Naissance Suite

December 12

So... very...sleepy. But, before I pass out, anatomy of my birthday:

I woke at 7:45 and snuggled Heather for a while. At 8:15 I got up and started coffee, then took a nice long shower. Got out, poured coffee, and had the couch-sitting portion of the morning. Holly gave me a gift, which I opened -- an iPuppy! A small yipping walking robot dog! Incredibly cute. Made me giggle.

I went outside and took what proved to be the last look at my car, Denise. Then got into the car Heathen & Jeremy so generously lent us, and drove down to Emeryville, listening to old school Beck on the tape player. I picked up Carolyn, my co-worker with whom I carpool (I do the drivin', she pays for the gas), and we zoomed up to the office.

I did a little work, then they called me in for cake and singing. Cake and singing! And the blowing out of the candle! I told them I had gifts for everyone, and passed out copies of Floodwater. They were suitably impressed. My boss said, joking, "Who's going to review it?"

We ate rather yummy chocolate cake, and talked about various things, pets and toys and robot dogs and the stupidity of cows and so forth. Then back to work for a while, until it was time to go down and pick up the mail. I found a nice jazz station on the radio and listened to Duke Ellington tunes as I drove. Then back up to the office, where I worked until my lunch break. I wrote about 600 words of my Fish story. Whoo!

I received various lovely e-mails throughout the day, people wishing me well. Very nice.

Spent the afternoon writing stuff for the January issue, mostly. Then poked around the galleys in the middle office, looking for something to review, and found a literary haunted-house novel that could be good. I took that, and then drove away, away, away. Took Carolyn home, then went to my house. Saw that my car was gone. Sighed mournfully. Off she goes, fair car, donated to charity. Once inside, I reheated the leftover morning coffee and had a piece of leftover birthday cake. Had a message from my Mom, and called her, and chatted a bit. Also had a message from a neighbor Heather and I are going to cat-sit for, wanting to make arrangements to come over and learn the cat-care requirements (which are apparently rather complex, but they're paying us quite well, so it's okay), so I called and talked about that. I wrapped a couple of Heather's Xmas presents. Then my darling love got home, bearing a bunch of flowers for me, la! She gave me a present to open, which is perhaps a bit too naughty to discuss in a good family journal like this one (though it's something you can get where she works, at Blowfish!). Something I'd wanted, actually, so, hurrah! Heather read me a sweet funny birthday poem, which is currently posted on her website, here. Then we called Barney's and ordered food, and drove to insanely-busy-with-Xmas-shoppers Piedmont Ave. to pick it up. Burger and shake and fries, oh my! (And thanks to Dad and Mom for sending birthday money, and making said meal affordable even here in the valley of our poverty.) After that it was back home, to eat and watch Reign of Fire, which was long and boring and had a stupid plot but, on the plus side, had the best dragons I've ever seen, though they didn't get nearly enough screen time. (A digression: Yesterday we watched Eight Legged Freaks, and I loved it, it was everything a giant spider movie should be and more, despite the annoying absence of a necessary hyphen in the title. That Arquette guy didn't even annoy me! I loved it! I want to own it!) Holly had a pretty big contraction during the movie, but no more followed, so no baby, yet.

After the movie, Heather gave me further somewhat unmentionable gifts, and we spent the remainder of the evening much as you would expect. I'll spare you the details.

Then I had Heather's lunch-leftovers Chinese food. Mmm. Watched a little TV. Came upstairs to check e-mail and see if I managed to make a birthday sale -- nope. Though I discovered that Jay Lake used my Story Words suggestion, "Synecdoche," today. Yay! Also had word from the lovely Susan Marie that she has a gift for me, so will go over there tomorrow, after I learn how to feed the neighbor's cats. Yay, presents! And various other good-birthday-wishes, which filled me with glee and warmth and other pleasant emotions. Mmm. A happy birthday was had by me.

Words written since February 1, 2002: 189,800

Words written since last entry:
600

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