December 9, 2008 Tuesday

Life has gone on, RL and SL. And both have had their challenges and rewards.

I can say that I no longer feel new in SL now. On the other hand, I still realize I have only scratched the surface of the possibilities of SL, and I still feel the wonder out there of things to discover and experience.

I will say that I no longer own land or houses. I gave them up. Yep, money. SL is a luxury in my RL budget (gasp!). I'm not worried. I will continue to build up my skills in SL and make enough to do more of what I like. And I'm sure the RL budget will bounce back too. Oh, and since I have the premium account I do get 300 L still every week. It's really not much especially for a party and shopping girl like me, and certainly not enough for a house, but it's still nice.

Runningbears still feels like home even though I had to give up the cabin. In fact, Runningbears is going through some changes too. They had to move their club. So Trident Runningbear is building once again in a new spot. I think it is a lot smaller, but it's cozy, and it's still got the Runningbear spirit. They aren't ready to open the club yet, but I'm in the staff group. So I stopped by the new place earlier today and Trident was hard at work. The floor we all love so well was still there -- it looks like the ocean underfoot with coral and moving fish.

I ran into Melaneigh there. She looked beyond cute in some Christmas-y duds, with blinking green, gold and red lights on her boots, her bikini, her tail, her headress. In fact, I'm not sure if she wasn't wearing only lights! Giggle. But Mel can pull that look off easily, ha ha.

In any case, I'm going to use Runningbears as the place to log off and on each time until I get land again.

I've decided I've lost sight a little of why I joined SL in the first place and what it really meant to me in the beginning, and that is child like joy. So I'm going to take it a little at a time and really get back into the things that mean the most to me in SL (in balance with RL, of course).

So . . . that means . . . . dancing! I'm not a hard core party girl as far as in RL you'll never find me getting drunk or getting laid or coming home at 4 in the morning or any of that really fun stuff. But I do looove dancing and every kind of music there is (in RL) . . . but I don't find opportunities in RL (yet), and there are so many fun places and friends in SL. So I'm going to build up my round of party places again that I once had been visiting, and add more. I actually use my Inventory for this. Under Landmarks, I'll make a folder and call it Dancing, and put all my landmarks for my favorite spots. I've got a folder with dance animations, and I'll make one with dance accessories (like my rave poles!).

Speaking of Inventory, that thing is still a monster, and mostly because of the clothes. So I am still going to plug away at the useless but absolutely necessary task of continuing to organize the inventory. Not least, wearing the clothes is half the fun of the dancing! And I want to know EXACTLY where, say, my leather bustier is . . .

So, as I said I would, I spent the evening going around to some past favorite dance places. A few of the landmarks weren't any good anymore, which I was glad to know and I deleted them. Now there's room for more. I showed up at ALOHAS and Melaney remembered me even from only a few times more than a month ago, so that was gratifying. Makes a gal want to come back. These are all dance places that have the hard music. I'll save the tux and gown places for another night. I decided that a few of the landmarks I had were for dance places too skanky for me. I'm just not into that scene.

I listened to Tukso Okey at Gaslight (live). I do believe he is my "orgasmic" guitar player from some weeks ago. He sings too, one of those scratchy voices that are nevertheless satisfying to listen to. Nice, nice way to end the night.