Had a really pleasant day today. Lunch with Shannon and Trey (mmm....gumbo. jalapeno-cheddar corn muffins. mmmm....), followed by hanging out with Roshani (whose class was cancelled) at home. Actually, in between that was a brief stop at the Daley Plaza farmer's market (every other Thursday, apparently), where I picked up some lovely cut flowers for the house (especially fond of the creamy white and deep wine peonies) and a few tiny herbs, which may or may not survive (Vietnamese coriander and Thai basil). Fun!
Had tea with Roshani while unpacking books. My books are almost almost almost all unpacked. We're so close...
Then ran up to Evanston (by el) to Stars Our Destination for signing with Nalo. A bunch of local Chicago sf writers stopped by -- Nnedi Okorafor (who we published at SH), Jennifer Stevenson, Robert Rogoff, Richard Chwedyk, Shannon Clark, Jennifer Whitson. I bet there are tons more sf/f writers in the area, but we have the nucleus of a nice group, I think. It was very kind of them all to come out and support us -- I think the other sf geeks wandering through the store were a bit bewildered by these two brown women. Though I did sell two books, so they weren't too bewildered! :-)
Alice Bentley, the owner of Stars, kindly took me and Nalo out for dinner afterwards, along with Jennifer. Great conversation, okay Thai food. Went late -- didn't get back 'til after 9. Since then, have been vaguely restless. Managed to finish Turning Samoan -- which manages to be a book that I'm definitely going to recommend to people, while also being fairly disappointing in the end. So promising, and it just didn't follow through as well as it might on the complexities it raised. I think the author might have gotten tired. But lots of fun, plus much poker, which is always good.
Brain still all jittery. Maybe it was the Thai iced tea with dinner. Maybe I'll go unpack some more...