Although I still have a long list of stuff to get done, this morning I had a crucial errand. It was the annual Friends of the Library book sale, and while I resisted last year, I couldn't stop myself from going this year. It is a good source for reference books. I was pretty restrained, mostly because there wasn't adequate parking and I wasn't entirely certain just how legal the parking space I found was, so I just did a quick skim. I found a good batch of folklore and mythology books, one fantasy paperback and a couple of chick lit books (since I feel a chick lit binge coming on later this summer, and used book sales are about the only way to find it these days). My big score was a keeper copy of a book I've been checking out of the library repeatedly -- and knowing my library, the copy I bought may have been the one I've been checking out, so I'd have lost "my" copy if I hadn't bought it. It sort of diminishes my ability to use the library as my book warehouse to save my own shelf space if they persist in selling off the books they're keeping for me.
And now I have to settle down to the serious work of preparing for next week's adventure. I've put a lot of work into developing an irrigation system for my plants. I suppose I could have just taken them over to my green-thumbed neighbor who's already watching my house for me and asked if she'd mind watering them while I'm gone, but I do have that stubbornly independent streak. Why do something as simple as ask for help when I can research and rig an elaborate system? I'm going with the simplest for now, which involves using strips of cloth to wick water from a reservoir into the soil, but I've seen some slightly more elaborate options that I may have to try someday. I will have to decide whether to leave the outside plants outside. Normally, they don't dry out as quickly when they're inside, but there's a chance of rain in the forecast, which would provide natural irrigation. I guess I'll see how the seven-day forecast looks on Saturday evening.
The other thing I'm worried about with this trip is my capacity for being around people. I'm rather solitary by nature, an extreme introvert in the sense of needing alone time to recharge the batteries. I've lived alone for more than twenty years (and even in college I had mostly absentee roommates), and I've worked at home for about twelve years, since even before I lost my last "real" job I was telecommuting. I spend maybe four hours a week around other people unless there's some extra social occasion. Even spending an afternoon with friends will leave me so drained that I have to go to bed early. And now I'm going to be spending an entire week with almost zero alone time, not even at night, since we have dorm-style accommodations. There may be some scraps of go-to-separate-corners quiet time, but the point of the trip is togetherness, and my reason for being there is to provide adult supervision, so I likely won't have too many chances to shut myself off in a room by myself and recharge. High-energy people and extroverts (who get energy from being around other people) are particularly draining, and I'll be dealing with teenagers. I'm honestly not sure how I'll react to it. I can only sustain my perky public mode for so long. By the end of the week, they may need to bring in a Grimm to deal with me when the beast within me comes out, or we'll find out I'm Troubled when the power of my brain demolishes things in a way that creates a private room for me. When being trapped in a cave-in sounds good because it means you're alone and no one else can reach you, you may have problems.
So, blogging silence for the next week while I have a Tennessee adventure. I hope I live to tell the tale.
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