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Sunday, 10 October 2010 (the circle of fair karma) 9:45am Hey, that's one so far! Not that I'm counting or anything, because that would be self-obsessed and wrong. | ||
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Saturday, 9 October 2010 (the song of atonement) 10:48am The status of my SJSU application is now "complete," meaning that there are no more forms for me to submit or other loose ends for me to tie up, and now I basically have to wait for them to accept me or not. Pretty good turnaround time, all things considered. LitCrawl is tonight. The Dark Room isn't one of the venues, unlike the last few years, which means I can hide there tonight during the majority of the Crawl. I'm not in it this year, and the recent book rejections have damaged my easily-damaged ego a little (the fact that I've been published twice this year and have another two in the can notwithstanding, because that's not how ego works), so, yeah. On the plus side, in addition the previous parenthetical, I'm in two shows coming up at The Dark Room before the end of year. So, I haven't fallen off the radar entirely. (And heaven knows me being in Dark Room shows is by no means a given, considering that the last one was Snowmiser two years ago.) 3:11pm Oh, ick ick ick. I just had to dispose of a dead bird. Well, not an entire dead bird. Just the very bottom, the legs and what was left of the body. Dunno how it got there—an offering from one of the local cats, maybe—but, thankfully, the local flies were only just discovering it, and none of the other fauna. I put on gloves, held my breath, and put in a (large) paper bag, then rushed it to the composting bin. And then I washed my hands thoroughly, of course. But, ew. I'm just now cut out for that level of reality. | ||
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Friday, 8 October 2010 (lullaby for the fearless child) 12:15pm Another rejection. (A real one this time—my agent still hasn't figured out what the deal is with the phantom rejection.) At least they said they liked my writing style, which is always nice, but that it would be a tough one for them to sell. In any event, it looks like I won't be sharing a publisher with Willie Nelson anytime soon. Meanwhile, the vicissitudes of the publishing industry being what they are, one of the publishers who recently rejected the book is being severely downsized by their parent company. So, even though that was a rejection which particularly hurt, maybe I dodged a bullet. Or not. I don't know. The book will end up wherever it's supposed to end up, and that's pretty much that. Tonight, Marta and I are joining the Goldies for Caprica, and I'm probably going out dancing with Ilene on Saturday night. Getting out is good. | ||
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Thursday, 7 October 2010 (helping to bury the light) 3:41pm Okay, that might have been a bit much, especially when my body is still recovering from yesterday's class. It wasn't so much a two-hour class so much as two hour-long classes, the first at a beginner's level and the second at an intermediate, but with a lot of overlap. The first class was packed, which always makes me a little uncomfortable, since I don't want to take a regular's spot, but the second class had far fewer people and I was able to get into my regular spot. But, yeah, I don't know if I'll necessarily do it again next week, if only because I prefer to get my gymming done as early as possible in the day so I can get on with other things. Alas. My weight's creeping down towards 200. Not that I care about the numbers. | ||
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Wednesday, 6 October 2010 (music of the spheres) 8:12am Bootcamp was brutal, as usual, but it seemed to go by quicker than usual. So that's something. And I've decided that not only will I go to the gym tomorrow morning, I'll go to Damiel's Thursday abs class, which is at nine in the morning (rather than six) and lasts two hours and is evidently pretty hardcore. I think I'm ready for it, and I won't have to get up at four. 2:41pm It was pretty far down on the list, but among the reasons I'm bummed that things fizzled out with my former employers was that full-time employees—after a year of full-time employment—got put on the short list for a trip to the rainforest. A lot of the work I did on the site was for the rainforest trip program, in fact. Aside from the fact that I have yet to leave the freakin' country at all (and my quest to get a passport has been momentarily sidelined for financial reasons), one of the things I was most curious about regarding the trip, and something I hadn't planned on investigating too much beforehand, was how whole "lack of indoor plumbing" thing was handled. It wasn't even hinted at in any of the reference materials for the trip, at least none of the stuff on the site. I imagine a lot of people on the trip end up getting far closer to nature than they ever imagined. I'm a first-worlder, and a pretty privileged one. Not as privileged as some, yeah, but a lot