Network

To those on Valarnet...

You Are Invited To Help Me Celebrate My 55th Birthday!

September 22nd, Beginning at Sunrise and Ending at Sunrise the Following Day
My private beach with will open for 24-Hours. It connects to my home via a walking path, and there will be plenty to eat and drink at both spots.

Please RSVP here, if you will be in attendance.

Please, do not bring any gifts!
But you are welcome to bring food and drink.

[PM to Gandalf]
Do you think you could put on a fireworks display?



ooc: anyone who rsvps will get a personal gift, as hobbits tend to do on their birthdays...

also, the day of, I will post a thread for people to record their party activities, much like we did for the Stark gala. and feel free to post any logs you like!

I'd like to express my sincerest gratitude to everyone who sent condolences over the last week. They were very much appreciated.

The trip to South Africa was a great success. We managed to build three new water wells for a small village which will greatly improve their quality of life. It's always a treat to meet these people and hear their stories. One day I need to sit down and write a book about all of it. I feel so full of love right now.

Judging from the number of 'urgent messages' in my inbox, it's charity ball season again.

Guess it's time to dust off the old tux.

My office at the firm was broken into over the weekend. Luckily nothing was taken, but I had a bit of a mess to clean up when I got in today. We're beefing up security too. The robber put one of our security guards in the hospital. I'm about to go visit him now, make sure he's doing okay.

These are strange times indeed.

Has anyone ever heard of the river Bruinen?

There was a meteor strike about two miles from the Ranch house. Most of the buildings have collapsed and I'm on my phone. I'm reading that there has been a serious earthquake as well, can anyone confirm?

I've lived in Orange County for the majority of my life and been through quite a few earthquakes, but I've never felt one quite like that before. Is everyone quite alright?

Okay, who's the wiseass who put a flippin' broadsword in my cubicle?

I don't need to fight orcs at my job or anything. The people in the mailroom aren't that bad.

I'm back from my business trip. London was lovely, but I missed my home. I'm a bit sad I missed the 4th of July, but I had to stay a couple of days extra to ensure everything would go off without a hitch. I've donated enough money to build three new clean water wells in South Africa, managed to close a deal that I thought would never get done and even managed to have enough time to take a long overdue tour of Oxford.

Now, what's this I hear about a carnivale?

I see shadow and flame and the ring ever whispering. Three eyes watch me, one fell and red, two amber and saddened.

Lórien, Lórien, you fight so valiantly. I almost want you to win.

I'm searching, searching.

I've been doing a lot of digging. It seems that my uncle may have, at one point, been very close to a woman whose name no one seems to remember. But no sign of any wedding, or anything close to it.

It's possible the ring didn't belong to him. Maybe it came from somewhere else.

And I've figured out even less about the little sword.

There's something ironic about a man without a ring finger finding a wedding ring, isn't there? Wait, is that irony?

I had a dream about another forest last night, but this was decidedly not Lothlorien. This was a place where the trees whispered to one another, and the branches groped and swayed without any wind. It was a freighting place. I was with others--I think I was a "hobbit" again--and we walked for days. When I woke up, it felt like I hadn't slept at all, and everything hurt. Then again, I'm old, so that's a normal morning for me these days.

But what I really want to talk about is a happier thing. I've been keeping up the driving, and I was in the garage this morning when I found a wooden box. A big one. It really looks like a treasure chest. I swear I've never seen it before, which doesn't seem possible, but it is. Inside were some things belonging to my uncle: photographs, clothing, and--more curious--a sword, and a wedding ring. It's been a mystery all morning. None of the help can figure it out. My uncle was never married. As for the sword, I'd like to have it looked at, so if anyone knows anyone who, you know, looks at swords, I would be very grateful.

I heard this in my sleep last night. And I woke remembering every word of it.

( Song of Nimrodel )

Lothlórien.
Is it possible to feel you must immediately to return to a place you've never been?

My dreams of Lothlórien have overwhelmed every other thought, every other desire. I sleep and see no shapes but those I already know, but the shapes seem at once clear cut, as if they had been first conceived and drawn at the covering of my eyes, and ancient as if they have endured for ever. Gold and white and blue and green--though as if I had at that moment first perceived them and made for them names new and wonderful. In winter here no heart could mourn for summer or for spring. No blemish or sickness or deformity could be seen in anything that grew upon the earth. On the land of Lórien, there is no stain...

