Thinking aloud

Perhaps you are aware that I love lists, especially to-do lists, though I rarely refer to them after they’re written. It’s the act of writing them that helps me arrange things in my mind. Yes, I’ll do this first, and then that, which will take about this long, after which I’ll have just enough time for this other thing. Oh, and I can’t forget that I have to, etc.

So here’s my list for today.

• Write 1,000 words of a new scene for Chapter Seven of my novel Edgewood, accompanied by my third cup of tea for the day.
• Write a short article about space garbage for the SAT tutoring center where I work.
• Prepare some SAT material for teaching tomorrow morning.
• Edit an article about missions for a press where I freelance.
• Lunch, accompanied by an episode of Firefly, perhaps “Out of Gas.”
• Grade students’ in-class writing online and give feedback about their in-progress essay drafts.
• Write PowerPoint presentations/lecture notes for next week, since I will be busy Sunday afternoon when I usually do so.
• Read about half of Children of Dune by Frank Herbert.
• Have a lovely dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with a good friend from graduate school.

Will I get it all done? Probably not. I’ll work on all of it, but I might not finish all the projects completely, particularly those related to grading and lecture prep. The dinner, however, is a sure thing–my reward for working hard!

June 27

10 Random Facts

1. I am alive.
2. I am in Oklahoma.
3. I am thinking about making chocolate chip cookies this afternoon.
4. I am almost done writing chapter nine of ten.
5. The next book I’m going to read is Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis.
6. Anastasia likes to sleep all nested in a sheet in a bottom drawer.
7. I have been re-watching Firefly in order, and the next episode is my favorite episode, “Ariel.”
8. It’s nice to do laundry in a non-demonic washer.
9. I did not win Munchkin last night, even though I cheated.
10. Though I slept until 11:00 today, I am still sleepy.

Still Sick

Today I went to work with a note from my doctor’s office, to the effect that I have to stay home for a week.  As I was standing by the information desk talking to one of my coworkers, a customer came up to the computer.  Like the polite, well-trained employee that she is, my coworker asked, “Is there something I can help you find?”

Customer:  Well, maybe you can tell me the author of, I think it’s called, Pillars of the Earth?

Coworker:  Uh.

Me (without thinking):  Ken Follett.  Fiction.

Coworker (to me):  Oh man.  We’re really going to miss you.

Happy as I am to have a week off, it was still nice to hear.  I am seriously and with delight contemplating a Firefly marathon.

Lunch & Ferret

I just ate a very delicious lunch, comfortable and savory.  To a can of Amy’s Kitchen Cream of Tomato soup, I added two spoonfuls of ricotta cheese, parsley flakes, a pinch of pepper, and garlic salt.  I whisked it over medium-low heat until it was thick and warm.  On Chera’s suggestion, I also made an accompanying grilled cheese sandwich with Oroweat Health Nut bread.  And may I recommend topping it off with a homemade chocolate chip cookie?  Feel free to wish you’d eaten lunch with me.

Anastasia has been particularly adorable lately.  Whenever I wake her up, she is quite cuddly, curling and stretching in my arms, opening her little pink mouth in a series of enormous yawns.  Sometimes she also sneezes, and occasionally she’ll even nuzzle up against me and sigh.  …And then she wakes up, and the fun really begins.

All day I’ve been singing:

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks

and snickering to myself:

“Sir, I think you have a problem with your brain being missing.”

Today at work

Today at work I got asked for the books Gift of Fear by DeBecker, Gideon by Jacquelyn Frank, Jewel of Medina by somebody (out of print), Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, the Twilight calendar (which we didn’t have in stock), and The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I only did one semi-stupid thing all day long, and helped some people to boot. Yay me.

I also spent a good deal of time in the story-world Chera and I have been working on. Character questionnaires? Fun.

We successfully made scones, and have just finished watching our third episode of Firefly in two days. We are sitting on the futon having a Mac party. We are enjoying ourselves.

Also, I have a new cell phone number. As I quipped today, “My car is a Texan, my phone is a Texan, and according to my driver’s license, I’m a Texan too.”