Day in the Life of an Idiot

 Last night's class was one of the best I've had so far. Whatever ice was left to break finally did and we had the kind of freeform, cooperative overlapping discussion that I usually achieve WAY earlier than session 8 of 12. But, I'll take it. 

I'm not sure what made everything snap into place. Maybe it was the subject (the dreaded middle,) the pre-class discussion about the business of writing, or my own admission that I don't always know what to do with middles, myself, since I'm currently stuck in one, but I sure hope that the magic stays with me. Today I'm headed down, in-person, to a student's afterschool/late day program (starts at 3:15) to talk to a bunch of GLBTQIA+ students about being queer and being an author. We might try to do some writing exercise around fan fiction, but I currently have nothing planned and I need to leave in an hour.

I mean, I've had a lot of time to think about this? But, I'm also not getting paid so my feeling is, "Meh, we'll see what occurs to me on the spot?" Which is probably dangerous, but, again, the only person I will truly disappoint if I am a failure is my Loft student. (Which maybe sounds morose? But I find this attitude to be very freeing? Like, if I don't worry about sucking, I tend to actually perform very well under pressure? Of course, maybe I just jinxed myself by making this meta/thinking about how it works out loud? I guess we'll see.)

The other news is that Shawn is reading my lesbians in space novel (which is stuck in the dreaded middle and has been for a long time) and she's already given me some great advice. I was able to write a couple hundred words on it today already and, more importantly, the writing feels... natural? Comfy? The way it's supposed to.

So, that's also nice.

Now, if only I could get back into writing my own fan fic, too, things would be golden. I've left poor Ichigo and Aizen hanging for some time. Byakuya and Renji have been languishing for years.

 First of all, I've had a number of people ask me: yes, Mason's got his ROG back thanks to a quick order of a replacement cord. In fact, he's currently sitting across from me voice chatting with his friend Gray as they play Portal 2 together. 

Meanwhile, this is how I'm typing.



It may not be clear, but my Mac is missing a few keys. It's been without an "s" and a "d" for some time, but I'd be able to tap over the empty space and still get what I needed. But, the other night a bunch of keys on that row stopped working. I could bang on them as hard as I wanted and nothing happened. So, I starting trying to clean out the gunk i figured must be underneath the keys. I was getting some good stuff out, too! But... uh, then... yeah, let's just say I should NOT be allowed to poke at my computer with any kind of implement including a frozen turkey.

The keyboard, though?  I kind of dig it. First of all, it's the keyboard I "grew up" on (I'm actually old enough to have learned to type on a TYPEWRITER). But, the clickity-clacking of this baby? I'm into it!  I might be wrong, but I feel like I type faster.

It's just kind of physically awkward.

But, for now, it's good enough.

Anyway, sorry for not keeping everyone abreast of things. Mostly, it's been snowing here and I've been shoveling... I mean, the excitement is palpable, am I right?  I honestly don't know what I've been doing with my time--oh, let's see, I finished my critiquing/mentorship with my Broad Universe Canadian. We're going to be having our last Skype session on Wednesday, coming up.  After that, I'm going to throw myself into finishing up my apocalypse story, and then get working getting the novel together for Cheryl at Wizard Tower Press. Mason and I are going to spend tonight finishing up PSEO application stuff. 

So, yeah, it's like that.

Here's a picture of my kitty playing with his favorite mousie game on the iPad. He'll actually ask for it by coming up to the iPad and pawing at it. He'll do that and then look at me, like, "Hooman, do the thing to make the mouse come?"

 On social media the other day, I came across someone asking their friends a sort of ubiquitous question, which is: "What book changed your life?"

I've been thinking about that, as you do, over the last few days.  There are a lot of books I've loved throughout my life, but life-changing? That's a pretty tall order, don't you think?  A short story made me gay. Or rather, "A World Well Lost" by Theodore Sturgeon made me consider the fact that maybe gay was another possibility and then, you know, nature did the rest.  But, a life-changing book?

Today, I decided my answer would be Beard on Bread by James Beard. I can say for a fact that after reading that book, my life profoundly changed.  Before I read Beard on Bread, all my yeast breads sucked so much that my family used to call them "Lyda's lead bread." That book was magical. I don't even know that it had anything all that profound to say, but once I read it, I totally understood how yeast was supposed to work (and how to tell if it wasn't working.)

So there you go. My life-changer.  How about you? Do you have a book that changed your life?