more than others. I fully acknowledge that fact, and it's why I try not to get to whiny when things don't go my way, because, hell, things could be a lot lot lot worse than they are. Even unemployed and having to scale back an already low-rent lifestyle further—although, loaded notions of privilege aside, I also believe that I have the life I have becuase I've worked hard and made the right decisions, and very little has been given to me—I'm living in the lap of luxury. And I know it. Which is probably why I get so nervous when the plumbing goes bad. Last night, the toilet backed up. It didn't overflow, thankfully, but it wouldn't flush properly, either. Upon realizing that I don't have a plunger—assuming that Maddy took it with her when she moved out, I have apparently managed to not need one for five and a half years—Marta and I went to Walgreens to get one. When we returned, the toilet had returned to normal, and worked fine over night. Then I did laundry this morning, and everything went goofy. Not only did the toilet start backing up again (the plunger was useless), but the corner of the garage with the washing machine essentially flooded, and unlike recent similar issues, the water reached my front door. There was also a brief gurgling sound from my kitchen sink, but just for a moment, and it was fine. The toilet remained backed up after I finished my laundry. Swell. So I wrote my neighbors and left messages for my landlords, then left to find a coffeehouse to get some writing done, seeing as how I didn't have access to a functioning toilet at home, and that's kinda important. (I briefly considered using Perdita's box, but, no. Times are not quite that desperate.) I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Mocha 101 is under new management and is now the Greenhouse Cafe. Unlike the previous establishment, the new owners not only have regular hours, but they actually seem to want to run a business, which the (otherwise very sweet) old owners didn't. So, that's an improvement. After eating a hummus-and-veggie wrap and ordering a latte (about ten dollars all told, which is in of the big reaons I prefer to work at home these days—it's far less expensive), I was finally settling down to write when my landlord finally called and said that I needed to contact their plumber, whose card I was apparently given the last time they were there. Meaning, I would have to go back home. And this with a newly made latte next to me. Phooey. Came home to find that the toilet has un-backed itself, and is flushing properly. Crisis sorta-kind averted. We need to get the plumber out here all the same, of course, something is still rotten in the plumbing of my Denmark, but at least I have a functioning indoor commode. And damnit, I appreciate that. I'll never take it for granted, whether I ever make it to the rainforest or not. | ||
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Tuesday, 5 October 2010 (the black lodge edit) 3:09pm I'm far along enough into the MLIS application process that I now have an account on the San Jose State University internal site, which is where pretty much everything happens from this point onwards. If I'm reading the main site correctly, and there's a good chance I'm not, it'll take them six to eight weeks to evaluate my application. And, presumably, accept me or not accept me. Speaking of not accepting me, I just received a form rejection notice from a publisher. It's a publisher that had already rejected me, and one that my agent re-submitted the manuscript to. I don't know if it's just an odd glitch, or if they'd meant to send it to my agent instead of me (which would be odd, since my agent has forwarded me all the rejection emails, and they're actually personally written rather than forms), or what. In any event, so much for that publisher. Today is what I consider to be the thirtieth day of my thirty-day notice. At the very least, I'd had no intention of staying past today. I'm glad that I left earlier, though. It was time for me to go. It's only been a couple weeks, but it feels like it's been a million years. | ||
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Monday, 4 October 2010 (dissecting laura) 5:15pm Though I'm pretty sure I got less than four hours of sleep last night (including waking up early from a nasty dream), I made it to the gym on time. Rather than his usual class, Damiel had to sub for one of the spin instructors, so I ended up spinning for the first time in months. It was nice, but I don't know that I'm ready to start doing it on a regular basis again. A few of the spin regulars told me that they missed me being in class, which was very sweet of them. Took Perdita to her rescheduled vet appointment later in the morning. She's lost a couple pounds, and while she's not underweight, it's not a good thing. The reason seems to be her teeth, some of which are very bad, and at least one is coming loose. The vet assured me that it while it's not immediately life-threatening or anything, that I don't have to make a decision at this very moment, that something will need to be done sooner rather than later, most likely involving removing a number of Perdita's teeth. ("Anesthetic dentistry" is the term she was using.) And that it'll probably cost upwards of a thousand dollars. That's what my credit card is for. On the plus side, she assured me that it has nothing to do with my kitty-mom skills, that I wasn't feeding Perdita the wrong thing. It's just what bodies do. They decay. Afterward, I went to the post office to mail off the sealed transcript to San Jose State University. Then, back home, lunch, and some hardcore napping. I'd been hoping to make it to the gym again, but, nope. My body needed rest, evidently. | ||
