I enjoy summer. As a general rule, I do not enjoy winter. I really, seriously dislike being cold. Spring is enjoyable mostly in that it means summer is coming, and fall is generally not too bad in that it's not too cold yet, and the leaves are pretty and when you first break out the cool-weather clothes, your body isn't used to being covered in sweaters and heavy corduroys and is actually warm. (Then you adjust, just in time for the weather to turn truly frigid, and pretty much everything after mid-December is just miserable.)

It is October 28th here; on the waning side of fall, but still firmly within the realm of autumn, and not winter.

So somebody please explain to me why in the heck we had four inches of snow yesterday.



There was a wolf spider in my work yesterday, which I had to put outside. I felt really bad. I dug it a little hole down into the mulch where hopefully the heat of decomposition will keep it non-frozen, but still, poor spider.

Today I am finishing up sewing clasps on my winter coat (which I would have liked to have had yesterday, though at least I wore the old one, and not my fall jacket), doing re-writes on the first novel, and waiting to find out if I'm going to be going in to work this afternoon. I'm supposed to be filling in for a coworker, but as of last night, the appointment schedule looked so sparse that they may decide they don't need me.

Re-writes are a little unnerving; I think I am improving the book (it has vampires who actually exist, in a not-tacked-on-as-an-afterthought sort of way, now), but my wordcount has jumped significantly. It's not yet over 100k, but it's nearing it. 100k is generally the upper end of what's acceptable for genre fiction, unless the genre is sword-and-sorcery type high fantasy, which this isn't. (Though it does contain both a sword and an individual capable of magic.) I suppose once I get done adding in stuff that should have been there, I'll have to go back and see if there's anything that shouldn't be there.

Back from England; had a really good time, ate tons of crawfish, drank good beer, and generally enjoyed myself. Also, being entirely objective on the matter, I have to say that my pseudo-nephew is, in fact, the cutest baby ever. See?

Before most major trips in recent memory, I have engaged in an ambitious sewing project. There have been ball gowns, experimental sort of cocktail dresses, and most recently, a fancy winter coat. None of these were strictly speaking necessary - I did need such a garment for each occasion, but in all cases, I already owned something I could have worn. And in the case of the fancy coat, I really probably didn't need a dressy coat so much as a functional coat, and I did already have one of those, making the coat-production of even more dubious necessity.

Before the sewing projects . . actually, in between the sewing projects, also . . there was the artwork for sale at WriterCon, which required printing and fixing and matting and such.

In each case, I was up until some ungodly hour of the morning for the two nights before the trip frantically attempting to finish the project in question. I arrived at my "vacation" destination wanting nothing so badly as 2 days' solid sleep.

Before this upcoming trip to England, I was sewing shirts - everyday-wear kind of shirts for myself, and I attempted a skirt - and baby clothes. And I made a resolution: I was not going to be sewing/matting/doing-any-sort-of-project the night before. I would start early, I would set reasonable goals, and if the deadline started to loom close, I would scrap whatever project / aspect of project could not be completed without compromising my sleep. And, wonder of wonders, I actually stuck by this. I did not complete my skirt; I discovered that I fail at making appliqued baby blankets and decided to just go with baby stuff I knew I could complete successfully. I was quite proud of myself.

It is 2:16AM the day before my departure. I don't fly out until 9PM tomorrow, but I have to be at work 9AM to roughly 2PM. I still have a little bit of packing to do, but not much.

. . . I just finished repotting a tree.

Before that, I repotted several violets.

I'm contemplating going out and catching and relocating the baby dragonflies now (they need to get out of the wheelbarrow, as parents want use of the wheelbarrow while I'm gone) by flashlight - all that's stopping this plan is that I don't know where in the heck I put the fishbowl.

What do trees, violets, and dragonflies have in common? They all really could have been re-homed tomorrow between when I left work and when I need to leave for the airport. I've got 4 hours, and I'm 90% packed.

What do overly-ambitious sewing projects, artwork in need of matting, violets, trees, and dragonflies have in common? They're excellent ways to occupy one's brain when one can't get one's brain to stop spinning. It seems that I was putting the cart before the horse in terms of the cause and effect of my recurrent pre-trip sleep deprivation; I simply cannot sleep for about 2 days before a major trip. I discover boundless reserves of frenetic energy. I could build you a small bridge out of chewing gum and toothpicks, right now.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, all that just seeps right out the soles of my shoes the minute I actually set foot on the plane. Pre-trip, I am extremely productive but also extremely anxious - in hyperdrive mode, and unable to snap out of it. Get me up in the air, and it's like flipping a switch. No matter what I've forgotten, left unfinished, or possibly messed up - no matter what catastrophes may be brewing in the world down there - I am several thousand feet in the air in a glorified tin can, and nobody and nothing can reach me.

I love flying. I really, sincerely, truly do.

So I've been quiet here - I promised a review of my new camera and that didn't happen. It's still not going to happen, because I'm much too busy today to pull out the camera (a Pentax Optio S12) and get into detailed analysis of all its nifty functions. It is quite nifty, though - I am entirely pleased with it. I took these with it:




There are depressingly few bugs outside anymore, but I am waiting until the first hard frost before taking off for the insectarium (mostly as an antidote to getting totally depressed after the first hard frost). I'm also waiting until I get back from my upcoming trip - I will be leaving this Saturday to go visit my good friend E, her husband M, and their highly adorable, new offspring, J. I will be testing out the camera's use for taking pictures of slightly larger creatures, i.e. the baby. I don't know if I'll be posting those pics here or not, will have to see what E and M think on that.

I have been sewing a ridiculous amount - mostly baby clothes. I will take pictures of those, to be posted after they've been given to E, as I don't want her to see what I've made ahead of time. It'd ruin the surprise. :)

I've also made myself a couple nifty shirts. I'm presently very in love with large, billowing sleeves with small, gathered cuffs. They're just nifty.

I'm considering getting some manner of sticker for my car - not a political type sticker, but just something pretty to personalize it a bit. I like this: http://www.purplemoon.com/Stickers/pentacle-seasons.jpg . . and this: http://www.purplemoon.com/Stickers/firefly.jpg

. . the firefly sticker is fairly nondenominational, apolitical, and generally inoffensive to most people, I'd think. I'm a little more nervous about the idea of the pentacle sticker. I've yet to find a label that fits me well on . . well, any subject or aspect of life, really . . but religiously, I most often refer to myself as an agnostic pagan - which really does make sense, I swear, but is difficult to explain in less than an essay and is not the point of this post. Point is, I am not a traditional sort of neo-pagan (though the words "traditional" and "neopagan" are sorta funny to put in the same sentence to start with), and this makes me a little bit wary of using traditional neopagan symbols, however much they appeal to me and fit what I believe. I don't want to appear to be representative of something that I am not. And I'm very not open about my religious beliefs at work. I don't exactly hide anything - I mean, I've taken the summer solstice off for two years running now, surely someone has noticed this, and hey, making this post on the internet under my real name - but I do not discuss religion at work, period, the end. And I have a feeling that if I stick this sticker on my car, I will be discussing (explaining, maybe justifying) my religion at work. I don't really want that.

. . but it's a very pretty sticker and I don't particularly like the idea of not buying it solely for that reason. That feels a little closetish.

Anyway - back to sewing and packing and generally losing my mind.