I’m in North Carolina. Again. For work. Although today, not much work was done. Which was unavoidable, with little work to actually do.

The day started out with the alarm blaring at 6 am, which is 3 am “my” time. I bolted out of bed, started the coffeepot in my hotel room, and jumped in the shower. While getting dressed, I remembered that I left some toiletries at the office last time I was here so I wouldn’t have to schlep them back and forth from California. Problem is, I got in late last night becuase of flight delays so I hadn’t had time to go to the office to get them. Those toiletries included deodorant and hairspray. Current temperatures in Charlotte NC are in the high 90s and not conducive to unprotected pits. But, I went without. I figured “so what?” I’ll have flat, lifeless hair and B.O. That is hot.

When I got to the office, I visited the restroom, and the tempramental zipper on my pants broke for good. Usually, if I try long enough, I can get it to work, but today, the zipper pull went all the way to the top, while the teeth on the zipper stayed agape. Awesome.

When I got back to my desk, I started my computer, and plugged in the additional monitor, keyboard and mouse (because I am nothing if not ergonomically responsible). Suddenly, I lost the task bar programs, but the empty blue bar had floated about 3 inches up the screen and stuck. CTRL+ALT+DELETE would not prompt the restart or shutdown. Nothing would work, so I turned the damn thing off with the power button. (Yeah, that’s a no-no, but it usually works.) I let it sit for a bit to consider what it had done, and then turned it back on. The Dell tried to start Windows, but got caught in a loop of the laptop asking me “Do you want to start in Safe Mode?” me saying “YES” and it teasing me with the Windows logo and then asking “Do you want to start in Safe Mode?” again. Over and over we played this game. I tried other options, like “Safe Mode with Network Connection” or something about “Whatever worked last time you idiot piece of crap PC.” Still with the broken record act. I unplugged all peripherals and tried again. Nothing. Pulled out the battery. Put it back in. Tried to start on battery power. Same redundant line of questioning. Whatever.

I carried the busted laptop in front of my unzipped crotch and took it to a very nice IT lady. She ran the recovery disk, or tried to, but it was taking a day an a half to complete, so she gave me a loaner IBM laptop so I could work (or could have worked, if I had any work to actually do). I left my Dell with her to stomp on, hit with a sledgehammer, and throw out the window into a trash compactor fix and returned to my desk. At least with the loaner I could access my Outlook Mail and the Internet. Course, I had to use IE which makes me want to poke sharp sticks in my eyes.

The interesting thing is, IT had another Dell crash just yesterday that was getting stuck on the same “sector” at the Windows startup as mine, the name of which I cannot recall. (Something like mup.sys I think.) The other corrupted laptop wouldn’t boot up at all, but my laptop fared better. On mine, it would start to boot up, but just the hard drive is toast. Oh, that’s great news. The drive is completely dead. Useless. Several bad sectors, multiple unrecoverable errors, and irreconcilable differences. I lost documents. I lost passwords, account numbers, photos. All gone. POOF! No, I did not back up my data. Yes, I know that’s stupid. And now, I know that’s really stupid.

Traveling for work fills me with such utter joy, I am positively oozing sunshine.

Unfortunately, I had to cancel because I was asked to take my boss’ place at a training course this week. In Mexico. I quickly renewed my passport, picked an awesome hotel with fantastic photo opportunities, and was learning things like one should never say “Yo soy caliente,” unless one means “hot” in the Paris Hilton sense and not the “I am sweating my face off” sense. And then aye caramba, just days after I told MB I couldn’t make it to Napa, my plans changed. Mexico was out, because my services were requested in North Carolina to help with a documentation emergency. I’m just a tech writer. I don’t feel important enough or smart enough to fly out here and help (the depth of my self-esteem knows no bounds). When this trip was presented to me (read: when I was told I was going to work in NC), it was suggested that I come Every. Single Week. That’s right. Fly out every Monday and home every Friday. But that’s not feasible for several reasons, so I’m here this week and next and then we’ll see where we go from there.