 Yesterday, I had to work.  For the entire month of February, actually, I'll be working fairly regularly at the Shoreview branch of the Ramsey County Library.  Shoreview just had a huge remodel, which is good in a lot of ways. The old place... well, I think I wrote about it here before.  I used to actively avoid working there, because once I was call to the carpet for "having too much fun." Seriously. I was told to stop enjoying myself--(I was listening to music and dancing a little in the stacks.)  I mean, maybe it was distracting because I'M JUST THAT AWESOME, but, seriously, I felt like the joy was sucked out of me.

After that, I decided that that particular branch was haunted by Dementors.  Any time my boss called to ask me to work there, I had to wash my hair or pretty anyTHING else.

But the new building has a lot of windows and sunshine and that has seemed to, so far, kept the Dementors at bay.  

It helps, too, that there's a new person in charge.  No more Umbridge.  (The previous branch head had a very shrill 'no problem' that had a passive-agressive subtext : "YOU SCREWED UP!" She didn't exactly have the pink kitten sweaters, but she did have that sweet smile that was totally hiding pointed teeth, if you know what I mean.)  So, I think I should be fine.  I'm a little bummed because the schedule I agreed to interfere with some of my favorite socializing, but mama needs a new pair of shoes, as we say around here.  We're going to need a new car sooner rather than later and so we need to put some money in the bank so that can happen BEFORE the emergency break-down.

I also ran into David Lenander, which was a nice surprise.  I think that David makes about four fandom-friends that I've run into at various library jobs.  In some ways, I'm surprised I don't see more.  Then, again, my hours and locations are very random and sparse, so maybe it's more impressive than it seems.

This morning I called my Senators.... again.  Lines were swamped, but I was able to leave a message with Franken's office... and went off-script to enthuse to him about how happy I am to see him being fierce. I accidentally signed off with "Love ya!" Oops. On the other hand, my goofy message probably more enjoyable than whatever hate mail he might be getting.  

Klobuchar was nothing but a busy signal, so I sent a fax. (As I was telling a friend, I kind of adore how quickly people are coming up with work-arounds to Republicans turning off their phones and/or busy signals. I'm not accusing Klobuchar of blocking calls--she is a Democrat after all--but it's still a good solution when I can't get through.) The nice thing about that was that there was no way to go off-script and I was able to remind her that it doesn't matter if we win. It's not about winning any more, it's about being seen STANDING UP.  

Though it was funny. While I was composing the letter, I literally forgot the actual format of a written business letter. I had to look it up!  And, I'm old enough to remember actually taking CLASSES in how to compose business letters!!

Sheesh.

Meanwhile, right now, Shawn is testifying in front of a congressional committee..... in the Minnesota Senate.  And, technically, she's just giving a committee information about how government records are managed by the state archives, but when she left for work this morning she was nervous, to say the least.  I listened to her speech (twice) last night, and I'm sure she'll do great.  

I had plans to attend an airport protest on Friday, but I don't know if that's still on now that our attorney general has joined in declaring a stay on deportations, etc. I suspect people will still go. I mean, the Dump and his minions will keep pushing.  Like I told Klobuchar, it's our duty to keep pushing back.

No more Dementors.

I feel somewhat responsible for the snow that fell this morning.  I was out of coffee in the house and decided to 'turn that frown upside down!' by using that as an excuse to fetch a fancy latte for me and muffins for my family.  At the coffee shop, I was talking to the barista about the weather (like you do in Minnesota) and I said, "It's raining, but I wish it would snow, instead."  Everyone in the coffee shop looked at me like I'd sprouted a second head.  Thing is, it's only February.  The warm is nice, but it's not natural.  More than that, it's going to break our hearts when it does start snowing again, because March hasn't even started yet!

Here on Sunday evening, I can say I've had a pretty good weekend.  

Mason had the day off on Friday, and so we ended up taking a friend of his Christy out to lunch and Japanese candy shopping at United Noodle.  Then, she came over to ours for a little otaku bonding, aka watching anime on our TV in the basement.  The funniest interaction I overheard was this:

C: Um, so... would you be willing to watch dubbed?
M: Oh. In English. Um, yeah, sure, I guess.
C: A true otaku friend! Someone who prefers sub, who will watch dub with you!

Meanwhile, upstairs, I was thinking: Man, I don't know if I like anyone THAT much.

