Czechs, Imbalances
May 16
So, the updated car situation -- yesterday morning, in the course of driving to the get-a-new-tire-place, my spare went flat, so rather than search further for the tire place (which I couldn't find anyway), I limped to a gas station near home (which took a long time -- traffic was heavy -- and involved riding on my rim. La). So the kindly men there smilingly gouged me, charging me about $20 more than it would cost elsewhere in town. I got them to replace just the one tire, since I couldn't afford more than that, and on Saturday I'll drive to the other tire place (which I know how to find, now), and get a much cheaper tire. So, la. (I'm understating how incredibly stressful that morning was, because I don't want to dwell on it. But it sucks to be driving along on a Wednesday and bounce over a pothole you didn't see and have your spare go flat and know you're pretty much stone broke until the weekend so a tow truck's out of the question).
Went to work yesterday, and worked rather a lot, even working a bit late. Then went to Berkeley to workout, which felt good, and then to Au Coquelet, where I read in Past the Size of Dreaming. Then home with Heather, for a bit of snuggling, and then some work for me, doing 1250 words on Rangergirl. We're really getting into the heavily weird and plotty bits, now; fun, but a bit like juggling, and I have to keep referring to my notes and timeline and such to make sure everything happens in the sequence it's supposed to. (I don't have a real outline -- there's a lot of forgiveness built into my system -- but I've got the next few major events sketched out on paper). Then I went down to read on the couch with Heather for a bit, because we've both had a rough week and wanted some together-quietly time. I went to bed to snuggle her, and wound up getting tired and going to sleep.
Which worked out well, because I had no problem getting out of bed a bit early this morning. I showered, had some cereal, checked my e-mail -- and found good news! I wrote to Realms yesterday to see if they could tell me when I can expect payment for "Witch's Bicycle"; I was hoping to get it before (or at least soon after) Wiscon, so I could afford to breathe easy about buying books, ordering room service, etc. Today they replied, told me my check's been cut and mailed, and that if I don't have it by this time next week to let them know. So, la!
It'll be odd, not looking forward to that money, though; for the past couple of months I've been saying "I'll be able to afford that when I get my Realms money". Guess we'll see what I can afford... though in truth, it'll just get me ahead a bit, so I don't have so many of these uncomfortable weeks where I only have $20 in the bank. Which will be a nice change...
And then, the reason for getting up early, I went to pick up my car, and drove it home, and looked at the other scary-bald remaining tire, and decided I wasn't willing to risk driving it, so I borrowed Heather's car again.
Then to work, where I worked like crazy for a couple of hours. Then I went to pick up Kelly Link, who visited the office today. Nice chat with her on the way to the office. We're both former North Carolina residents, so we had stuff to talk about, the Land of Oz, Tweetsie Railroad, and etc. Didn't get to talk to her much when we got back though; dove straight into working on the issue (our managing editor is on vacation, so I'm doing the stuff I always do and the stuff she usually does on the issue. Busy busy).
Left work, came home to find DVDs from Netflix. Yum. Including the Daria movie Is It Fall Yet?. Lovely. Heather came home, and we watched one of the bonus episodes, then she went off to do her own thing. I made a meal of chicken-bacon-swissburger and tater tots, watched Daria, read a bit, and now I'm here, wondering what to do with the next 3 or 4 hours of consciousness. I could write, but just typing this journal entry is making my wrists feel crunchy -- I worked pretty hard on computers all day. So maybe that's a no-go. I don't know. I'll post this just before bed, so if I get anything done, I'll be able to tell y'all about it.
Later
Nope, didn't do anything constructive. Just read stuff online, caught up on journals, and so forth. Perhaps I'll be more productive tomorrow.
Words written since February 1, 2002: 68,000
Words written since last entry: 1,250
Send me a rusty old Bentley, one piece at a time.
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