Oops, I "WoW"ed again. :)

Excuse me. Hehehe..

After my last post, I got kinda sick, and pretty much just read for a few days. It felt odd, going to bed at 9pm on New Year's Eve, but since I was working at 6am the next morning, I knew I needed it. Sick + exhaustion = more sick. I made it through Wednesday, which concluded my work week (Sun-Wed, got a holiday for New Year's, so I still had a 40 hour paycheck). With that, my vacation began!! :)

Of course, as if a switch had been flipped, I logged onto WoW, and played constantly. I didn't even mean to. I have the Mallorean by David Eddings to read still, and I've always read it after the Belgariad (which I devoured in almost no time at all). Still, it was good stuff in WoW. I ran around with my guild leader a bit, and got to know her better. She's actually very cool. I'd wondered a bit if she was never going to be nice to me, but I realize now that that is her sense of humor, and now that I get it, all's well. Gotta love Anthony issues! :-p The guild itself is also beginning to feel like the right place to be. We're active, we cooperate, we look out for each other, and we're firmly pointed at endgame. Granted, it'll be a long, long time before we can post the kinds of numbers needed to run Molten Core, but the expansion's got tons of new 5-mans, and a 25-man, so we really only need 25 people to get to Tier 5. I've never been happier in a guild than I am now.

This past Sunday, as some of you no doubt knew, was my birthday. Unlike last year, where Charles and Melissa threw me a party, I did nothing this year. I woke up late (sleeping in on Sunday!? BWAHAHAHA!!!! HELL YEAH!) to find that my mother had been by, and dropped off a birthday cake and my mail. I called her to thank her, and had to leave a message, because she was gone. Apparently, she and my dad were gone most of the day Sunday, ironing out details for a car for me to drive, since my Saturn's just about to give up the ghost. And honestly, I have to wonder if the saturn will move again, since I've not gotten in it since I parked it on Wednesday afternoon, last week.

I played WoW part of the day, and watched the second half of Return of the King, Extended Edition. I must be getting soft in my old age, but there were several scenes where I found myself tearing up. If all old people act this way, then I know how it won all those Oscars. Movies that truly touch our emotions definitely are remembered more fondly than those we just enjoy.

More WoW last night, and I wound up being the only officer in the run, and was the one picked to lead because of it. Whoa. I'd been in LBRS few enough times to be seriously intimidated by this task, and at first, nyminal (on his warrior) took lead and was marking targets, but I asked him for the reins back, because I felt that I needed to learn this. Being a druid and leading a run is nice. You go to cat form, stealth, and can move farther forward to mark the mobs your group is to kill. I also learned that when I'm leading, I don't have time for the conversation in my "friends" channel (a channel that was set up for those of us on Uldaman who live in Memphis, and know one another in real life -- nothing personal to those who don't), or, to a lesser extent, even guild chat. I was either doing my job, or looking for the next group of mobs. (Lleria, I even did a couple of the pulls. :-p Bad durid!! LOL)

--This next paragraph is of interest mainly to my guild leader, who checks my LJ from time to time. *wave* --

Still, we only wiped twice. Once when going after the quartermaster (didn't pull them down the stairs, so the runners aggroed more), and in the last pull of mobs before Wyrm himself (somehow Yamms had trouble holding aggro, and we all went down fast). The neatest thing was that while I was "main" healer, our shadowpriest did most of the healing via Vampiric Embrace. I gave up trying to heal when his little bits of healing came through faster than anything I could cast. :) Still, it worked out nicely. We didn't do the shadow hunter, but no one was really interested in the gear, so that wasn't a lost deal. The most amusing, and most disappointing thing of the run came early on: Charo accidentally abandoned his wolf pet he'd had since level 25, instead of dismissing him, when we jumped down that ledge early in the instance. The good news is, though, that he got a worg from inside LBRS to replace it (and it came in QUITE handy at the end). Also, Charo hit level 60 while on the run, and Anti's well on his way to 58. And, the best part, for me: the Greater Fire Protection Potion recipe dropped, and I was the only alchemist! :) That's an easy 500g saved. That made my day. :)

So, today is maintenance day. I'm not sure what I'm going to do today on WoW, but I do need to do some laundry in real life. (It's nice having more than 5 pairs of pants and shirts, but it means your laundry pile can get HUGE.) I'm also going to read more of Neil Gaiman's "Fragile Things", which I got yesterday for myself for my birthday. I've said that I would read ANYTHING written by Gaiman, even a shopping list, and I mean it. I wish I had an ounce of the creativity and skill that he has. Well, time to attack Mount Drity-as-hell with my Laundry Detergent of Doom. :)