How many emails do you have in your inbox right now? I have three.
Yep, three.
Down from over four hundred. I only needed half a dozen folders (three just for writing – legal data, backups, and conversations with publishers).
I also discovered a few old favourites (now in the “sentimental” folder). Here’s a photo taken after a truck ran into my bathroom (fortunately no-one was sitting on the throne at the time):
And here’s another photo of my parents’ house, taken less than a month earlier (yay for insurance!) This was taken at the far end of the house from the actual fire. The “spiderwebs” are toxic solidified plastic from the burning microwave.
But the most sentimental email of all is the one I sent to my sister the night I met CJ (at a pirate ball – the photo on the right hand side of the blog was taken that night). Here it is (I have cut a lot out of the middle, changed names, and fixed spelling, but nothing has been added):
So, to begin at the end: Have you ever stripped naked and walked into a room to see a bearded face looking back at you? A *hot* guy’s bearded face? Your own bearded face, as a hot guy?
It’s a trifle off putting. Today I was Jack Sparrow, and was I EVER! (Enough to find myself hot. At least, out of the corner of my eye, in the bathroom mirror just now.)
I haven’t been able to get to sleep before three lately, and today I had to get up super-early. I knew the pirate ball was tonight, and likely to be exhausting, so I was planning to sleep in the arvo. Instead I went over to W’s place. Then I had Bob pick me up so we could go to the ball together.
My Jack Sparrow outfit was AWESOME (and incidentally, so was Bob’s). There are photos.
I amused myself at the ball by acting totally drunk and lecherous. It was Bob’s first ball, I think, and he brought a bunch of friends (this is an important plot point 🙂 ). Bobette1 and Bobette2 were there too (which hasn’t happened in about two years). I slapped Bobbette1 and Bobette2’s butts a lot, and was totally awesomely Jack-like (“Would you like to see my sword?” – and I actually had a sword, too. I danced with it on!)
Bob pointed out one of his friends (Bob2), and said I “had” to meet him. I mixed him up almost immediately with someone completely different (RandomMan), who was obviously ill at ease. Being nice, I went to chat to RandomMan, figuring Bob wanted me to make him feel comfortable. I walked up, plonked myself down and said, “Hi, I’m Jack, and you’re Martin. You see, I know all things.” He pretty much ignored me (which makes sense now I know I had his name wrong), but there was another complete stranger sitting facing me. I turned to him and said, “Hi, I’m Jack and I know all things. This may come as a shock to you, but your name is Timothy.” He said something like, “Ah, my silly parents. They’re always calling me by the wrong name – CJ.” So I plunged on and said, “It may also surprise you that your father’s a redhead.” From there we went into a wild and ridiculous conversation, for half an hour or more, in which I was Jack Sparrow, and he was a random guy from the same era. We discussed scurvy, wenches, and whether a ship sails faster if it has holes in the sails (like the Black Pearl). It was a brilliant conversation.
CJ’s a guy, I’m a girl.
My mind began to turn, and I wondered whether to bolt. I didn’t.
A dance ended, another began, and he took my hand. He was shaking a tiny bit, but/and I liked the way he held my hand. It was one of those dances where you’re practically in each other’s arms, and I flowed with it. If it hadn’t been for the fact he was almost certainly not a Christian, I would have been all for getting to know him better (he’s taller than me, with green eyes, and isn’t bad to look at*
). I already knew (due to conversationing) that he was a friend of a friend of Bob’s, so I thought I’d take Bob aside and ask outright if CJ was Christian or not – but I didn’t have the guts, so when the dance ended (it was progressive, meaning I wasn’t near CJ at the end, though we laughed heartily at one another’s attempts to remember the dance partway through) I just went and talked to someone else.
The night was almost finished then, and when it was completely finished I went over to Bob (who, as I mentioned, was looking fabulous). He and I took some photos, and then CJ and his group came up to us. I asked Bob where he knew them from, thinking it might give me a clue as to whether CJ was Christian or not.
It did.
He knows them from church.
CJ came and stood beside me, and we talked some more (as normal people, not as Jack Sparrow). If he wants to see me again, it shouldn’t be too hard. But I reckon I’ll email Bob anyways. It’s just occured to me that CJ might not have realised that I’m a Christian too.
CJ is a southsider, so the usual Canberra rule (we’re sure to run into each other – as he himself said on the way out) doesn’t work. I like him. I think he likes me, at least a little (enough to be witty, to be nervous when we danced, and to come up to talk to me afterwards). How awesome would it be if I got together with a guy because of Jack Sparrow!
Louise
THIS month, since the twittertale is set in tropical Irian Jaya, each day here shall feature a rainforest picture from Flickr.com. Most aren’t from the right region, but they’re sooooooo pretty.
*Yep, that’s what I said. Actually I was so high on lack of sleep and excitement that I had only the haziest notion of what CJ looked like, so I asked Bob to bring photos over so the next day so I could decide if CJ was hot or not. Verdict: yay. Then all I had to do was track him down – which is another story. I still can’t believe such an excellent guy asked me out.
OMG That picture is awesome! It’s relaxing just looking at it.
W: You should have been there last night when I spent about two hours picking all thirty photos for this month! That was SO excellent (and also annoying, because only half the Flickr files actually save onto my computer, so I had to keep going back and downloading more. . . but that was cool too).