IT LIVES

All right, it's been six months, but I'm finally going to start updating this again.

So what's been happening?

Well, firstly, I've had what they think was a severe inner ear infection, this diagnosis based on the fact that I was unable to stand up without falling for about six months. I'm actually scheduled for an MRI in a couple of months to rule out brain tumors (I've already had two sets of tests which resulted in the helpful diagnosis of, "yes, you are definitely dizzy and will fall over without drugs"--go, National Health Service!) but quite frankly, I think that if I had brain tumors, by then the defining symptom would be "dead patient."

Basically, the sore throat I had in my last post probably just migrated to other parts of my head. I've now been well for almost two weeks, and am amazed at how fantastic it feels. I'm still slightly dizzy (when I close my eyes in the shower or whatever), but the doctor said that I might sustain some permanent damage from all of this. As far as I'm concerned, this just means that I have an official medical excuse for being the klutz I've always been.

I have a new job--a permanent one. I am working as a half-graphic-designer, half-computer-programmer. The graphic designer part was a bit of an accident--I actually interviewed for just a computer programming position, but they were also looking for a graphic designer. So they gave me a test on my design skills, and now here I am.

I finally caught up with my friend, Sarah--not the one who I may have talked about when I first got here, but the one from South Africa. Sarah's fabulous, and has saved my life. Seriously--between her, Andy, and my friend Glen at work, my life has been saved.

Sarah has to be my friend for the rest of my life, simply because when people ask how we met, I get to say, "Oh, we met at a Buddhist retreat in California." Even if Sarah were dreadful, which she isn't, I couldn't give that up. We met at a convention kind of a thing that was being held there, and almost everyone at the convention was wonderful. Sarah and I became friends, and both of us just happened to move to London. She was gone for a while when I got here (long story about an Australian boyfriend), but then we finally got together again, and spending time with non-insane people (or at least people who are only insane in benign ways), including her, has made life a place where things make sense again.

I'm amazed at just how difficult the last few years have been, in retrospect. Even though I've been sick for the last six months, the lack of personal trauma has resulted in me slowly getting back to my old self again. There are still some residual anxieties, but all in all, things are looking up.

The one person who has been exposed to more of these residual anxieties than any other would probably be my friend, Rich, who is another friend who I have to keep forever because of the way we met. I was laughing about this three weeks ago when we went to dinner with a group of his friends, and the following conversation took place:

Jessica: So, how did you two meet?

Rich: I insulted her on an email list, and she wrote to me off-list saying, "Look, I lack the cerebral testosterone to care who wins this argument." I thought, "Wow. That's good. Why haven't I ever said that to Mike Rosenstark?"

What Rich didn't mention is that I also called him an "arrogant prick." (I can't even actually say that, and typing it was an anomaly.) He responded with a very nice apology, said that he didn't realise at the time that what he was typing would come off that way, and asked if he could buy me a drink the next time we were at the same show, to demonstrate the fact that he is not actually a jerk.

My thought was, "We're going to be friends for the rest of our lives. You know that when you call someone an arrogant prick in your first conversation with him, it's fate."