-flight duty free. I'm such an addict.
6. Sort out my transport to the airport, check the reservations. I have an 8:20 am flight so I need to be at Newark airport sometime between 6:30 am and 7 am.
7. Pack my bag. I usually pack just before I leave but not with such an early flight.
8. Do all the other stuff I'm just not going to mention.
9. Clean the house and give Andrew the perishable stuff like steak.
10. Get Andrew to close and lock the bedroom window for me. That window is cursed.

Thursday I'm off to London for 10 days. It was supposed to be a long overdue relaxing holiday. Ha! Six out of the 10 days already have business commitments. Somehow I'll try to showhorn in some private time and visits to the 2 exhibitions I'd planned to see. It's really getting to be time to move over and end this silly constant commuting.