the harmonious notes of life

This last week I've been somewhat helping my beloved husband with the inherited Debian booth at OSCon in between work days and hours. Despite lacking in sleep at the moment - I've been a little deprived since Sunday, I've had the pleasure of meeting new people in the open source community as well as greeting acquaintances and new friends. It actually... amazes me... how many people I know in this community /around here/, or at least who travel to the area for such things and I 1) remember and 2) am happy to see. (Tom, you'll always be a pleasure to drink with! Jeff, I miss you again already! And Bruno, I'll remember you by your smile and name, I promise - not by the flag you wear around your shoulders - but thank you for doing that, had you not, I would likely not have approached you to ask why you were wearing a Brazilian flag!) Meeting and drinking with Brad Fitzpatrick was interesting. He's a pretty laid back and nice guy. I swore he was taller, though that may have been in part due to the wine consumption - perhaps my impression is a bit foggy. ;) I believe Steve set out with BDale's plan to make the Debian booth about *community* and *people*, and... I think it was very largely successful. While we didn't necessarily have a lot of people at the booth at once yesterday, I hear that today, there were a lot of people there just talking and generally enjoying each other's company (largely in part to, I'm sure, Keith Packard emerging from work duty rounds!) The Sun party last night was a lot of fun, guys. I really enjoyed myself, and don't think I've laughed that much in a long, long time. (And, Mark, I'm still not convinced I have the biggest smile in Debian - perhaps we should have some sort of contest to see who does?)

But, my life hasn't just been about beer and brownies. I've also had work responsibilities - which, nicely, are very few outside of work. I did use some of my time off yesterday (I claimed the hours) to work on the schedule for the tech (nursing) staff. I, personally, think I did a good job with this one, and managed to make everyone happy (I think). But, I was getting ready to return to work after my lunch hour (I just spent in the breakroom with a book as I normally do), when I was hunted down by the hospital manager (think: Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny) and presented with a nice card and a box of chocolates to *thank me* and show appreciation for my hard work, dedication and ability to calmly handle everything that's been happening lately. It was.. unexpected. Had I not been sleep deprived and unable to think clearly, I would have likely offered up the chocolates to the rest of the nurses and insisted we all had a hand in keeping order and thanked her, but... well, I thanked her, floored and taken quite aback, and put the chocolates in my bag for personal consumption later.

It was ... /so/ ... the right choice. I haven't had chocolates this good in a long, long, LONG time. And while I've been raised to share with everyone around and to be generous, there's only so much kindness one can show when faced with something this delicious. Sorry, Kathy. I know you'd be disappointed to know I'm being greedy with my chocolate, but /damn/. Bernard Callebaut is... simply amazing. I've never had anything that's melted in my mouth quite like this before, and I fear Steve's now going to be stuck when he needs to purchase chocolates for one reason or another. If you happen to be near one of their locations, check them out - you won't be sorry!

But, general social life plus some amazing chocolates. Now if I could just get some sleep, I'd be one happy girl.

P.S.
Switched back to Debian. Multiple Desktops, transparent tool bars and Turny Bally Game make life grand. Skadi seems to be much happier now, too. She doesn't seem to freak out as much.