But at least not having to do it this morning means that I've been able to be somewhat leisurely about my work. Instead of frantically trying to finish off a paper in the three hours I had between 6:30 and 9:30, I've been able to stay home until 1:30...which is four more hours, giving me the opportunity to alternate writing pages of the paper with reading chapters out of children's books and doing art. I'm making a stained glass panel for Roshani's Zoe; Roshani asked me for something that she can hang in the window near the baby's crib. So it's a large Z, in purple, surrounded by triangular pieces in cobalt blue, and those surrounded by triangular pieces in green. I can't really describe it very well, can I? I'll put up a photo when it's finished; I'm really pretty pleased with it. I'm sort of tempted to do matching ones for Roshani and Tom -- do Roshani's in rounded pieces, maybe in blue, red and purple, and Tom's in square pieces, in green and red and blue. Though those may have to wait until I get back from travelling...
Plans for the summer are firming up. I leave for Chicago next Thursday -- in the interim I have to finish up grading for the semester, finish this paper I'm working on, write two more, pack for the trip, pack up for the sublettor (he's a very nice Philosophy grad student), apply for one more grant (travel reimbursement), hopefully order some mugs and more t-shirts and bookmarks for SH, get my driver's license, and possibly set up the e-book stuff for SH. Oof! I think there's enough time. I think.
Speaking of SH, we've been having an amazing week. SF Weekly gave us a very positive review -- they're the sf news magazine run by the Sci-Fi Channel. As a result, yesterday was our highest day ever, and it looks like today is going to at least double that number. It's nuts! It'll be very interesting to see how many of these new visitors stay, but in the interim, it's a lot of fun watching the numbers just climb and climb. It's an excellent week at SH too, with a very solid review of a Ted Chiang story (by Greg Beatty, who I met at ICFA), a totally fun story, "Sittin' a Spell at Miz Love's", and a review by our own Chris Cobb of the newest Le Guin Earthsea book. A good time to get a horde of guests. Nice to have the place clean when people stop by. :-)
12:15. Hmm...an hour and a half yet -- can I finish this paper in time? The pressure builds. The anxiety grows. (Well, actually, it'll be fine. I just thought I'd introduce some spurious plot tension to excuse my avoiding my paper for a little longer with this journal...)
I did want to comment on something Marissa said today (and btw, I find it a little disturbing that I'm showing up in her dreams -- and even more disturbing that I appear to be causing anxiety in them...I'm not that scary, really I'm not. I'm always bewildered when people find me scary. I know Heather has told me I'm scary a couple of times, and I just don't get it at all. Not even a little bit. I am not scary. I am soft and fuzzy, a great big bundle of gushy Mary Anne-love). So M'ris was talking about people missing you when you don't post for a while, and how she finds that comforting. And it's funny, 'cause I was just thinking about that, 'cause on Monday night I wasn't feeling so good, and I got off the phone with Jed because I needed to just lie still and let Star Trek take my mind off my tummy for a while. And when I didn't post all day yesterday, he got worried about me, and called to make sure I was okay. And I know that if I didn't post for a week, I'd have a flood of e-mail, and probably a couple of phone calls. And by that point, I'd probably have coughed my lungs out on my bathroom floor or something, since I live alone with excellent sound-proofing, so my downstairs neighbors would be unlikely to notice anything amiss, but still, it's nice to know that y'all would try...