Professor Arryn's Story (Part 2)

Here are four more letters and diary excerpts from Professor Arryn Jones, my D&D character.

To read Part 1 click here.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

3 Alturiak, 1493 DR  (3 February)

Dad,

Today, after a particularly captivating lecture about Karsus's Folly, Professor Nathandem invited me to tea to talk more on the subject.  Our discussion continued for quite some time until we were interrupted by our class schedules.  He invited me to join him in the Rare Books library soon, which only the senior professors have access to.  He wants to show me the texts which support his argument disagreeing with Mystra's limit on magic. 

Professor Arryn's Story (Part 1)

I told you before that I've started playing Dungeons and Dragons again.  I like to fully create my character, with personality, quirks, and back story.   I've spent a lot of time developing her story, and researching some of the world of Forgotten Realms (one of the worlds used in Dungeons & Dragons), and some other things.  I've made my character related to another famous character, which I'm sure you'll pick up on before long. lol

The short version:

Professor Arryn is a half-elf Rogue/Warlock.  She is a book nerd, loves mysteries, and highly values knowledge; she will do whatever it takes to collect it.

Here are letters and diary excerpts I've written to explain her back story.  I've written more, but I'll give you a few "entries" at a time.  Please note that the world of the Forgotten Realms has their own calendar, holidays, and culture, which I will reference.  I'll give the equivalent of our dates to have the progression make more sense to you.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

5 Elesias, 1492 DR (5 August)

Dear Mother,

I hope you had a wonderful Midsummer!  My celebrations were pleasant enough.  I am happy to tell you that I start my new teaching position this autumn.  I’ll be the Professor of History at the College of Fochlucan!  Silverymoon!  I get to move from this tiny no-name town and back to the city of my birth.  Perhaps you’ll come visit me? 

Strawberry Yogurt Soup

Hello!  I've been busy with house stuff and retaining my sanity.  Much of my time has been spent trying to resolve our current health insurance mess.  We were approved to have OHP, but they still had it on record that we had private insurance, which we lost when my husband got laid off, so I've been having to untangle it.  I wont go into more detail as it is confusing and borning.  I think I'm finally near the end of it!  I'm still fixing doctor appointments though.  My doctor that I just got doesn't take my new insurance so I'm having to switch again, as well as other family appointments.

Good news!  My husband started a new job last week!  It's through a temp agency, but both the agency and the workplace have made my husband feel appreciated and productive.  He's also on day shift!  Hallaluja!  He gets up at 5 a.m. now, instead of 10 a.m.  I'm adjusting my schedule a little bit (I used to get up at 6:30) so I'll be getting up with him.  It's *so nice* to be able to cuddle with him instead of sleeping alone.

I've been doing art on the computer these last few weeks.  I've had several graphic design orders - a few repeat customers came back.  I love hand dyers!  They make such lovely yarn and they like to dress them up with pre-printed labels, which I am happy to make for them.  :D  It's so satisfying to work with other artists! :)

Ooh, I don't think I told you all that we got a fish!  Anna's been wanting fish for quite some time but I didn't have any time or money to invest into an aquarium.  I told her it would have to wait until after Pandora, our ferret, was gone.  She passed a few months ago now and my daughter was having a hard time with it, so I was thinking it would be a really good idea to try to get fish sooner rather than later.  So I started looking at fish books with her and we decided on a betta and a mystery snail.

Then a friend had a betta they were thinking about getting rid of; apparently he killed any tank mates and she didn't like that.  I told her that was funny as we were thinking about getting a betta and a snail.  So we talked about it a bit more and they brought over the whole 5.5 gallon tank a couple days later!  Anna was thrilled!  While I started working on getting everything set back up Anna decided to name him "Soup."  😂  The previous owner told me she'd named him "Strawberry Yogurt" because of his red/white coloring.  So his full name is "Strawberry Yogurt Soup."  Hehe.

I've been working on getting him happy as there were a few things making him upset.  He didn't like the stronger current of the filter so I changed it.  Then he got sick (probably from stress from the move) and there were a lot of nitrates in the water.  I've been doing daily water changes to fix that.  He seems much happier and relaxed than he was when we first got him.  He's settling in nicely.

Note: His fins have healed more since this picture was taken.  I'll post more later. :)

Never a dull moment!

I'm back, again.  I really don't like being away but sometimes I really can't help it.  😥

So just as I was getting on a roll with my blog things go reeeeeal interesting in my life.  Sigh.  Things never are simple. lol  First I had an anxiety breakdown.  I got help and got the ball rolling to get mental health services for myself and special needs services for my kids.  THEN, my husband got laid off from his stable job of 9 years.

I'm actually okay about my husband being laid off as things were getting ugly at work.  His superviser was being abusive and getting away with it, and I was really done with the whole swing-shift thing making me a single parent.  (It had been 2 years on that schedule!)  But with having gotten all the balls rolling for all of the health care I couldn't just let it all drop.  I need to resolve my anxiety with a councilor.  My boys need extra services for their special needs.  My husband needs to continue to take his medications or he will die.  (Today is the 1 year anniversary of the day I nearly lost him to heart failure and a pulmanary embulsism.)

I had to do all the paperwork, appointments, and phone calls to get health insurance through the state, which I did.  Then some things with what was approved was wrong so I'm still going through all the steps to get it straightened out.

Meanwhile I haven't had terribly much time and attention to do any in-depth crafting.  I'd mostly sit down on the couch in the evening with an audiobook and my knitting, and promptly fall asleep instead.  It was mighty frustrating!  Then an opportunity came up that I couldn't pass:  My husband's schedule had changed so he'd be home with the kids and I could go play Dungeons and Dragons in our friend's group.

I haven't been able to play regularly since I was in college.  Several months ago I created a character for a 1-off event and I'll be playing her: Professor Arryn, an overly curious half-elf who sold her soul to and Elder God in trade for knowledge (warlock).  I've decided to actualy MAKE my Book of Shadows (my pact boon).  I'll be doing it art-book style from an old book I had in crafting supplies, convienantly titled Magic Made Easy. lol  It's a discarded library book, which further goes with my character's background.  Maybe I'll write some stories later of her adventures and share them with you.  We'll see, but I will definately keep you updated on the progress of my book! :)  So far I've copy/pasted some of the text I'll need handy from the downloadable version of the Players Handbook and printed it out to paste into my book.  (Our family owns two hard copies of it and this is for private use only so I should be okay.) 

In addition, an online friend is getting married very soon.  I'm working on some crochet hearts that she's requested so her online crew can be represented at her wedding.  :)  I've made three so far.  I'm going to see if I can make 3-9 more and mail them out by Saturday.

So that's what's going on currently.  There's a lot to do and I hope to get back to my regular schedule again.  That's all the time I have for now, so TTFN.

P.S. My husband got a temp job yesterday.  Yahoo!