This morning, I awoke at 3:45 AM. (That 3:45 was in all caps, by the way, because I was yelling it.) Three forty-five in the morning is not morning. It’s still night. But I got up and was at SFO in plenty of time for my early morning flight. I felt like a zombie. I was there, but not really there and I didn’t remember how I got there. So, when I saw someone I thought I knew, I wasn’t surprised I couldn’t remember his name. Also, turns out, I didn’t know him, exactly. It was Adam from Myth Busters and he was standing near me at the security check point. He is much taller than I thought. Also, he’s kinda hot, in a geeky way. Señor Savage es caliente.

So here I sit in a Residence Inn, while Matte gets DirecTV installed at our house, clears out our apartment, bolts bookcases to the walls for earthquake safety, gets the fence repaired that the fumigators busted into slats, waits for AT&T to set up our phones, and generally gets us moved in to our house. I would much rather be there, helping him, (and watching the cats slide all over the hardwood floors) but I sort of need this job to help pay that mortgage we just signed up for for the next 30 years.

… and maybe with this lemon tree, you have visions of fresh-squeezed lemonade, lemon sorbet, chicken piccata, lemon vinaigrette, lemon meringue pie, margaritas, hefeweizen, lemon bars, garnishes for cosmopolitans before you go see Sex and the City on the silver screen.

Oh. Did I mention the house that came with the lemon tree? No? Oops.

Happy anniversary to us! Matte and I are homeowners! Paper IS the traditional first anniversary gift and we have signed enough pieces of it that we could wallpaper all four bedrooms of OUR NEW HOUSE with it.

It has a two-car garage, air conditioning… a hot tub in the big backyard. The neighborhood is fantastic, with nice people living around us. The people who we bought the house from are a wonderfully nice and friendly retiring couple who threw a block party so we could meet all the neighbors before escrow even closed. They even bought my favorite cake from my favorite bakery as dessert at this block party. And on top of all that they threw in all the major appliances, a TV, and a desk.

But I really love that lemon tree.

If you answered d, you’re a genius. And if you know what Towel Day is, you’re also a geek.

Today, Matte and I are celebrating our first anniversary. Last night we had dinner here, the restaurant that catered our wedding. We drank fantastic wine from the winery where we got married, and for dessert, the restaurant replicated a small version of our wedding cake. It was a perfect meal, with perfect company.

After leftover wedding cake for breakfast, Matte and I are visiting Murrieta’s Well for a few tastes of wine and a picnic (if the weather holds out). Then we have appointments at a spa for some pampering, courtesy of our friends June and Beth.

We got each other gifts, (paper is the traditional first wedding gift), but my gift to him isn’t ready yet, and his to me wasn’t ready in time either. So, darn, we’ll just have to celebrate again next weekend! As someone who celebrates their birthday for the entire month of August, this is fine by me. And I do have a gorgeous floral arrangement to enjoy. It’s made of purple irises, white roses and green hydrangeas - the same flowers that decorated our special day - all kept safely out of the destructive cats’ reach.

The other day, my friend Krissy, who introduced me to Matte said that she was thinking about us and realized that Matte is the perfect guy for me. She said it is as if we were made for each other. I couldn’t agree more.

Matte, I love you with all my heart. If this past year is any indication, we are in for a wonderful life together, filled with laughter, silliness, and love.

We all know that one day
The tunnels will crumble and the trains will stop
And the blood and the bags and the bones will be gone
And in between now and then something will happen to all the dreams
I don’t know what will happen to the other dreams

But I know what will happen to me
Sure as rain, I know, sure as winter

I’ll breathe and grieve and struggle and strive and love, love
And if I’m lucky once, just once, the dream will drop to the floor like a vase
and shatter in shards of silence
Where I will see, I will see in the pattern of the pieces, I will
See something

This will, this will happen
But now the train with all its fragile cargo rolls on.

- Peter Mulvey