Due to a string of stunning coincidences, I ended up walking into work this morning with a Starbucks coffee of a more-than-five-word name* in one hand and my dry cleaning in the other.**

Yes. I picked up my dry cleaning on the way to work. I am a person who now has dry cleaning and walks with it industriously down busy downtown streets, slurping her fancy latte as she goes.

Today, I am a hilarious New York chick-lit stereotype. :D

*Insomnia! Slept a little late! Had to pick something up on the way in!
**I am reporting in the House twice this week and reporting a committee the day after those! My jacket smelled! It's dry clean only, and if I bring it here and leave it here, that's one less thing to worry about in the morning tomorrow!

Get your first annual pension statement in the mail, which includes your early and normal retirement dates and what your pension would be (barring apocalypse) on this salary, if you retire then.

The date for the normal one is May 2047.

(Ohgodstop I'm only 26. >.<)

(And first off, thank you for the people who dropped nice notes in the comments of the last post. :) )

Things that bugged me today:

The guy driving the rusting-out SUV with the licence plate GLBLWRMR. Screw you, buddy.

The still-pervasive idea that by not exposing someone to an idea in the media or through official/parental channels (and we're talking stuff like smoking, drinking, sex, etc. etc.) people will not do those things out of some pure, unstained ignorance. I don't know why anyone thinks that works. The television didn't make your child pick up that cigarette, they chose. Because people choose, even when they're young, and then it is for them to live with those choices or make new ones.

There is a distressing lack of sunshine in my life that needs to be addressed.


Things that made me happy today:

The eleven (!) hours of sleep I got last night after some serious insomnia.

That even though work remains like having rocks continuously piled upon you as you vainly try to complete the last rocks (er, tasks. Whatever), several of the rocks were shorter and smaller and more easily accomplished today than we had expected them to be. And that means my rock-shoveling tomorrow and Friday will be vastly lighter. Mmmm. :)

The sheer volume of anonymously laid-out snacks on the signout desk at work. There were Timbits in the morning and *insert awed tone* Tickleberry's cherries in the afternoon. Tickleberry's! I usually don't get those more than once a year! *glee*

That my hand is fussing still (I strained it badly last Tuesday; see above re: work and many rocks) but appears to be recovering every day, and it's not bad enough today to stop me from doing some revising.

My African violet is in full bloom, and it's beautiful.

My new tiny work teapot (with matching teacup), which holds about two-three cups of loffly tea.

The Marco Polo from Mariage Freres that dolphin__girl brought me back from Paris for Christmas, which I put in my tiny teapot.

The way the tea leaves curled open in my cup.

The smell of my Marco Polo, which I just sat and smelled for ten minutes or so. Luckily I work with tea people and this was not taken as superlatively weird.

Really, a good cup of tea counts for a lot in my day.

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I think we know which side's winning. :)

GOOD!

Nice busy day at work today.

BAD!

...most of which I spent dizzy and feverish.

GOOD!

Luckily, I did have a prescription for Naproxen and a nasal spray that is supposed to help clear up the sinusitis, and the Naproxen works; I think this is the first time in several weeks that my head hasn't hurt. And yes, I mean nonstop. One can apparently get used to a thing.

BAD!

Pity I didn't think of filling that prescription last week, when I got it. :p

GOOD!

At least I have a drug plan now for all the Getting Sick I've been doing since November.

BAD!

Why am I getting sick so much since November?

Bonus GOOD!

Even though I am dizzy/sick, in my humble opinion I was superlatively hot today (grey tights + knee-length officey skirt + black leather jacket + blue beret and handwarmers I made myself = really pretty hot, actually).

Bonus BAD!

I tried on the third-done sweater I have been working on for a month last night and the armholes are halfway down my boobs. Apparently this pattern Makes Assumptions About You based on your bust size. I may have to rip the whole thing and restart. >.<

Maybe tomorrow I'll be reconciled to that, but right now? Gah.

