Worst part of vacation: coming back.

The keyword for Pennsic was "mellow". I had an incredibly mellow week, and so did just about everyone I talked to; glory hallelujah. I didn't do hardly a damn thing the whole time other than pitch in to help Ceinwen with clothes for the upcoming Aethelmearc coronation. (How the lot of us keep ending up doing stuff for other kingdoms' royalty is a mystery yet to be unravelled.) I learned a lot about patterns and the scattering of decoration on a garment, and the ways & means of getting said decorations transferred on. But it's a grinding thing, particularly under field conditions; and although silk broadcloth is lovely, lovely stuff, boy howdy is it a pain to work with.

But, yes, a lovely week. The weather was absolutely stunning, save for Monday night when we got Biblical levels of rain--upper 70s/lower 80s, and sunny and pleasant...happy sigh. I had lots of peaceful contemplation and recharge time, which I was in dire need of. audiovile pointed out that I spend so much time running around trying Not To Miss Anything that I end up missing peace of mind, and there is something to what he says. So I spent some time pondering on how to deal with this quandary, and although there isn't any simple & obvious answer, I think I can do better than I have been.

No hangovers. Didn't actually drink that much, even. See? Mellow.

Naturally, after this wonderful vacation, I return to be plunged into a whirling chaos volcano: we are in the process of absorbing the DSL customers of a company going out of business (why? Because the guy hasn't billed some of these people for three years) and it's a Goddamn train wreck. But, hey, income is good (such as it is; the profit margin on aDSL is razor-thin). There is going to be a fair amount of pain for this for the next N weeks, however.

and from the body-mod department

Pondering a second tattoo--this time perhaps in a place where I can see it. I am toying with the idea of a very small one on the back of my wrist, for the same general idea as those "WWJD" bracelets, only with a symbol of vastly greater meaning to me.

The problem is, I don't know whether to get the kanji for "ai" (harmony) or "ki" (strength). I kind of need to be reminded of both, when reminders I require. I considered, for about five seconds, getting one on each wrist; but...No. Just No.

Edit: I realize that getting any kind of Asian-language symbol as a tattoo will usually be +30 on the "Are You A Complete Tool?" quiz, but I actually know what I'm looking at and I do know some Japanese and it is genuinely meaningful to me, so there.