No Gas for You!

You may have heard about the gas shortage in the Southeast following Hurricane Ike. What you may not realize is just how ridiculous it has gotten here in Atlanta. In my part of town, at least, more than ninety percent of the stations I pass are out of gas. You heard me right: nine out of every ten stations simply don't have any gasoline. None. And mid grade or premium gas? Well, if you find stations that have it, it's pure luck.

Dorkelf and I were supposed to go camping at Amicolola Falls over the weekend, with a visit to Dahlonega (site of the first major U.S. gold rush and a beautiful town). Um, that would require enough gas to get us there and back, and half a tank won't do it.

My husband had passed an open station on his way to pick me up, so we headed over there. We wait in a fairly short line (that means there were only five cars in line waiting for each pump) and pull up. No gas. Seriously: while we watch, an employee walks over and removes the prices from the sign. As we learned over the past week, that's the universal symbol for "no gas left." The person before us had gotten the last of the gas!

So we drove around and around, unable to find another station with gas. The only one we found was a QuikTrip up the street from our apartment, and the line was so long that we wouldn't be able to go camping if we waited. It was already 6:45; wait an hour for gas, and it would be 7:45 or 8:00 when we finished. That would put us arriving at the campground at 10:00. Our tent is very easy to set up, but at 10 pm, in the dark, trying not to disturb everyone else? Not my idea of fun. (As we found out the next day, it's just as well we didn't wait. They ran out of gas shortly thereafter; there was also a scenic fistfight in the parking lot…not the usual sort of thing for our neighborhood!)

Friday night we drove the five miles to a very pleasant shopping center and spent my husband's Barnes and Noble gift card on Heroes season Two. To our way of thinking, if our plans were going to be spoiled, we were at least going to have some fun! Saturday, we drove all the way to IHOP, four miles from the house, which allowed us to do our grocery and pet shopping all in the same shopping center.

Sunday we splurged. After church, we drove a few minutes down the road to the Duluth Fall Festival. We met my sister (driving on a nearly empty tank of gas) and had a great lunch. Then I hung around and did birthday and anniversary shopping while Dorkelf ran back to the church for his student's recital.

After he picked me up, I told him about an open gas station a woman from church said had gas that morning. It was only a couple of blocks out of the way, so we took a chance and drove over. Yay gas! We were in line for forty minutes, which isn't bad considering that the line you see in the photo was one of three lines just like it going into the one station. But we got ten gallons of gas, and QuikTrip was only charging $3.89, the lowest I've seen in Northeast Atlanta! Plus, the employees were doing a great job directing traffic. (QuikTrip has handled this better than any other company I've seen.)

Of course, many inconsiderate people are only making it worse. Ridership on public transportation was up last week (according to drivers; I know my bus was more crowded!), but this morning the bus was nearly empty. Many other people aren't cutting back on their driving, especially in upper middle class and upper class areas. People all over the city are topping up the tank every time they pass an open station, instead of waiting until they get to a quarter tank or so. That means the gas runs out faster, and our supply is already low in the wake of Gustav and Ike.

I feel like my husband and I are already acting responsibly on this front. We live fairly close to my husband's job now, so his commute is short, even with a short detour to take me to the bus center. I take public transportation to work every day, and home every day except Wednesday and Thursday. (Wednesday, public transportation would make me late to church; Thursday, I take it to dance class, but get out of class too late for the bus.) On those days, he picks me up.

Anyway, next time you pass two gas stations in a row with gas and no waiting, think about all of us in Atlanta and be thankful!

I performed a dance solo!

I actually did it…

It was for a benefit, for a good friend with breast cancer. I nearly hyperventilated beforehand, and I almost hyperventilated again afterwards.

I’m glad I did it. Everyone said, “Now it will be easy next time.” Um, no. Maybe in another thirteen years I’ll do another solo. But I think Nyssa understood that I did it for her. :) And she’s the one who mattered.

See more progress on: Perform a Middle Eastern dance solo

Back from Dragon*Con!

It was great! It was wonderful! It was totally exhausting...