That same night, I had an invitation to a board gaming night at a friend's house. Shawn and Mason were also invited, but they are true introverts and had filled up on their people quotients.  Mason was pooped from having entertained Christy, and Shawn has been having to deal with Swedes all week (guests to the Minnesota Historical Society, naturally, but Shawn has been required to do those dinner out with work colleagues things that tire her out).  So, I went to the party on my own, which was still a great deal of fun. I played <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cash-N-Guns-Second-Edition/dp/B00KU10OUU">Cash 'n Guns</a>, which was a tremendous amount of fun, and had also brought along a card game called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sushi-Go-Pick-Pass-Card/dp/B00J57VU44">Sushi-Go</a>, which Shawn had bought the family for Solstice, but none of us had figured out the rules.  The nice thing about bringing along a game you haven't played before to a party like that was that someone usually has played it and/or is willing to read through the rules and figure it out with/for you. It was a fairly fun game.  Low-key, I'd say.  Not like getting to point a foam gun at your former martial arts head instructor.  

Saturday was the insanely beautiful day here, and, so of course, I had to work.  It was one of my tiny 3 hour shifts, however, at North Saint Paul.  I really enjoy working there because not only is my shift super-short (3 hours, from noon to three,) but also so is the library.  It's so small that usually by the time someone turns in a book, we can have it back on the shelves within the hour.  There just aren't that many books (or patrons.) Plus, I've done so many shifts for them there that the regular patrons sort of know me and the staff trusts me enough to set me up on the desk or wherever and get their other, backlogged work done.  Which makes me feel useful.  

Today, I just didn't feel like doing much, and I absolutely managed it.  I mean, I did some basic maintenance things like taking out the garbage and doing the dishes, but a lot of they day was spent like a Sunday should be, IMHO: relaxing. I finished a book that is up for the PKD award, (R)evolution by PJ Manney, which I'll have plenty to say about on Tuesday, when my review goes up on BitterEmpire.  (Not a good book, IMHO. Actually, I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been a fail, because there is much fail in this book.)  Last night, I started Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong.  I can no longer remember which award that one was up for, but I had to read it because of the title.  I should probably be reading either of the last two PKD nominees: Brenda Cooper's Edge of Dark or Windswept by Adam Rakunas.  I will say I've hesitated to rush out to get Cooper's book.  I was not overly fond of Creative Fire, the first book in the series that this new one continues.  I just bought Windswept for my Kindle, so we'll see if that one is any good.

I have to say the PKD has been a mixed bag this year.  I liked both Archangel and After the Saucers Landed quite a bit, but the rest have been a really mixed bag (including one serious stinker.)  I feel like last year the quality was consistently much higher.  Out of the 5 books I read (I skipped the short story collection), all of them were at LEAST more than passably entertaining and well written, if not knock-your-socks-off amazing like Memory of Water, Elysium and Book of the Unnamed Midwife.

There are new judges every year, and I did a little research into the two groups (not hard, as their names are published on the PKD awards page.)  Out of the five judges, one was a woman... The previous year, the year with all the books I found fantastic?  THREE out of the five were women (and women I know and respect like Ellen Klages and Laura J. Mixon.)  

 Mercury's backwardness* continues to affect my household.

Last night, Mason was hit by a terrible bout of insomnia.  Normally, if he can function at ALL, we send him off to school.  Today?  We decided to let him catch up with his sleep.  The semester is almost over and it's the day after a long weekend. He should be fine to catch up, particularly once he's gotten a decent amount of sleep.  

Consequentially, the whole household was delayed getting out the door.  Normally, this makes me a little cranky, if only because, even without a regular job, it still messes up my routine.  Today, however, I was glad for it, because I've been meaning to get to the bank to finish off a transaction that will FINALLY finish setting up my account on ACX and I can get the whole ball rolling with my voice actor friend, Jack, and the audible versions of my AngeLINK series.  We dawdled.  I bought coffee.  I waited patiently through traffic lights, drove the speed limit....

AND THE DANG BANK ISN'T OPEN UNTIL 9 AM.

Even after all that noodling around, I still ended up having to go home for a half hour before heading back out.  Again, none of this is fatal, but gosh darn it, it's irritating.

On the other hand, yesterday was extremely pleasant.  For any overseas friends reading this, yesterday was what you would call a bank holiday here in the U.S.:  Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  Schools were closed, as were all federal businesses.  Shawn had the day off work.