...oh, Bonus! BONUS! GOOD!

I bought my Worldcon membership!

February 4, 2009 Progress Notes:

"Sugar"

Words today: 2200.
Words total: 27,550.
Reason for stopping: I am only still going because there is nothing else to do with my evening except writing, and it occurred to me that maybe I could have a bath instead. This is called the Having No Life method of literary production.

Books in progress: Robert Graves, The Long Week-end; Claudia Dey, Stunt.
The glamour: Dayjobbery, a crit, bit of Ideo work, dishes, calumny.

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I am pleased to report that the scene that would not die has been hunted to its lair and slaughtered like the pig it is. Pork tonight at the Casa, my fine little scene. :p

We located a few fabulous things at the Dayjob today, foremost of which was the record of the first debate of Parliament in 1946* (we think they were in recess for a bunch of 1945 due to an election). The volume in which this is located is long and large, folio-bound, floppy, with those gorgeous uneven edges on the paper. The type is old-school typewriter Courier, double-spaced, the kind they show you in noir movies. Parliament that year opened with a speech about how they all expected the Pacific theatre to take longer, and how it was cut short by 'the miracle of the atom'.

I petted this book a lot. Living history, people. It is completely effing wondrous.

*We have some 1944 too, but I haven't had a chance to sit down with it and page through.

November 26, 2008 Progress Notes:

"Sugar"

Words today: 600.
Words total: 2950.
Reason for stopping: It's 12:30 and I should be bedwards.

Books in progress: Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep; Robert Graves, The Long Week-end.
The glamour: Dayjobbery and more dayjobbery and a trip to Canadian Tire after work to get some pots for my little plants at work. I should have been at a tenants' association meeting too, but I just wasn't up to it.

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I admit to picking up my Graves book out of both excitement for having it (true fact: I unwrapped it from the Amazon box in the middle of a very fancy Yorkville men's clothing store while waiting for my dad to finish getting his coat fitted, during the great Family Coat-Buying Extravaganza of Saturday [because both my parents needed coats too, so we made a day with brunch out of it], because I could not wait until I got home) and a certain fatigue with the Vinge. A Fire Upon the Deep is a cool book full of fabulous concepts and good writing, but it's about one group of people going to rescue another. Very slowly. I have reached a bit of an "are we there yet?" point with it.

We are not there yet. I'm putting it down for a bit until I stop being tempted to skip ahead to There.

Luckily, the Robert Graves book is both perfectly what I needed in terms of research (read: already giving me ideas) and, while treating the subject matter appropriately, occasionally wittily hilarious. I will be keeping my eye out for other sources, but. I think this one is going to get leaned on hard.

November 3, 2008 Progress Notes:

"Sugar"

Words today: 250.
Words total: 2350.
Reason for stopping: A page is what I expected out of myself, and a page is what I got.
Munchies: Mandarin oranges and cottage cheese.

Books in progress: Geoff Ryman, The Child Garden.
The glamour: Despite my avowed love of sleeping in, I really do prefer a 9:30-5:30 day to the 11-7 version. I got home and it was dark. This is suboptimal.

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News! stillsostrange signed a three-book deal with Orbit, and you should each and every one of you go throw confetti and cute puppies at her! Go!

That is all from this working stiff!

Two more, because they love to wait until just after I've done an announcements post:

The autumn issue of Goblin Fruit is live! And contains my "Going Back", which I am willing to tell you was written in reply to Theodora Goss's "Pip and the Fairies".

It also contains poetry from sovay, kythiaranos, samhenderson, bachsoprano, seajules, grayrose76, csecooney, Jacqueline West, Ursula Whitcher, Marigny Michel, Marlo Dianne, Joshua Gage, Clare Walker, Susan Moorhead, Kristine Ong Muslim, Corey Mesler, and Rosalind Casey. So really, it's replete with awesome and you should go read it.

