Yesterday I worked until around 4, then Susan came by. We had dinner and exchanged gifts -- she got me the video of Persuasion and a game, Wise and Otherwise that looks like fun. :-) I got her a couple things, including "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas"...in Latin. Luckily, it has a glossary in back. Neither of us actually reads Latin. You may think this a rather weird present, but she seemed to like it.
I got e-mail from Karina saying she'd finally gotten and opened the ones I sent to her in Australia. Yeah! :-) Now I just need to exchange with Kevin and send Kirsten's to her in St. Paul, and I'll actually be done distributing presents. I think. I have to admit, I like spreading out Christmas like this...
This morning is to be spent putting my AE files in order, I think. Making sure I've done everything I needed to do. Sending out any rejections left hanging. Staring at the big maybe pile and hoping I can sort it out soon (still waiting on a few pieces by some sort of big-name authors). Just organizing. That's actually for the early morning -- by 8 or so I hope to be on campus, where I'll revise my syllabus. Then from 9:30 to lunch there's a WebCT training that I could probably skip and figure out on my own, but it'll be nice to see people and good to get a thorough formal training. It's a program that lets you manage your classes and communicate with them over the web; it's what the University here uses and I'm not familiar with it. This afternoon I finish whatever I didn't finish this morning.
Other projects for this weekend -- deal with any leftover student stuff from last semester. Sign up for a dance class. Ummm...I know there's more, but my mind is a blank. Oh, there are the groceries and laundry I still haven't taken care of. I suppose it's okay that I put off groceries, since I keep finding things I didn't know I was out of (my hair is like straw this morning, because I had to wash it without conditioner, which is bad enough in Oakland but fatal in Salt Lake's dryness).
So far, the early returns on _The Poet's Journey_ are favorable. :-) Neat. Susan has a pile of critique on it waiting for me, but I think I'm going to give myself another week or two to just enjoy having written it before I start trying to fix it. And then comes trying to sell it...
Okay, I'm procrastinating now. Make the tea, do the work, chat later. Yes, ma'am.
8 a.m. update. First, I wanted to give a note to NY folks:
Susie Bright of Best American Erotica 2000 will be hosting a reading at Tishman Hall at the New School in New York City on Feb 16th at 6:30pm. I'm informed that Marc Levy will be reading excerpts from my piece, "Fleeing Gods".
As for the morning, well, I didn't finish the work, of course, but I made a good start, I think. I'm going to put it aside for now and get ready to go to campus. Syllabus and WebCT, then I'll come back and try to finish the AE stuff this afternoon. Talk to you later...