Since it was also supposed to be a bazillion degrees below zero (the scientific term), we decided to make the day a game day.  It would have been also a pajama day, but at 8:30 am our doorbell rang.  It was our neighbor, Ruthie, whose car wouldn't start. She needed a jump.  After running upstairs and throwing on some jeans, I pulled the car around and waited while they got it going.  (Ruthie is a nurse and doesn't get holidays like the rest of us and had a shift starting at 9 am.) But, outside of that tiny bit of excitement, we spent the day quietly.  We played two games of Munchkin (we have a lot of sets and we found a fun combo in Apocalypse and Mission Impossible/Spy,) and a seriously cut throat game of Monopoly.  I posted a picture of our game board on Facebook because by the end the board was RED with hotels. Ever since the time I quietly became the slumlord of Mediterranean/Baltic and brought my fellow gamers to their knees with the crushing rent of those awful properties with massive hotels on them, Mason has become obsessed with building on his monopolies. So, it was a fun game.  I actually survived paying $750 in rent. TWICE.

It was a good day, honestly.  I've been doing a lot of stamping, as I call my stamp collecting.  I'm still baffled as to why I find this activity fun.  But, it's very companionable, since Shawn will often sit next to me at the dinning room table, sewing together strips of cloth for the rugs/loom, and we will just hang out, chat, or watch/listen to a show.  She's been watching some British show (some soapy thing, I can't remember the name of it ATM)  that I've been experiencing mostly as an audible book, as it were, since it's too much trouble to try to watch and look through my stamps.  But, that's pleasant, too. Very old-timey, in a way.  Like listening to a radio play.   

Okay, well, it's just turned 9 am.  I should zip off and see if I can get my business sorted at the bank.  See you all later!


*In case you're wondering, as I often do, when will this madness end? The answer is:  Mercury goes direct on the 25th.

 Woke last night to sound of thunder/How far off, I sat and wondered....

Actually, I woke this morning to thunder and lightning, which was pretty spectacular, though mostly the rain has been a steady pitter-pat/drizzle instead of the wild storm the thunder seemed to promise. I have a few places I need to go in the rain, but not many so I'd say this is a pretty good start to my birthday week.  

Alas, my birthday this year is being overshadowed by the fact that we're having a lot of guests (some from overseas) this year for Thanksgiving, which Shawn keeps a running count down of the days until.  I keep saying, hey, this week, we should be counting down until my birthday! (Three days in case you're wondering.  Nov. 18.) 

Plus, since we fixed up the space for the loom in the basement, we've been working on making the other half of that downstairs area into a LEGO repository/gaming space for Mason.  We have actually removed MOST of the LEGO models from our dining room and the next big push is going to be to move the sorted and unsorted LEGO pieces downstairs as well.  But, that was all work that Shawn and Mason did this weekend.  

My jobs involve re-painting parts of the kitchen that I'd started to shift to green (we're going back to black, until Shawn finds the exact right match to the color she wants.)  My other big job is going to be to take the rag rugs to the laundromat.  I took a couple on Friday and I'm going to take a few more today after my chiropractic appointment at 10:15 am.

Speaking of, my shoulder pain is down to mostly a dull ache, which I'm considering a win.  I'm going to keep the rest of my chiro appointments in the hopes that they're the difference to making me ALL better.  Considering how sore I was after working five hours yesterday at Maplewood, the problem clearly isn't SOLVED. I still don't know what I did. I should not have this much problem from... sleeping.  I mean, I know our mattress is old and I'm old, but dang.

The library called twice just now to try to get me in for more hours.  I had to say no to both.  I kind of hate that.  But, Shawn has blocked off much of December with notes that say "no library," so I'm pretty sure my boss is starting to think I really don't want to work at all in December. I think I'm scheduled for all of two days.  Oops.  On the other hand, this is why I will be a sub for the rest of my life and never take a full-time position.  I LIKE the flexibility of being able to say no (and to say yes spontaneously, too.) I once showed up to work covered in blue paint because they were so desperate for a sub that they said, "JUST COME NOW PLEASE" so I stowed away the stuff I was working on (the downstairs bathroom) and showed up.  I like being able to be that person, too, though I did have to say no to the other one today because I would like to keep my chiropractic appointment, like I said, and they really needed someone to start at 10 am.  Ah, well.  Flexible employee is flexible.  :-)

Okay, well, I should pack up some rugs and other things to take with me to the laundromat.  

