A fire is burning in Bird Spirit Land

I had a wonderful day with Tyson today! We slept in a little late (and granted, late these days is 7:30 in the morning, due to us usually having to get up at 6 to get to work), had some breakfast, and headed out to Astoria for the day. It was beautiful out, with only a little rain and a little wind. There are quite a few museums up there that I've always wanted to go to, but had never actually visited. Two of them, the Firefighter's Museum and the Clatsop County Heritage Museum, were closed today, but Flavel House, which is a gorgeous Victorian mansion that was built by the wealthiest man in Astoria, was open. The carriage house is now the visitor center and gift shop. They've got a buggy and a sleigh that belonged to the family housed in there, and it was so neat to get up close and see them! You couldn't touch, of course, but you didn't really need to, as you could literally get close enough to see into them and look around. The house itself is being restored to its full Victorian splendor, so there were a couple of rooms that were still being repainted. *_* The house itself, though...man, so pretty! Captain Flavel had the house wired for electricity before it was even available in Astoria, hot and cold running water, and all sorts of other things that, for the time period, were considered modern. Many of the furnishings are original, and there's a lovely garden outside, too.

I also had no idea that Astoria had so much Scandinavian history, but everywhere we looked, there were references to Finland or to Norway. There's a great Danish bakery in downtown that we stopped at to have breakfast (they even had schnecken--German nut and caramel rolls--so tasty!), an import shop right next to that, and a Scandinavian Midsummer festival! May have to go back in June for that. Though a lot of things were closed today, we had a blast going to antique shops and looking around the town, and asking about good bed and breakfasts in the area. We'd like to try and get some friends together for a weekend in costume in the town. Astoria's restored vaudeville theater is also very pretty, and I'd love to go and see something there.

The last stop of the day before the drive home was Fort Clatsop, which is near where Lewis and Clark's winter camp was. There's a replica of the fort based on drawings by the expedition, a nifty museum, and in the summertime, they have costumed reenactors at the fort to show what life was like during the four months that Lewis and Clark were there. Seeing it at this time of year, which would have been when they were camped there, I think that I felt something of the isolation and loneliness that they might have felt while there. They had around 30 other people with them, but even so, they were on the opposite side of the country from where they'd started and from where their families were. The campsite felt very stark when we went through it, and since there weren't many people there, it was also quite quiet.

Also, note to self: the Astoria Column is very, very tall. Don't look down while you're climbing the steps in the future.

We're definitely in the process of moving. How can I tell? All of my books are in boxes now, and the kitchen implements and bathroom stuff are soon to go as well.

It's weird and unsettling living in the space between dwellings. I'm officially a resident of my new complex now, along with Tyson, but we don't even have the new bed set up there yet. I just moved out on my own for the first time last February, so it's only been a year, and I'm sort of attached to where I am. I want this place with Tyson--I've been wanting it for several years now--but it still feels sudden, and going either to my not-quite-my-room at the old address, or going to the not-quite-Tyson's-room at the farm just feels weird. Most everything at the moment is in process or uncertain, and we all know how well Molly deals with uncertainty. Just about as well as fish deal with developing lungs instantaneously when they're out of water.

I've gotten better with dealing with not knowing things and living from day to day, but I still don't enjoy it any more. I hope that we can get the majority of my things moved out this weekend. The fact that we both have Monday off ought to help. I don't have that much stuff, though there's still some over at my parents' place from the last move, so I still have that to go through as well. *sigh* I just don't feel as though I'm getting much of anywhere with anything.

The writing will likely be on pause for a bit until I get settled. Sorry. However, I think that we'd all rather have good writing that I've taken my time to do than bad, hurried writing. So long as it's worth waiting for, right? I'll try.

Despite the fact that my plans changed at the last minute, it's been a very good weekend. My birthday was quite a lot of fun, even if I didn't get to go up to Washington due to the weather. We're going to do that next weekend.

It was pretty low-key, honestly, and that was nice. Tyson, Hayley, and I went out to dinner at Sweet Tomatoe's with Katrina, Martin, Gwen, Amanda, Will, and AnnaLee. The food was good, the company more so, and it was good to have my community there with me. We laughed and talked and had a good time, and though I had told folks not to bring me anything, I received presents anyway. I'm not complaining, mind you. I just find it amusing.

Katrina gave me an incredibly nifty sun catcher that she made from scraps. It's a round bicycle part that she made a stained glass gear to hang in the middle of, and it hangs from the window by a piece of scrap lace to which she affixed a sparkly bracelet made of little blue cameos. I'll try to take pictures later on this week. Gwen gave me an necklace where the pendant is an octopus with little gears in its tentacles--a "clocktopus", as she put it--and Will found some wonderful sparkly pink dice for me to use when I'm playing my daughter of Erzulie character in Scion game. Amanda gave me a framed picture of the same character that she drew, and Hayley drew me two excellent pictures of my favorite slash pairing. Martin framed a print of this. Tyson's going to be taking me out to pick up the cowboy hat that I've been jonesing for since October.

Game was a lot of fun, but I think that the best thing of all has just been the company of my friends. It's been particularly awesome to have Hayley out for two days and to just be able to hang out with her and have fun. I feel very fortunate to have such a supportive community.