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Sunday, 3 October 2010 (dropping rocks) 11:01pm Got some compliments on one of the new skirts (and just "how nicely put together" I was) at Bad Movie Night this evening. Again: yay for positive reinforcement. | ||
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Saturday, 2 October 2010 (scorn, death and grief) 1:44pm Back home now. It was a successful trip, and I'm glad I got to spend some semi-alone time with my mom. I always say this, but it's alway true: I need to go there more often. Now, an attempt at a nap before picking up Marta. 7:16pm I took some pride in the fact that the only money I spent on my Fresno trip was for a tank of gas, but I'm more than making up for it right now at Target. But that's okay, because I know enough to know that when the iron is hot clothes-wise, I'd godsdamned better well strike, because it won't be again anytime soon. To that end, I've scored in a big way on some plaid skirts and a pair of fake leather pants—leggings, really, which is fine, because that's one of my favorite looks, one that I haven't been able to do for a long time because of my size. And the only reason I can fit into these now is because I've been working so damn hard to get into shape. Yay for achieving goals and stuff! Though I have quite a few left to achieve. 9:11pm Mmm. Old Mandarin Islamic. It's been a long time. | ||
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Friday, 1 October 2010 (the timberwolf environment) 8:16am Did Damiel's abs class and my usual Friday morning routine, and have a rather full day ahead of me. I called ahead to Fresno City College (at Marta's suggestion) to make sure they'll actually be open and can do what I need them to do in person, and they can, so that's good, plus I need to hit the Pharmacy before I leave town. So I'll get to Pharmacy as early as possible and hope that the lines aren't too long this time. If I'm not out of there by noon, I may need to scrub the Fresno mission. 11:15am Ugh. That was close. It took about an hour to get through the line, and when I got to the front it turned out my prescription wasn't ready yet, and I had to wait another hour or so for it to be ready and try to block out the grumbling of the other people waiting in line (it's a testament to how post-literate this country is that nobody brings reading material even when they know they're in for a long wait) while still listening for my name. In any event, I'm done now, and the person at Fresno City College that I spoke to on the phone said that if I get there by half past four I should be okay, so, here we go. 2:19pm In Fresno. Hooray for relatively light early afternoon highway traffic. Walking across the college parking lot, I saw what could be best described as "an angry young white man," one who would probably be a Tea Partier if he had any political affiliation at all, attempt to stomp a squirrel. Ah, my hometown. 3:08pm They were a bit crankier than the people at San Francisco State University, intimating that I could have done it all from home online (which would have been true if their system was remotely intuitive, which it reallyisn't) but, mission accomplished. Much to my surprise, they didn't ask to see any proof of identification at any point during the process. I guess they figured that nobody would lie about something like this. And my GPA was 2.933, which shouldn't affect my San Jose State University application, since they only require a 3.0 for the Bachelor's degree. So I'm solid. I'm done with all this earlier than I expected to be, so I suppose I have time to kill, but all I want to do is just go hide at my mom's house. I'm notreally feeling sociable, so I'm keeping this mission stealth, not even telling my dad I'm in town. Besides, it's unpleasantly stuffy, far more humid than it should be, even for Fresno in early October. But I think it's been a weird summer here in general. 5:23pm All done! With the online application, anyway. I still have to mail in a sealed San Francisco State University transcript and do some other bits of business, but the main hurdle has been jumped. Most of what follows is just waiting. I'm applying for the Fall 2011 semester, so, I'm talking about a lot of waiting. Plus I still need to find employment in the meantime, so this is pretty long-term stuff. But I'm planning on being around for a while. | ||
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