God my life is exciting.  Thank goodness I write this stuff down for posterity.   

 Yeah, okay, I don't think 2015 has started off very... organized, given that today is the first day I thought to sit down to write to y'all.

I blame my dreams.  Had a nightmare that I just couldn't shake last night.  I woke up a couple time from it, thinking, "Damn, glad that's over," only to fall asleep and go right back to it.  It was a strange one.  You know that video that went viral several years ago about the woman who was supposedly living in some guy's cabinet?  A web cam supposedly caught her coming out at night to raid his fridge?

I think it's turned out that this is faked, but my dream was loosely based on something like this.  I dreamed my friend Naomi came over and showed me a picture she'd taken in one of her daughter's bedrooms.  It clearly showed someone lying under her daughter's bed.  The dream continued on where Naomi told me that they finally caught this guy and he'd been living with them, undetected for DECADES.  Okay, brain, here is where I should have stopped to consider the fact that Naomi hasn't even lived in their current house that long, but you know: dreams.  Anyway, it was super creepy, but I think because my subconscious decided this wasn't at MY house, but someone else's, it was OKAY TO KEEP GOING BACK.

No, brain, just NO.

Needless to say, I woke up a lot.

This was a bummer on many levels, not the least of which is that today is the day everyone goes back to school and work.  The alarm in our house went off at 5:30 A-f*cking-M and we all struggled awake, got lunches together, had breakfast, and bundled out the door into -22 degree F wind chills.

Damn you, Minnesota!

I will say, though, as I chatted up a storm on the way into school and work, the sky was beautiful. When I was a kid, I used to get up before the rest of the household on purpose.  I was a weird, emo kid, who happened to be a lark, so instead of being a normal teenager who stayed up too late, I got up too early and went for long walks while the coffee brewed.  The sky this morning was the color of those pre-dawn skies I loved.  It a "backlit" blue that so deep to be almost indigo.  It's that very odd, "the sun is about to rise" quality of the light that I adore most about it, I think, because its vaguely reminiscent of those deep blue Christmas lights shining in the dark.

Otherwise, I spent much of the day so far working the the Demon School novel.  I'm really making progress, though.  I've at least made one pass through the first 275 pages.  The book, currently, doesn't have many more pages than that, so there's actually still a lot to be written, alas.  BUT, I'm filling in some gaps and formatting everything to look the same.  I think, actually, I'll have a fairly decent draft at the end of this week to send out to my beta readers.  That'll give me next week to go through their comments, make corrections, additions and adjustments, before it goes back to my collaborator, Rachel, on the 15th.

This week I return to writing UnJust Cause, too.

It's going to be a busy 2015...

Now if I can just get more organized. 

Dang it.

Sorry that I haven't kept up with my blogging. Here is another MangaKast, though, if you're interested in Mason and my thoughts about the latest Bleach, Toriko, and Fairy Tail: mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/26-mason-and-lydas-inter-directional-adventures/

I think the problem has been work. Something happened at Roseville (someone quit unexpectedly? Got ill?) and they needed a reliable sub for two weeks running. I worked last Monday through Thursday, and this Tuesday through Thursday. PLUS, I had a pre-scheduled gig on Saturday for EIGHT hours at a different library (North Saint Paul.) So, I've been working a lot.

And then, today, John, the big circulation boss, says there's been a lot of mis-shelved books so he wants to quiz me. Would I please do a cart of fiction and non-fiction and set the books on their sides so he can check my work? No problem I say. I get nearly all the fiction right (one policy one I blew because I wasn't sure if all articles were skipped or just "the" so I mis-shelved a book that started "a".) Then came non-fiction... yeah, to be fair, out of fifty some books I only got five wrong, but that's kind of a lot for a library. What can I say? In my defense I normally don't try to shelve nearly as fast as I did today. I was feeling the pressure because I knew another person was covering my time on the desk and I felt responsible to get back as quickly as possible. So, you know... but *sigh* I'm not in any real trouble, but I still feel like a dope. I got a reminder of how things worked and I'm going to have to put little bookmarks in my work for a while so they can make sure I'm not messing up.

On the other hand, I work exactly once at a totally different library (Maplewood) in the entire month of October.

So, you know, not a lot of opportunity to screw up! Bonus!

