Ah, this is more like…

Ah, this is more like it. Slept in 'til a luxurious 7 a.m. Woke rested. Made tea and ate half a raisin roll as I worked my way through the backlog of e-mail. Cleared up in between, so that the now, at 10, only my bedroom is still a mess -- and I can close the door on that. :-) My desk is much clearer. I only have 8 e-mails left. Paul and Marcia will be here shortly to help me grab the rest of my stuff from Kevin's, and then I'll be done with that apartment entirely. I decided that instead of paying off debt as quickly as possible to put a little more money into savings, and now I feel better having a little more buffer, even if it isn't necessarily the most fiscally wise move. Life is just starting to feel under control again, y'know?

My main quandaries right now involve travel. Should I go to Chicago to celebrate my birthday or have Kevin come here? (This is dependent on when/if Elissa comes to visit, so I should call her). Should I go to the Bay Area in early August -- I'll have the time between semesters, but wouldn't I be more productive if I stayed here? And remember, there's another trip to Chicago in early September for Chicago WorldCon...and I may be visiting my folks in late September. Lots of plane tickets (though I'm not paying for all of them, and the ones that I am paying for are mostly tax-deductible). I guess the first thing to do is talk to Elissa. Lemme put it on the list, or it'll never get done. :-)

Lots of other good stuff going on, y'know. I think I didn't mention that when I came back from Chicago, my first copy of Aqua Erotica was sitting on my desk. Woohoo! It's lovely, a small, silky little book. It feels nice to the touch, y'know? I skimmed through it quickly, and didn't find any glaring typos (though there are almost certainly a few buried somewhere -- you miss one, and then they breed, I tell ya...), and the stories are better than I remembered. Somehow a month or so ago I started getting anxious that maybe they weren't that good, that this was going to be a huge flop and it would be my fault for not picking good stories -- but as I read through it, I relaxed. I think they're pretty darn good, anyway. We'll see what the reviewers/critics think.

And I'm doing an interview with Nalo Hopkinson for the first month of Strange Horizons! Very cool! Nalo is such a smart, articulate, cool, funny, sexy person (though I'm not sure I can get all of that across in the interview). Have you guys read her books? If you have, any questions you'd like me to ask her? One of my tasks for this weekend is to send her an initial list of questions.

Well, I should go dry off my hair (I just got out of the shower) and put some dishes in the dishwasher. There's still plenty to do today, but hey -- we progress! That's what matters, right?