September 15, 2006

10:45 p.m.

Yes

In an amazing display of divine benevolence, I was given the evening off.

Wait -- I gave myself the evening off, so if it was divine, I must be Queen. Get my tiara! For one brief, shining moment, I got to the end of the list. A couple of hours this morning wading through the learning curve of putting my guitar on eBay; book printing, cutting and binding; studying and posting response in my online classroom; phone calls about CD promotion; and all the other miscellaneous things that make up a day -- all this brought me to about six o'clock, when I declared the workday OVER and went downstairs to go order Chinese food. On the way out I knocked at my neighbor's door to tell her when the big-trash pickup is (October 5th! Old mattress going to its next incarnation!), and we had a great talk about papery things. She does woodcuts and printmaking, and has an actual letter-press that she uses for cards and chapbooks. Fascinating, hands-on work. Her boyfriend was just out of the shower and the apartment was allegedly a wreck, so we talked in the hallway; but she promised to have me in sometime to look at her work. She also had some suggestions on where to get certain kinds of paper around here, and we talked about bartering woodcut work for Reiki sessions. I like her so much, and she's so busy all the time, we almost never get to talk. I felt a real kinship about the paper connection, though; she's done papermaking, too, and was very interested in the Rackham illustration I'm using ("Oh! I love Arthur Rackham!") Cool.

Then I got the aforementioned takeout (Moo Shu Chicken, and Shrimp with Mixed Vegetables), poured some wine, and popped in "Oh! Brother, Where Art Thou?" which James caused me to borrow from Rose's beau's house. (Say that five times fast.) It was amazing. I had not watched a movie here for so long. Evenings off: Good.

Tomorrow I go to Rose's in the late morning, to make sure the place is covered in case the cable guy or the bed delivery guys arrive before she gets there with the movers from the old house. Then she'll be IN.

And I am dang tired. Tapered off the Pred today, so maybe I'll sleep a little better and feel a little less "used by aliens."