Been kinda quiet lately…

…because I’ve been feeling a bit grumpy and generally unsettled.

I have the clear sense that *something* is somehow…missing…in my life at this particular moment, but I’m at a loss to articulate (even to myself) what that thing is.

Christmas was quiet.
Worked last Tuesday.

I called my boss Wednesday morning to see if I *had* to go to work…(it’d already been snowing overnight, and wasn’t pretty, and wasn’t looking to be getting any better anytime soon.) He said he was at the Park N’ Ride waiting in his car for a bus that showed no signs of showing up, and was trying to decide whether to head into the airport (knowing it would be a bear of a drive coming home, or potentially getting stuck for days), or to turn around and go home. Needless to say, I stayed home and watched the snow fall.

Thursday – watched the snow continue to fall…

Friday – Shovelled the driveway…and threw my back out. Owie.

Saturday – More back pain. Stay home from work again.

Sunday morning: 9:38am. Get a call from Val. She’s got the car stuck 2 blocks from home, and will I grab the shovel and bring it to her. I was nekkid in bed, sound asleep, dreaming when the phone rang. Laid in bed a moment after hanging up, the dragged my butt out of bed, put on the clothes from the day before, shoes, coat, out to the garage, get the door open, grab the snow shovel (too tired to think about bringing them both!), and start walking down the driveway….just in time to see Val driving around the park… *le sigh*

Monday – Spend a couple of hours at Jacilyn’s house with her new hubby (Gabe), the new baby (and reason for the marriage – but they’re a good couple), the two boys (Hollan and Corrin – Val’s Grandkids), his kid from a previous relationship (a girl about…mmm..8? 9? 10 at the outside?), Gabe’s sister and boyfriend, their son, Gabe’s parents, Val’s son Travis, and ex-hubby David.
Full house, but good people. Well, David not so much…but everyone else, yeah.
Didn’t give a single gift this year, nor did I receive one.

Well, not a real gift anyway.
I gave in-game gifts to the friends I’ve made in the World of Warcraft since June…
The highlights…
Lauren (Dathel the Human Mage) got a Mechanical Squirrel. She totally flipped over it…I mean…*totally*. She completely adores him. *grin*
I got Paul (Zayghiel the Elven Druid) a Siamese Cat. I thought about going the squirrel route with Zay, too, but she’d have hated him… I expect the kitty will keep her company for a long time coming.

And finally…my big gift…the one that really came from the heart.
I gave Ashli (Pharinet the HumanWarlock, who is also Tryxy’s dearheart…) a Mooncloth Robe.
They’re very very rarely seen in the game, because they’re terribly expensive to make if you purchase the materials…
125 pieces of Runecloth that sell for around 5 silver each (6.25 Gold)
4 pieces of Mooncloth (which sell for 10-12G each, and each of which are made from 2 pieces of Felcloth, which are rare enough in an of themselves. Additionally, Mooncloth can only be made in a process that can only be repeated once every 4 days). I collected all the Felcloth myself, and turned it all into Mooncloth over the last 3 weeks. 
4 of the 8 Felcloth I collected, I collected while Pharinet and Tryxy were together in Azshara.
2 Golden Pearls. These are exceptionally rare drops, and generally fetch 20-30G…each. Tryxy collected these during Tryxy’s "crazy period" in Ferelas.
Rune thread…which cost a half a Gold each.

So…all told, a Mooncloth Robe is worth anywhere from 85-120 Gold if you buy the materials on the open market. That’s roughly the entire "life savings" of a typical character who has reached the level where they can wear it…(56 out of a possible 60 levels.) 
And Tryxy took the time to put all the work in herself. It was hours and hours and hours of work, but every moment was worth it.

There’s more to the story, but I think that’s going into tryxybriann‘s journal. =)