Morningstar Manor

Allan didn't much enjoy his times in the gallery. He was no kind of salesman - being a doing rather tthan telling sort of person - so found the office quite boring.

However there was Leena to flirt with and Sean to help with the framing and he would move stuff if asked to. It was part of the deal.

Also part of the deal was minding the desk when leena needed a break so he sat there, swinging gently in the chair and played solitaire on the desk computer.

Shameless plug of the most divine new tea!

Hello all you me2me2-ites -- you've probably noticed the new banner ads around? Pastel and vaguely Buddhist, with some serene Boddhisattva on it? That is Karma Chai -- and forget for a moment that every time somebody clicks on a banner and ends up buying tea, me2me2 gets two cent.

We got a box of the stuff today, courtesy of our new sponsors, and all those neophile geeks that work here piled into the coffee pantry and tried a cup. It tastes really, really nice, and it makes you calm and focused, so you can achieve lots -- a bit like really good green tea, a bit like guarana. Actually, people were discussing what it was most like, and we all sort of ended up comparing it to our usual coding brew of choice. Instead of whacking myself awake with a triple espresso, I might resort to the pink stuff in the future.

It was Saturday morning, and around the ground floor and basement, people were busy:

• Chandika was looking around the place that was going to be the creche, admiring the colours and furniture, trailing the smell of coffee, from the cappuccino in her hand;
• Ricky was in the conservatory, drinking tea, but still smelling slightly of last night's hemp smoke;
• Manny was in the lobby, home from his morning run with a bright, sportsy push-pram, still hopping as he waited by the elevators, a faint smell of used diapers coming from the pram if you bent over little Morgan, who was fast asleep in there;
• Charlotte was just entering by the grand doors, having been shopping already, the scent of mixed perfume testers coming from the small but exquisite Michaels Brothers bag dangling from her hand;
• Cindy was in the first elevator that stopped and opened, with her dog and in a marathon-class racing wheelchair, leaving a scent of citrus shampoo as she cheerfully left for her morning run;
• Marek was in the ballroom, going through classical exercises at furious speed, smelling of nothing but the dust motes moving through him, undisturbed;
• and Ashley was in the library, looking at art books and loving the scent of old books in the morning.

Am finding things to post like this:



Or even better, this:



I particularly agree with number 7 and number 10.

And this guy is my hero:



How is everyone today?

Nick strolled along the path, litter pickers in hand, whistling quietly to himself. Working Saturdays wasn't too bad when one had a job like this to do and the weather was reasonable.

He stooped to pick a discarded candy bar wrapper and put it in his garbage sack then walked on.

[ooc: we numbered our pups and choose them using this handy little item. Other than that the rules are fairly elastic]

Anastasia sat on top of the dryer, her legs bare beneath her black, knit dress and her feet swinging like she was a little kid in a big kid's chair, with a drawing pad in her lap and a pencil gripped loosely in her right hand. On the page before her was a half drawin portrait of a woman she'd never seen before in any place other than her mind. She didn't like drawing things like that, but any forboding that would usually come along with such a drawing was overshadowed today by her happiness in knowing Charlie had liked her portfolio and wanted to exhibit her work. 

There was a load of jeans spinning in the washer directly to the left of her, and two more baskets of clothes yet to be washed on the ground to her right. She silently marveled at the amount of clothes that matriculated with just one more person added to the mix, and at the amount of space the long, long legs of her husband's and brother in law's pants could take up in a washing machine.

Charlie was in the gallery, minding the desk while Leena went to lunch and having a more than reasonable amount of fun on the desk laptop. He sang along quietly to the music on the website and grinned as he finished one of the figures, saving it then emailing it to Deacon.

"Now to make one of Andy," he muttered to himself but stopped singing as the door opened.

He didn't want to put anyone off.

Just before seven the birthday girl herself opened her apartment door and put up a sign on it saying,

Welcome!
but watch out for the cat

and a silly childish drawing of a cat on the side.

That was the last thing on the to-do list - everything was ready now for the party. The apartment was mostly lit with lots of candles in colorful small lanterns, there was a music mix with a big variety playing on the backround, and a separate cook in the kitchen. Yes - today Emily was dressed up properly to celebrate the big 30, and young Lucas also from La Fee with his tattooed arms and black clothes and an angry brow was taking care of the catering. He had done a spledid job - though it was no brainer that Emily had obviously helped and bossed the poor boy around. Like promised in the invitation, there was food enough to make a full four-course menu dinner for the guests, but served in a buffet in the kitchen.

More than that, there was also drinks. Emily kept an eye on the 19-year-old cook since the wines were stored in the kitchen - especially when his uncle was working and not attending the party, she needed to keep the young man in check.

When the first knock on the door sounded, Emily in her skirt and stylish blouse went to open it and welcomed her friends in.

[[OOC: Party post! Everyone welcome who thinks they should be here - Emily sent out the invites rather generously, so pop in if you feel like it. Mingle!]]

Nia was well aware that something exciting was going to happen so had refused to go to bed. Knuckling her eyes she sat on the couch in her nightie and sang to herself while Charlie made the final preparations for the party.

