Normally I try to do writeups closer to the event, but the week has been busy, and i've been exhausted. That's the sign of a good weekend, right? :)

Going to Coachella from NYC seems to take more time than it did from SF; it used to be that I could leave Weds after work and that I could do something - usually go to class - on Monday night, and neither are true anymore. Plus, I was sick before Coachella, which meant that I relapsed after Coachella; all in all a recipe for exhaustion.

Nineteen months ago, my husband and I moved to New York City so he could go to graduate school.

Yesterday, we decided if he would be staying in graduate school - and, by extension, if we'd be staying in NYC.

The last four or five weeks have been more stressful than I could possibly have imagined.

On Monday, I will go to court; I will swear an oath. (I don't actually know what the o.ath says. I imagine I probably should). It will be the third time i've sworn the equivalent oath for the equivalent purpose. It will be the first time that I swear it to someone other than a notary public.

It feels different this time.

Some of it's the formality; formality makes everything different. Some of it is that it's the last one for the forseeable future. Some of it is that it matters in a way the other two didn't - ok, sure, being sworn in in California presented a nice sense of closure, but it's not like I'm going to practice there any time soon. And while being sworn in in NJ was correctly part of the plan, the odds are really low that i'll take a job that requires me to commute to NJ every day. (And besides, both were in front of notaries, and how real does that feel?).

This time, though: this is for the state I live in, the state that is currently home. (Home, a subject for another night). It means that it's time to get moving on finding a new job; it means that it's time to get moving on finding volunteer pro bono work that I can fit into my schedule. It means that the fallow season, the pause and the rest of the last eighteen months, is over.

And as such, it's running headlong into a question that has been plaguing me intermittently over the last several months: what does it mean, to be an adult?

WARNING: this is somewhat rambly and circular. I don't know if it has a point or if it's going anywhere. But in that it's sort of like life, and somewhat like any experience that's worth a damn - it doesn't matter where it's going, it just matters where it is.

Back in the fall, we talked about trying to do a get-together in December in Philly. It fell apart through failure to check with Stacky in advance.

So, in ana's last diary, ana proposed - cause we'd sorta talked about this before - Presidents' Day Weekend.

Some Phillyians can make it, some can't.

Can you?

Or should we reschedule yet again?

And if so, for WHEN?

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

It's a beautiful warm cloudy day; the quiet before the storm. It's also BusyDay(tm), mostly prepping for having people over for dinner tonight, and shopping. So: lots of listening to podcasts while running errands. Go Dan Savage! :)

Following ana's advice for more regular diaries, although i'm doing it fairly late in the day.

It's 6pm on a Friday and i'm still working. Jared is in class, I have things to do. I took a break mid-day to go to get something notarized, and go to the post office, and fail to go to the gym; and then i watched Bloomberg's pointless press conference.

We don't know enough to know anything yet about the hurricane. Well, duh.

Although I loved it when, after being asked if anyone had a prediction about the storm's track, he said, yeah, there are 20 of them, and each of them thinks they're right. and you could average them, but he doesn't see how averaging them would get you any useful data at this stage in the game.

I can see why NYers reelected him.

I do crazy shit sometimes, for the fun of it. I think most people do, or at least most people want to, they just don't admit it; i'll admit it, and i'll admit that I enjoy it, even though I also admit there's a price.

I've been feeling restless lately. A lot of long days with too much work, not enough exercise, not enough freedom to play. It's that time of the year in my project cycle, and I know it, and I'm used to it, and however much I hate it, i'm willing to pay the price for the good things my job brings me. But ... i get restless, and when I get restless, I get crazy.

So I started out for a walk, at 10.30 am on Saturday. It was going to be a nice little walk. A walk to the beach. The beach is a great place to be on a weekend day when it's in the upper 90s, right? And a walk is a fun way to get exercise and let a slightly stir-crazy programmer blow off his stir craziness and exhaust himself, right?

I really don't know on whose recommendation I originally decided that I should delve into The Long Divergence (http://www.amazon.com/The-Long-Divergence-Islamic-ebook/dp/B0046A9MA4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1340935071&sr=8-2&keywords=the+long+divergence), but I'm glad I did. The book was fantastic.

I've just come back from my local stationary store, where I paid a very confused notary public two dollars to administer an oath, and then affirm himself that he'd witnessed it.

I swore to support the Constitution of the US and of California (an oath i've taken many times, always a bit nervously because, really, how can you be sure you are supporting the Constitution of California?), and to faithfully discharge the duties of an attorney and counselor at law, to the best of my knowledge and ability.