I am very much looking forward to going camping with Andrew for my birthday (soon! I will be all old and stuff!). There's been a lot happening in the past two months, and I'm still nearly as much of a high-pass filter as I was at 17 when Gill first called me one (and I started using the terminology/metaphor to make sense of how I handle the world). I've learned how to buffer it better since then, but it's still sometimes a fragile thing, and when it crashes, it crashes pretty hard and takes me a while to figure out what's going on. I did that this morning, although it was a very little crash as far as things go, and a long afternoon nap took care of it and ramped me back up into adrenaline work-mode again. I've gotten so much better at burnout prevention in the past half-decade. It is good.

Finally finished my taxes today. (Dear May 11 extension for Middlesex county, you rock.) I'm feeling pretty good about how I'm keeping an eye on my finances now - I know where everything is or how to get things to that state, I know what I'm doing with it and why, and... okay, my file drawer could use some re-architecturing so it's easier next year, I'll get to that. 2010 should really be the last year of weirdness, assuming I can persuade my parents to give me my 529 in the next 7 months, because that's all that's left.

I have basically everything I need - I need to keep my bike maintained and keep my (17-year-old) car alive for another year because driving becomes drastically cheaper when you're 25, and maybe I'll go through another (computer) keyboard or two because I do have the nickname "Keyboard Thunder" for a reason, but... all the big stuff, I've got. And there isn't much of that. I'll be ready to move to Raleigh in August with my stuff jammed into the back of my car. I'll need a few small things - a chef's knife, paring knife, vegetable peeler, and serrated knife, for instance. But I've got a wok and a cutting board, a pot and a ricecooker, and what else do you need? My mattress is a glorified air mattress, so it deflates and stuffs into the trunk. I'm downgrading my keyboard and bringing my guitar and bass, and my books... well, my books I'm going to miss. But what's important? Stuff is not important. Living is important, people are important, experiences are important. Not stuff.

So I think I can make this coming year (the year I'm 24) the year I actually concentrate on the "being healthy" thing. I've been greatly enjoying my new lung capacity (your ribs are supposed to move and expand when you breathe! wow!) even if the coughing from last week hasn't abated (I feel great otherwise) and am overjoyed I'll actually be able to go blues dancing almost every week between now and June. Sleeping, eating, exercising... and actually going to see doctors, I guess. Well, I'll figure it out eventually. I'd like to stick around this world for a while; I've got a lot to do. More to think about - it's my pre-birthday month, and... all things considered, I'm rather pleased with how year 23 turned out.

Speaking of the being-healthy thing, I know I'm exhausted and running on adrenaline right now, and I've promised that I'll go to sleep before 3:30 (which is in half an hour). So I need to break off from the computer, pack away my workstation (which is taking over the kitchen counter), plan for tomorrow, and... gradually wind down to go to sleep. Tomorrow's going to be an interesting day.