Deacon came into the room, straightening his shirt, and smiled to see the sleepy little girl. Nia held up her arms and he picked her up and settled her against his shoulder then strolled into the kitchen to get her bedtime drink.

Charlie smiled at them, patting Nia's back, and bobbed up to kiss Deacon before grinning and going to let their guests in.

the package wasn't particularly heavy but it was both bulky and delicate so Charlie was puffing when he got to the right door.

He knocked, leaning the wrapped pictures against his leg, and unwound his very long stripey scarf from round his neck.

Hi Ashley. Charlie here. If you're in this afternoon I could drop off your picture on the way home. If I haven't heard from you by three I'll - um - hang on til I hear when it's convenient.

Thanks - see you soon.

Ashley Sexton was sitting in the Auberge, with a large café au lait, and a newspaper.

Yes, an actual paper. Printed. On actual sheets of newsprint. They still happened.-

Jos and Toby were relieved when they found out that they didn't have to declare their major until their second year - because they weren't sure what they wanted to do yet. Toby wasn't even sure that they should do the same thing, although he hadn't mentioned this fact to Jos. They'd stopped off, on their way back from registration, to do some grocery sopping (for both themselves and Erik), and then made a pit stop in the Mocha for hot chocolate.

Chores could wait.

Off duty and with the remains of a monumental hangover niggling behind his eyes, Vincenzo lay back on a lounger and tried to read his book.

Tried because the letters kept blurring, also because his concentration was shot. He kept thinking back to last night and his final encounter with Emily and felt that he had handled it very badly.

Okay, she had stood him up. Not the first time that had happened, was it? AND she was a career chef, and he should know how driven they were. And she had seemed quite happy until he had mentioned playing pool with Rosa and Sonia. THAT had been just stupid - mentioning it, not the game.

He sighed and turned a page then frowned and turned back, realising that somehow he had missed the villain committing the murder, and then was distracted all over again by a splash from the pool.

Ashley was already there, stretching out long legs beside a table outside the Auberge. There wasn't all that much of summer left now, and what there was should be cherished.

He didn't even have a laptop with him, and gazes up into the trees while he waited for Andy to turn up.-

Jason had the morning off and was down in the gym lifting weights.

Jack was by the pool mopping the tiles.

Seth was in his flat finishing up a painting.

Zack was in the garden playing his guitar.

Eris was in the Mocha, sipping a coffee and flipping through a fashion magazine.

... and anyone else who might be on Seth's email contacts that would enjoy this.

Flight Attendant

My flight was being served by an obviously gay flight attendant, who seemed to put everyone in a good mood as he served us food and drinks. As the plane prepared to descend, he came swishing down the aisle and told us that "Captain Marvey has asked me to announce that he'll be landing the big scary plane shortly, so lovely people, if you could just put your trays up,that would be super."

On his trip back up the aisle, he noticed this well-dressed and rather Arabic looking woman hadn't moved a muscle. "Perhaps you didn't hear me over those big brute engines but I asked you to raise your trazy-poo, so the main man can pitty-pat us on the ground." She calmly turned her head and said, "In my country, I am called a Princess and I take orders from no one."

To which the flight attendant replied, without missing a beat, "Well, sweet-cheeks, in my country I'm called a Queen, so I outrank you. Tray-up, Bitch."

That's right. Never mess with a Queen!

Huggles
Seth

Saturday was Record Store Day, and like so many other independent stores around the country, Your Favorite Record Store was celebrating with live performances by a variety of local bands and lots of specials on CDs and LPs.

Lara was relieved to see a steady stream of customers in the store throughout the day. Since the very first customer arrived, the store hadn't been empty once. Lara hadn't really sat down once either, since she was bouncing all over taking care of bands, employees, questioning customers, and a host of other little distracting things. It was exhausting, but also too bad that the store wasn't this busy every other day of the year.

Charlie had been humming that morning until he opened his mail and the invoice he found there from a very respected firm of gallery outfitters cause him to squirt his coffee through his nose.

Coughing he rang Marian Haycock and, as politely as he could manage, demanded to know why he had had an invoice for $22,000 for new lights and associated labour.

"Oh but when I called the person I spoke to said that you had okayed the refurbishment," Marion said sweetly. "I would NEVER have gone ahead without your authorisation."

A brisk discussion ensued during which Charlie demanded to know exactly WHo had said that and Marion said she would prefer not to say since from the tone of his voice, she would rather not be responsible for any of his staff being fired.

Incensed both at that implication and the necessity of paying a bill that threw his carefully balanced commitments all to buggery, Charlie ended the call abruptly, put his head in his hands for a moment then abandoned his office to go and walk around the gallery and try to recover his equilibrium by looking at art.

Geekboys weren't the only ones moving in today; but this new tenant has a few more belongings than would fit into a couple of suitcases and a few boxes.

Devon's been supervising the move all afternoon, and he's exhausted. He's got his new entertainment system set up, his home office, and his bedroom - everything else can wait. Right now, he's out of coffee - the horror!

So, he's taken a walk down to the Mocha, and because he's never really not working, he has business cards and a digital camera tucked into the pocket of his hoodie.