I know I don’t normally…

I know I don't normally say, "I can't talk about this very important thing here," 'cause it's annoying to readers. But there's some hard stuff going on right now, and I want a note of it for myself, later. So here it is, and feel free to skip the rest of this paragraph: there's an extremely upsetting thing going on right now with someone close to me that I can't talk about because it intrudes on their privacy, which may go on for the forseeable future, and which may well get worse. And I hate it, and it scares me, and there's absolutely nothing I can think of to do that might help. Mostly, I'm trying not to think about it, and to concentrate on all the far less important stuff I *can* get done, getting as much done as I can so that if I do have to drop everything and run to them, none of the pieces should drop far enough to shatter. So. Sorry for the obscurity.

Yesterday I got a lot done, mostly packing-wise. I have bought color-coded labels and stuck them on every finished box, which makes it all look vaguely professional and reassuring. I need more labels. I was talking to Thida about this the other day (she called, out of the blue, and it was very good to catch up with her while packing), and she extolled the virtues of her label-maker. Which made me think that I might very well love a label-maker. It sounds totally cheesy in some sense, but I suspect it would fill a need deep within my soul.

I also ran some errands downtown, including failing to re-register Kevin's car (said registration is so incredibly late that it turns out that now he needs to fill out and sign a special form before he can register it -- frustrating, because he's just registering it in order to sell it, because we have finally come to grips with the fact that it's utterly ridiculous for us to have two cars in the city when we almost never drive). I stopped at Borders and picked up two Scott Westerfeld books, sad that they didn't have Justine Larbalestier's book in paperback (maybe it's not out yet in paperback?), since I don't buy hardcovers. I also got a copy of TimeOut Chicago, because they're supposed to interview me late next week, and I wanted to familiarize myself with the magazine. They've got a nice little book section, with one reasonably long interview and three solid reviews. Plus a lovely free section where you can send in blurbs for your upcoming readings and the like. I need to remember to send in listings for both my launch party and the Kriti festival. Something else for the to-do list.

When I got home, I had to deal with some of the upsetting stuff noted above, and afterwards, I just went into failure-to-cope mode. I ended up after dinner hiding in bed with Scott's Uglies, which I enjoyed very much. Not a book that pulls punches. I'm looking forward to the sequel, especially since he left us with a cliffhanger in this one.

So far this morning, about three hours of packing, and now I'm going to settle down to do student stuff. I've read through a lot of it, but still have quite a few comments to write.

5 thoughts on “I know I don’t normally…”

  1. Wow, I can really relate to the “I can’t talk about it because it is secret” situation. I am in one of those, too, and I find it quite stressful. It does make me wish I could share it with SOMEONE, but there just isn’t anyone suitable where I wouldn’t be violating the affected person’s privacy.

    I do buy hardcovers from writers I really care about. I shall certainly buy _Bodies in Motion_ in hardcover if it is available that way, and I bought Nalo’s _The Salt Roads_ in hardcover.

  2. Mary Anne Mohanraj

    I don’t really have a moral objection to hardcovers — I just don’t like ’em. They take up too much space on my shelves, and I like the feel of a trade paperback better in my hands.

    But if anyone who does like hardcovers wants to buy BiM in hardcover, I certainly won’t complain — you can even go pre-order the hardcover on Amazon right now. 🙂

    When I stopped at Borders yesterday, I asked if they were planning on carrying it, and they said that they had five copies ordered. I don’t know if that’s a good number or not…

  3. I definitely recomment getting the labeler – Brother’s personal labeler are very good, very reliable and quite flexible. Some people much smarter than I about organization recommend labelers as one of the few almost life changing pieces of technology – sure they seem simple and basic – but functionally being able to quickly and easily and legibly label nearly anything is just incrediably useful and very satisfying. (just yesterday while cleaning Julia and I labeled a power adapter while we still knew what it went with.

    On the other matter – it is hard to have a concern for someone and not to be able to share it with others. If you need it and we can help in any small way don’t hesitate to call us.

    (and good luck on the car sale, while at times we miss having a car our budgets are certainly happier without the cars)

  4. Ah. It was that very ‘intruding on privacy’ issue that’s nearly stopped me completely from using my online journal. I’ve just got too much stuff going on with too many people (most of whom are very private about their lives on the net due to various and sundry stalker/online jerk issues).

    It gets frustrating sometimes. I empathize with your situation there and I hope everyone gets some positive outcome.

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