What did I do? Well, I talked about geeky stuff with my geeky friends, played geeky (perhaps even nerdy) board games, did some roleplaying with Blackmoor, and blew up an entire sector.

Oh wait, that last one was Mir-O-Wyn... She also ate computer chips and plotted the overthrow of Alpha Sector, but that's standard behavior for a Matter Eater in Purge.

I ate Suno and things which I can't pronounce or even read the labels of. (But my friends assured me it was, indeed, food...) Yeah, that was a field trip to Suno and Super H Mart.

Costumes were fun, too. I modified Thunder Paladin, (excuse me, the Shade of Trokair), giving him a +1/+1. (I was a +1/+1 counter on Sunday. Comfy costume...)

I loved Dragon*Con. When can I go again?

Dragon*Con time! Yay!

I am so incredibly excited about Dragon*Con this year! Last year, I was just getting to know people who were there. But this year...this year I have very good friends who are there.

And we're going goth on Saturday. I made a bat shawl for my costume, too, which I adore. And, because my plain old light brown hair is too boring, I decided to dye my hair burgundy.

At least, that was the plan. The color on the box looked burgundy-ish, on hair about my color, too. But the result is considerably brighter! Fortunately, it shouldn't last too long. I used Color Pulse by L'oreal, and it supposedly washes out in eight to twelve shampoos. And I dyed it tonight, which meant bright red hair for work! Hey, my boss said yesterday that it was okay! :)

Should be fun, though, for a few days. It's still way more normal than a lot of what I'll see there!

Edited to add a photo

I took this photo at work, at my desk. See? Bright!

I want Six Flags!

2006-10-07 Six Flags 19.JPG
Originally uploaded by Maid Mirawyn

Last year, we went to Six Flags for my husband's company picnic thing. It was so fun, but it was a bit crowded...and it was in October, which meant Fright Fest was going on.

But there were roller coasters we didn't get to ride at all. How sad! And the lines were so long for Goliath that we skipped it totally; it was the new coaster for the year.

And just to tempt me: Six Flags sent a load of buy one, get one coupons to our office just this week! If my husband doesn't get a school library job this year, we are so going!

Next up: Denver

Ugh. The traffic is way worse than Atlanta's: nearly forty minutes to go twenty miles. But so far I love the scenery. To the west, beautiful snow-covered mountains, as far as the eye can see. They just keep getting bigger!

We want to go downtown and do the touristy walking-around thing, but traffic is scaring us. So our plan right now is to head to Boulder, for Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins. (Because I obviously I haven't bought enough yarn. Right...) I'm probably going to buy (a drop spindle and some roving) stuff to spin my own yarn for dyeing.

Anyway, I think I'll like Denver. Too bad we have so little time here.

Small town fireworks...

Last night we went to Crossroads Church's annual Fourth of July cookout. (That's the church Dredd's family attends.) Everyone was so nice, and apparently they had heard about our pending visit.

The food, of course, was wonderful. We got to meet so many people we had heard about from the guys...including the infamous Justin. He's really a nice guy!

The fireworks were a lot of fun, and the rodeo grounds weren't crowded at all. One great bonus to the small fireworks: we were very close to the launch site, so we were able to see some really great stuff!

Then everyone went back to the house, and we set off lots of bottle rockets and other stuff. After that, we all played Munchkin, until I got too tired. (Yes, I was actually the first person to go to sleep!) Prince Cor won the game, but Corin (the youngest) played really well. Poor Caspian, though: his brothers ganged up on him, so he never really got beyond level three or four.

Anyway, tons of fun. Off to the Springs today, for Transformers and general fun. I'm going to hate to say goodbye to everyone.

We made it to Colorado!

Yep, we made it to La Junta, safe and sound. Sadly, I had to call for further directions just two hundred feet from our destination; it seems Dredd lives on a trick street...

Anyway, the Riveras have been so very, very nice. The guys are all exactly like I expected, and their mom is very sweet. It's not everyone who would invite total strangers from the other side of the country to come stay with them for a couple of days!

