I can't find the battery charger for my camera. I have a terrible suspicion that I left it in the hotel room at ICFA. I can't remember if I've been anywhere else since that trip. I don't think so. I'm sure I can buy a recharger somewhere, but I just don't want to deal with it.
I also can't find the phone number of my sublettor. This would have me in a full-fledged panic, except that I know he's a grad student in the philosophy department, so as soon as it's a decent hour, I'm going to try calling them and coaxing his contact info out of them. I need to get him a key sometime today.
I spent three hours this morning on Strange Horizons checks and contracts -- they're out in the mail now. I always underestimate how long that process will take.
Oh, speaking of SH, you really ought to bop by and check out our special Author Focus week. It's Carol Emshwiller this time around -- we have an Emshwiller interview, an Emshwiller intro by Ursula K. LeGuin, an Emshwiller story, "The Circular Library of Stones", and an Emshwiller review by Leslie What (who did the cool photo collages for our *last* author focus, on Howard Waldrop). Emshwiller madness all around!
I spelled "Emshwiller" wrong about half the time in the previous paragaph, and had to go back and correct them. I wonder how many other times I've done that in the last month?
This morning - finish off final grades. Revise history paper, with thanks to David for the comments. Turn off cable modem and phone long-distance. Place order for mugs and t-shirts. Contact Eric (the sublettor). Fill out travel appl.
Then I go to campus. Return library books. Send a BW fax. Hand in travel appl. Hand in final grades. Copy and send SH flyers to WisCon. Set up mail forwarding.
At 11:30, head down to Sandy. Take driver's test. Home by 2:00. If I passed, spend the rest of the afternoon trying to get my license at the DMV. If I didn't pass, go home and work on Kathryn paper.
Depending on how dead I feel by dinnertime, I may either keep working on the paper (it's not actually due 'til Friday), or veg out with Paul and Marcia. I may be feeling too anxious to relax, though.
Tomorrow morning -- finish packing, leave for the aiport at 10:30.
I promise to make far fewer lists over the summer. I swear.
6:45. Well, for all of you waiting with bated breath, I'm proud to announce that I now have an official Utah driver's license. I feel like such a grown-up. It says 'Adult' on it and everything. :-)
Eric did also call, and now has a key. With any luck, his check will clear and all will be well. I feel a lot better now.
And perhaps most pleasing, I won a little literary award. The University of Utah gives the Scowcroft Prize (I think I'm spelling that right) to the the best literary fiction piece out of those submitted to them by the grad students. So basically it's a little departmental award. But it's judged by an outside reader, in a blind submission process, and he (Chuck Wachtel) picked me, so I get $100, and the story ("A Gentle Man") gets submitted to a national contest. It's not quite the Pulitzer, but it's a start.
Seriously, it's my first real literary award, and I'm pleased as punch about it. It's funny -- what with the anxiety over papers and Eric and the driver's test, I felt truly terrible earlier today. Exhausted and queasy and frustrated with the universe. And now I feel like the universe just patted me on the head and said "calm down, dear" and handed me a big red lollipop. Nice universe. Hope it still likes me tomorrow...