I Have No Idea What I'm Doing

So lost. So confused. So overwhelmed with stuff to learn and relearn!
Spent several hours in Tyria this weekend. I'd forgotten how times flies when you're adventuring. :)
I have a sticky note full of, well, notes (big surprise, although I suppose it's better than having a sticky note full of sticky!). Things to look up on the Wiki. Things to blog about. Things that I enjoyed being back in the game. Let's see if I can get it all down here.

First thing that bugged me: my new wallet. Sheesh. Why do we need all these different types of currency? It's absolutely mind-spinning. Sure, they put a lot of info in the mouse-over tips, but I really don't understand the need for them all. Whatever happened to good ol' good? Buy you everything from a pair of leather boots to a Level 80 Awesome-infused Greatsword of Magnificence +20. Simple.

I went to one special currency vendor in LA, the Laurel Charr, and the stuff you can buy from him is pretty cool. And by cool I mean Unidentified Dyes. Surely, you remember my dye obsession. :D
Speaking of which, can't believe there are new dyes and I don't have them! I'm talking about the Frost and Fire sets that were limited time only. *sniffle*

Griseldaj the Busty

Anyhoo, it just seems to be that there is too much to keep track off now. I felt boggled. So I just decided to make a new toon and spend some time being a true noob, not a noob in level 80 gear, and remind myself why I loved this game.

May I present: Griseldaj!

Okay, so the name is goofy. I was showing my friend the character creation screen and offered to let him name her. He said Griselda, but my finger slipped as I was pressing Enter and the "j" got added. Meh. Why not? She's just gonna get deleted in a few days anyway.
She's a Norn Mesmer. Norn cuz that zone is awesome. Mesmer cuz I needed to relearn my Mesmer skills. I enteretained myself doing the noob quests and listening to the glorious music of Hoelbrak. Remembered how to dodge. Remembered how to strafe and dodge. Remembered (belatedly) to keybind my heal skill to my third mouse button.

Once I got a feel for things, I got back on Spiral and puttered around doing some Hallowe'en events for a while. Went into Gendarran Fields to find a Mad King Door and noticed that I was missing a POI. Huh? Since when??? Well, apparently since the Sky Pirates update, so says the Wiki. Stood on some jumping buttons and whirling launch gears and made it to the Second Aetherblade Site. Continued through a fake wall, thanks to a tip from Logan the Huge, and murdered some Sky Pirates. Pretty cool. Found some strange chests that gave me stuff I don't know what to do with. But it was really exciting to find something new in a region I thought I had fully explored.

Some sort of pipe malfunction here!

After that, I went back to L.A. and went to the cooking station, really just with the intention of seeing if I could get rid of some mats. Well, turns out there are new recipes to be discovered. I had the ingredients to make some sort of Walnut Crumble Topping, but I forced myself to not try for the other new recipes. My backpack and bank are both stuffed with strange rewards that I don't know if I should be keeping or chucking. No room for food!

So to be honest, I'm not quite sure if I really had fun or not. I was absorbed in what I was doing, sure, but there was this niggling irritation. Maybe it was just that horrible noob feeling, that furrowed-brow-ache that you get when you know you're in over your head. Don't like that! I want to go back to feeling confident and powerful. RAWR!

I'm off to sleep, but here are some of my unanswered questions for another day:
What are the new recipes?
What are finishers?
What are scraps?
When and how do I unlock Guild Quests?
What are Arena Points?
Is there anyone I know still playing this game?