How is this possible?

Ms Galadriel, we need to talk.

Every time we talk about Jon I feel like our marriage is falling to pieces and I just I need a drink.

I hope this doesn't come off as completely strange to you, but considering the amount of dreams people on the network have been speaking of lately I thought it prudent to contact you. My name is Galadriel, I'm a lawyer for Sinatra Law Firm out in Newport Beach. You can look me up, I'm not a crazy. Although after the dreams last night who knows? I've seen you on the network. I believe we've even spoken briefly and I recognized your face in the dreams. I gave you advice, important advice. I'm not sure if any of this means anything to you, but if it does.. well, I'd love to chat.

I'm honestly terrified that this is my life and nothing more interesting is planned for me. That I'll get old and die wondering if I missed my destiny somewhere along the line because I wasn't paying attention.

God, I sound like a teenager on tumblr.

It seems I'm finally settled in.

I've always found it fascinating how much simpler one's life appears when packed inside several dozen boxes.

(ooc: I may be slow on replies tonight, as I'll be sleeping soon.)

Has anyone else with teenagers experienced this?

I just received a text from Medren, who was upstairs in the bathroom, informing me that we were out of toilet paper and he needed me to bring up a roll from the closet.

Uh..What? No, seriously, what?

What goes on in their little heads exactly? I don't get it.

I feel like I have a million things to get done, which I guess I actually do. I need to get down to the women's shelter for a lecture, I have another charity gala to plan, one to attend this weekend and a couple of cases on my desk. I think when all of this is done it might be time for a family vacation. Even the sort that like to stay busy need a break every once in a while.

Anyone have interesting vacation spots they wouldn't mind sharing?

You know what I really hate? Trees.

At first, that sounds insane, right? I mean, who hates trees? Well, I do. Why you ask? Because apparently I am the 1% and the 99% (which are trees) are staging a protest by occupying my lungs.

The metaphor is weak, but you see where I'm going with this. Allergies are the pits.

A Good Investment: Wet Ones, or any brand of effective sanitary wipe. My favorite use is to thoroughly wipe the library keyboard before use. A lot of weirdos come here to use these things.

But the weirdo before me was using this site. I poked around it for a while. A lot of you are very strange. I felt right at home.

Everything hurts today. But it's mostly a good kind of hurt. That Kirk guy kicked my butt. Apparently, I needed it.

...My mind however, is doing that racing thing again. I keep thinking about the gaps, the things I can't remember. When so much of your childhood is missing, you end up feeling like a child most of the time. And then aches and pains remind you how old you really are, and you feel absolutely ancient. It's not good, vacillating between childhood and old age. I feel... stretched out... thin... like butter scraped over too much bread. I need a change. Or something.

...Anybody here know anything much about dogs? Only we never had them as kids. I've always liked them but I'm sort of clueless, and...this one was hanging around campus waiting for me this afternoon. No collar, and she ate four bags of chips and a payday bar from the machine since I know those haven't got chocolate on, and then was sick all over my shoes.

It was about that moment I realized I have not got any idea what I'm doing.

Right now she's having an overnight or two at the vet so they can help her get better. There was talk about an iv and fluids and she possibly was dying when I found her. I told them money is no object when it comes to saving her, as long as she's not hurting, and her eyes were brighter when I left and she licked my hand and things.

I think she's probably my dog, but I've got NO idea what I'm going to do here, or if my place even allows me to have dogs.

Hope she'll be okay.


( have a quick photo )

Its been quite a busy day so far. I drew an early morning shift at the hospital. Had a boy come in missing an ear, the poor thing. It seemed to be some sort of animal attack. I'd rather have the weirder ones, than a child. But we got him fixed up and he's resting comfortably right now.

There's been the usual as well. Shootings, stabbings, a car accident, strange objects in the anus. I look forward to a nice slow day of people with head colds at the practice. I sometimes wonder if I take on too much. But I want to help at the hospital, and I like the pace of the practice. They sort of balance each other out. But I'm afraid I'll need to cut something down. Its a matter of what means the least to me.

In unrelated news I finally got a look at the lovely robot warp_speed is building me. I know it seems silly, but I love it. I can't wait for the competition.