But, you know, while I have to admit I messed up, I kind of doubt that the mis-shelving was down to me. I didn't actually do a whole lot of shelving the whole two weeks I worked there. Most of my time was on the desk or the phones. The first week I was there I did some new things like interlibrary loans and new book shelving, so...

Thing is, I like this job. I don't want to lose it.

But, so that's one major thing that's been happening: a whole lot of work. I nearly worked 40 hours this week, and I have to tell you, failed quizzes aside, I'm not terribly fond of the whole daily grind thing any more. Nothing I do at the library is terribly hard (with the exception of non-fiction, apparently), but you know, the ever day thing... yeah, I don't know how you people do it. It's... tiring. Also, I really, really need to paint our fence (which I "fixed" the other day), so I'd much rather be doing that. The fixed bit is in quotes because I very much did a "There I Fixed It" kind of solution. I just didn't want to have to go to Menards, so I made do with stuff we had around home. This meant making a "butt joint" with two shorter pieces for the spacer. I guess butt joints are a thing, but mine is... interesting. Still that whole fence is going to need to be replaced at some point so, really, this works for now.

Tonight is Wyrdsmiths, so I'm headed out in a bit. I also had a bunch of evening gigs this week, starting Monday--when I did the "Hobbit: Book v. Movie" panel at Common Good books. That was a small, intimate gathering, as we like to say, but lively none-the-less. I met another author who does a podcast with his kid, only his is a dad/daughter show called Generations Geek.

Then, on Tuesday night I had my first of many Japanese language classes through the Community Education program. It's going to be... interesting.  I'm feeling a bit old to be learning a new language, though I am motivated by... otaku.  I told Shawn that since my teacher said that I need to study for an hour a day that CLEARLY means I need to watch at least an hour of anime daily, right?  I'm pretty sure that's what it means.... 

Anyway, okay, I'm off to my writers' group.  I feel like a  loser writer, though, too, because thanks to work and my Japanese class i managed to miss a week of writing my Tate project.  

*sighs*

Today is a day of *sigh* apparently. 

But the podcast is fun.  Go listen to that.

We didn't get all the snow the rest of the country has had to deal with. In fact, as Eleanor and I were saying the other day, there's a werid part of us, as Minnesotans, that's a little disappointed when we don't get major storms. On the flip side, it's been gorgeously sunny here, so I'm REALLY not complaining.

In fact, right now, I feel very much like a snow princess. Mason has a half day off school and we just played outside. I love winter days like this. It's just cold enough to put a blush on your cheek, but warm enough that you sweat under your layers. There's something about this kind of day that, when I play outside in it, that makes me feel... healthy. Or, maybe just young again, because the hot/cold of outside winter play is VERY MUCH a feeling I remember as a child in Wisconsin.

And, there's just nothing quite like the quality and intensity of light that we get this time of year. It's BRIGHT. You can almost feel the vitamin D in each ray hitting the very little part of your skin that's actually exposed.

In other news, I may also feel kind of young again because I managed to really strain myself at kuk sool wan last night. As instructed, I attempted a one-handed cartwheel, and, considering my cartwheels (shaky at best) it should be not surprise that I fell on my butt. Twice. I actually left a bit grumpy and had to cheer myself by watching "Shaun the Sheep" claymation shorts (via NetFlix) with Mason and Shawn last night. (OMG the little chicks were CUTE.) I almost never leave kuk grumpy, but I think I was also starting to get the headache that dogged me much of today. (Hooray for [legal] drugs and sunshine.)

It's going to be a busy weekend for us. We're actually invited to a Super Bowl party, and, on Saturday, we have swim class as well as a spontaneous invitation for Mason to go hang out with friends at the Mall's amusement park. Personally, I loathe the Sprawl, but Mason LOVES going on rollercoasters and so when friends who can accompany him offer, it's difficult to say no, since it spares me from having to white-knuckle those rides.

I should be writing, but it's been one of those Fridays when fun things call stronger than writing. I guess I'll have to make it up by writing later tonight. I actually am looking forward to it because I'm really delving into a character that's been on the periphery of Ana's life in the previous Vampire Princess of St. Paul books. He's not based on any particular real person in my past, but he's from a different social class than most of Ana's friends and I'm trying to write honestly about class differences and how they affect relationships. It's nothing truly political or earth-shattering, but I'm not sure it's something a lot of teen romance books deal with (although I may be completely wrong there, not having read that many.) Anyway, it's keeping me interested, which is good since I have write it. :-)

See you on Monday!