Secondly, another review of Clockwork Phoenix from bibliogramma, along with three other Norilana titles:

And finally, an annual themed anthology series devoted to “fantastic literature” (or literary fantasy, whichever you prefer): “works that sidestep expectations in beautiful and unsettling ways, that surprise with their settings and startle with the manner in which they cross genre boundaries, that aren't afraid to experiment with storytelling techniques, and yet seamlessly blend form with meaningful function.” Authors such as Tanith Lee, Ekaterina Sedia, Catherynne Valente, Leah Bobet, Marie Brennan, Vandana Singh, Cat Sparks and John Grant deliver cutting-edge fantasy. Again, I found the anthology a bit uneven, but with more than enough interesting material to justify the purchase, and I’ll be checking out the next volume of this anthology.

ETA: Thirdly, slushmaster reviews "Sonnets Made of Wood", all the way back from the December 2004 issue of Realms of Fantasy, as part of his RoF Retrospectives project.

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And in closing, the Dayjob Snack Update, Day Four: Portuguese custard tarts. Because I know you were interested. *g*

I was going to take the afternoon off today, as the whole department at the Temp!Dayjob was heading out to a trade show and I really, really, had no work to do. But about half an hour before I planned to leave, my temp agent person called me and let me know that she'd inquired with HR about an end date for my contract. HR said: "well, we have this e-mail right here that says they're caught up, so how's today?"

And that, gentle readers, is how I got not only the afternoon but the next week and a half off work. *g* That being, all the time until the start date for PermanentAwesome!Job arrives (the sixth).

I have stocked the fridge, and I plan to cuddle intimately with my novel draft and my arts grant before a fireplace, atop a bearskin rug. There might be saxophones.

The bathroom will be cleaned.

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The first afternoon of Surprise Week Off! was mostly spent inspecting every shoe store on all of Queen Street for shoes to wear to the sister's wedding (see previous bitching re: shoes). After a three-hour tour (heh), I went back and scooped up these. I think that'll be the highest heel I've ever owned, and I have to say my pocketbook, it is hurting, but they were actually the closest thing going to what I want that actually existed in a size that fit comfortably. I am content with my loot, mostly because I am not going through the torture that is shoe-shopping until at least the next calendar year. It's all skull boots and excessively priced wedge heels from here on out.

I think I will spend the first evening of Surprise Week Off! in cook-ahead. We can't have the kitchen losing its apocalypse rating, after all.

*goes to start up the rosemary white bean soup*

*barefoot*

August 22, 2008 Progress Notes:

Above

Pages today: 38.
Pages total: 169/264.

169 / 264 (64.0%)

Reason for stopping: It is muggy out and I was getting et by mosquitoes (who come to suck your blood, leave you there all alone, just skin and bone).

Munchies: Chocolate cake, iffy red wine.
Books in progress: Michael Moorcock, Behold the Man.
The glamour: Today was glamour central. I spent most of it hanging scarves on little hangers.

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I was planning on tonight being an In Night (I have discovered that dayjobbing means there is no pleasure like the In Night, especially when your bathroom looks like mine right now) but I got a call involving forgotten keys and rescue around 8:30. So while I was out performing the rescuing, I decided to go to Just Desserts for cake and middling red wine and work on the book.

As is traditional, I bought the dessert and the book put out. :p

That isn't all tonight, though. About a dozen pages are from the bits and snatches I get done on the morning commute, if I deem myself awake enough to operate heavy machinery or revisions. I don't do as well on the subway, though; I can't let go of the time. So I might have to go over those pages again, or extra hard, when I put all this into the computer for the second draft.

The To Do List isn't hugely onerous this weekend. Or it's things that mean waiting, like...canning pears, say. I'm hoping for another 20 pages or so on Sunday.


Tangential to all this, tomorrow is my last shift at bakkaphoenix. Yes, this sucks. If you're inclined and local, drop by and keep company, because I'm already missing it.