I’m not sure how a week…

I'm not sure how a week went by, and I think it may be even longer since I posted a personal entry. Things are going well here, but just very tightly scheduled. Also, I spent two days watching all of season 2 of Downton Abbey (free access expires shortly on the Masterpiece Theatre website), so that may have had something to do with it. Is it bad that I identify with Lady Mary? Hmm...

Also, I finished Maggie Stiefvater's Linger last night, book 2 of the the Wolves of Mercy Falls, and now don't really want to do anything else but read the conclusion to her trilogy. Can I say again how much I ADORE her cover art? Gorgeous.

Hmm...I think I should be keeping a list of covers I adore, so that I can show them to Jack Kotz, so he has them in mind when he's designing the cover for Demimonde. (Oh, even better than a list, a Pinterest board. Started.) Hey, I have an illustrator. So cool.

Other than that, the past week has mostly been a blur of teaching, exercising, writing, eating, and socializing. I got hooked on Fitocracy, and have been trying to do a half hour to an hour workout every day. I did four days in a row last week, and then fell off the wagon this weekend, although I think lots of housecleaning should count for something, esp. since my leg and arm muscles are still quite sore. Back to the treadmill and weights today, though.

I met Lori and Angeli for Ethiopian food and writing on Thursday, which started me on a new story, just a quick little thing I'm trying to write for the Best Erotic Romance anthology -- I haven't been writing things for anthologies lately, but this call caught my attention, just because I've never actually tried to write a romance before. Not sure if this one qualifies, but I'm having fun with it. Saturday morning I went out to Naperville with the kids for a playdate and to see the house that Huzefa and Fatema are thinking of buying; they're in negotiations now and I hope it works out for them. It's a lovely Craftsman. Saturday night, I went to Tamale Hut on 22nd (on the way to Target! good to know!) to meet Simone and hear Lori do a reading of an excellent new story. Fun.

And then yesterday, we hosted several couples with their kids for a potluck dinner party. It was mostly mathematicians (Kev's colleagues), plus a few of my friends. Somehow it turned out that almost everyone who wasn't a mathematician was a doctor. I'm pretty sure I was the lowest-earning person in the room, possibly by a lot. Oh well. The house looked nice (we did some mad cleaning earlier in the day) and there was way too much delicious food, so I can't actually complain. :-) My life is grand, if hectic.

I would take it easier this coming week, except that I have to hustle to get some admin work done for Asian American Studies' upcoming Knowledge Bowl event, and this week is the AWP conference (associated creative writing programs). At least I'm lucky that it's in Chicago this year, so I don't have to fly out for it. Lori has me on her panel on popular fiction Saturday morning -- other than that, I'm attending several other panels between Wed and Sat, and I want to organize a few DesiLit meet-ups during the event. That's what I'll be working on this afternoon, so expect to see more on that soon.

Whew. Okay, better move. Children to dress and feed, and all of us to take to school. I'm supposed to meet with two students who are unhappy with their paper grades before my first class (they get to revise them, so it's not so miserable as it might otherwise be), so I'd best get going. I'll talk to you soon -- next week should be quieter. :-)

And here's a happy note to end on: the Downtown Abbey / Academia crossover:

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