Last night we played with the Wii. First the Brothers of Dredd (Cor, Caspian, and Corin) played a weird Mario game and then something called "Rayman: Ravin Rabbids". Mainly, you torture psycho bunnies. Then we all took turns playing Wii Bowling. Apparently I'm better at Wii Bowling than real bowling...but just barely.

Today we're hiking to Vogel Canyon, which should be fun. So Sherman and his siblings just showed up, and it's still unknown whether we'll be meeting Hobbs later today. Yay for Spirit of Elijah!

got suno?

If you don't live in Atlanta or Korea, my condolences. No Suno for you! And life without Suno just isn't complete!

What's Suno, you ask? Well, they call it "shaved ice cream," but I think it's more like sweetened vanilla snow, topped with all sorts of wonderful stuff. Apparently it's a new twist on "Pappinsu," which is quite popular in Korea.

So far, I've had Ko Ko Koffee, with coffee syrup, coffee jellies, and "puddings," and Puddin' Pudding, with chocolate syrup and puddings. The puddings are incredible: tiny little flans, really. I'm not really sure what the PINK puddings are, but they are delicious, too. Ko Ko Koffee is my favorite.

So if you are in Atlanta, check out Suno. It's in front of Super H Mart on Pleasant Hill Road, in Duluth. And if you're of the female persuasion, stop by on a Wednesday night: 20% off for ladies!

One show down, one to go...

Well, our first show was last night. Not too bad, really. We laughed, we cried, we danced with Nicola and random strangers.

I was serious about the crying, by the way. The tribute to Caroline went great, I think. It's the only time I have EVER danced without smiling and not gotten reprimanded. But it wasn't too serious, sappy, or sad, either, and Saroya and Sarah scheduled one of the beginner students with a really upbeat, light-hearted number right after us.

I really do a much better job dancing with props. We did fans, and it was so much less nerve-wracking than it would have been. Fans, swords, candles, tambourines, baskets, canes, veils...I love them all! Except zills. Zills are evil incarnate.

By the way, did you know you can practice double fan to White and Nerdy? Now you know...

I can't believe I'm doing this...

Well, my dance troop, Seshambeh Dance Company in Atlanta, is part of a twice-yearly show at Nicola's Restaurant in the Emory area. This year, we're doing a tribute to my friend Caroline Moulder as our group number. Did I mention we are each doing a very short solo as part of it?

Yeah, you heard me right. A...solo...ME. Sure, it's really, really short, but for me, it's still a miracle. Oh, and I left out the part where we do TWO shows this year! So I guess you know where I'll be December 4 and December 11. And in the MIDDLE of those is the church's Christmas show.

And it's too late to back out now! I have the tickets to sell and everything. And the group choreography is already broken into solo sections, so no backing out of that, either. Did I mention the part where I said I MIGHT do a solo—a REAL solo—in June? Yeah, I've done it now. But one performance at a time...

In Memory of Caroline Moulder

This is the saddest post I have ever made. It's been over a month, but I still don't know if I can get through this without crying, so bear with me.

On July 26, 2006, in Afghanistan, a very sweet, beautiful young woman named Caroline lost her life in a helicopter accident. She was traveling with her mother Darlene and her sister Bryn to visit her dad, a civilian contractor working on base in Afghanistan.

Caroline was a wonderful person and a true joy to know. She was always kind and always exhuberant. She and her mother and sister were active members of their church in Midtown Atlanta. Caroline had just graduated from Grady High School and would have started at the University of Georgia last month.

My fondest, clearest memories are of her and her best friend Kate joking around in class. Whenever we were working on a particularly difficult combination or routine, we could always count on them to remain upbeat. Together, they were a blast. The loss of Caroline makes me treasure Kate all the more.

Please pray for Kate and for Caroline's family, especially her dad. Perhaps it seems strange to ask that now, five weeks later, but I think now is when they need that prayer most. All around them life has returned to normal and settled into a new routine. But for those closest to them, the pain and emptiness left by the loss of the Moulder women won't disappear so soon.

Caroline, I can't wait to see you again. You know I'll look you up when I get to heaven.