Love and Other Reciprocal Obsessions

August 12

Happy Sunday!

Yesterday was a lovely-good day, mostly. I slept in, and upon waking read the Starlight 2 antho some more. Then I put together our new bookshelf (putting part of it together backwards by accident, which necessitated taking it apart again to fix it, sigh). Heather got back from the CBEST, which she found quite easy (as I'd expected she would). I took her out to Mama's Royal Café for a celebratory lunch. We had a beautiful waitress with a scorpion belt buckle.

After the waitress took our order and left, I looked at Heather and said "I'm in love."

"With the belt buckle, or with the waitress?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

I want to have lunch at Mama's every weekend. I want to be a regular there (as Heather once was, and shall be again). It's so nice having money again, being able to afford to go out for breakfast. I am a happy and contented boy.

Yesterday was laundry-day, tra la. Heather and I took our many bags of dirty clothes to the laundromat. Once the clothes were loaded, I sat down with a pen and a notebook and started writing. I'd had a couple of disconnected images in my head, and they rather suddenly came together and coalesced into an actual story. I think it's a contemporary fantasy, arguably a horror story. I wrote it almost entirely at the laundromat. It's called "Stray," it's 2100 words in length, and I'm sending it off to GVG at F&SF tomorrow. Tra la.

Yesterday was date-night for Heather and I. She took me to dinner at a lovely Vietnamese place. The Imperial Rolls were heavenly. Then we went to see Planet of the Apes. Illogical fun! Monkeys everywhere! Woo hoo! I especially liked how the savage and scantily-clad human woman had shaved legs. Hee. Tim Roth was wonderful as General Thade-- he'd clearly spent some time studying how monkeys actually move. Mark Wahlberg's character was a nice divergence from typical action-movie-type, though there were some annoying behavioral inconsistencies. I won't elaborate for fear of spoilers... The movie was really visually stunning. Tim Burton is one of the few directors who really puts his mark on a film. Rick Baker's make-up effects were amazing, too.

I won't say it was a good movie (it really didn't make a damn bit of sense), but it was fun. And, after all, what would Planet of the Apes be without melodrama and illogic?

After the movie, Heather and I came home and talked, eventually getting into a deeper and heavier discussion than either of us had anticipated. We talked about living together, compromises, changing our lives to fit better with one another. It was a good discussion, and we're very in love, and we're going to be okay. There's just bumps to traverse, and we knew that was going to happen, so all's well.

I slept all day today. I'm so annoyed with myself. Still, I was somewhat productive. This afternoon I typed and revised "Stray." I printed it and another story to go in the mail tomorrow, and I'm e-subbing another story. Staying on top of things, hi-ho.

We're having dinner tonight with Marissa and Timprov and Mark and possibly Susan and David. Ethiopian food, yum!

The plan for the afternoon is to do a short collaborative fantasy with Heather. It's unlikely that we'll finish it before dinnertime, though, and if we don't, we'll work on it after dinner. That means I probably won't get to work as much on Rangergirl as I'd anticipated, but if I can write the first scene, I'll be happy. And I can write the first scene, even if I don't start it until after Heather goes to bed.

I'm happy. I'm productive.