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drink tea
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bathroom break
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large lunch
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visit parents
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tea again
tea and snack
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inhale dinner
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brush teeth
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go to sleep

Very strange dream last night (early this morning). After being trapped in a long grocery store incident (which I consider its own dream) I was hungry and went to a Japanese restaurant. I did not recognize any of the food there (I love sushi and was bummed they didn’t have any) I tried to order by pointing to pictures on the menu. I did not (do not) speak Japanese and the staff did not speak English. All I wanted was some soup. Brown soup.

I got the soup. It came in a tall glass with a straw and was delicious. I also got a plate of rice and unusual goopy looking things, and three other glasses of clear liquids in which were suspended funny looking things, like a sea cucumber that had tentacles and looked like it was made out of crystal. The waitress explained to me (using gestures) that it was considered a major insult if I touched my nose at any time while I was eating. If I did this, the kitchen staff would stick rice up my nostrils. The rice would have to stay in my nose until I was done eating.

All I wanted was soup.

I tried to eat the crystal sea cucumber, but it was sour and had a texture I shudder to think about. Everything tasted sour except the rice and the soup and I was paranoid about the rice because I didn’t want it up the nose. It took me forever to figure out that I did not have to stay in the restaurant if I didn’t want to. I paid for my meal and got the heck out of there.

Then I dreamed about an unusual church baptism that involved old-fashioned wind-up pocket watches.

Sigh. I can never find my dreams in dream interpretation books.

Off to eat breakfast and write.

added later thanks to Jessica in Sheepshead for the great note – glad you liked all the books!

Didn’t have time to post this morning because I was at the gym again. (Go me! Go me!) I was feeling really good about what I was doing on the treadmill – had a couple beads of sweat running down my face, not huffing too much – when I looked over at the elderly (70ish) lady on the treadmill beside me. She was not going as fast as I was, but she had been motoring along for a very, very long time. And then I had to stop because I was out of breath. So I stretched a little and decided to work out on the rowing machine (which I love). After ten minutes, I was sweating again, huffing and puffing, and the little old lady sat down on the rowing machine next to me. She had this look in her eye. She was going to dust me. This was more than my fragile middle-aged ego could take, so I moved over to the weight machines.

I have two new goals: to become at least as fit as that lady, and to continue to work out when I am that old.

Spent a couple of hours cleaning house with BH, worrying about the displaced hurricane folks, and then helping my mom and dad. Oh, and I tried to convince the Creature With Fangs that at 65 pounds, she is getting a little too big to be jumping on people. She was not convinced.

I am feeling guilty that I did not write today. I also feel guilty that this post has nothing about books or writing in it. So, here – go read up on Banned Books Week.

No bugs today. Yay. Maybe they get the first day of fall off to make their winter travel plans. That is one advantage to living up here – when it gets cold, you don’t see insects. Of course, hordes of hungry field mice knock on your front door and invite themselves in for dinner, but it’s too early to fuss about that now.

My New York driver’s license came in mail the other day which felt weird and cool. I look like I’m doing jail time in the photo. In state prison. Maybe I am doing that in an alternative version of this world. I used to think about things like that all the time when I was a kid – all the different versions of me in different realities, and what we were all doing at the same time. (I was doomed to become an author from an early age.)

Today I MUST finish my own travel plans for next month. Oh, shoot. I have to update the website, too. Argh. I’ll be speaking at English teacher conferences in Colorado and Florida, and at schools and libraries in Maryland, Virginia, and New York City. November is still a little up in the air. I’ll get to see Kimberly Willis Holt in Colorado and am really looking forward to that. She rocks.

This weekend I have to work on my speech about censorship for a Banned Books Week talk I’m giving at the Onondaga County Public Library. SPEAK is the book of mine that is most often challenged, usually after it has been in curriculum for a few years. I know that CATALYST has been yanked out a couple of libraries. Authors like Chris Crutcher find themselves on the hot seat all the time.

What do you think about the dramatic increase in book banning efforts?

You do realize this, right? Autumn officially starts tomorrow. I vote that everybody eat some ice cream today. Tomorrow we’ll start making soup.

Got to watch stepson C’s soccer game yesterday and it was a gorgeous day so even if they sort of lost, it didn’t matter. He played really well and we had a blast. Today is writing, bill-paying, errands, and more parent-care. I’m still pacing around my WIP’s ending, trying to bring all of the storylines into a tight conclusion. There are parts of it I really like now. It is very tempting to send out these favorite parts to my editor, but then she’d ask “So where’s the rest?” and I’d have to shuffle, stare at my toes, and mutter some stupid excuse. So I have to hold on to the WHOLE thing until it is 100% finished. Gah.

There is a wasp on my window right now. I am hoping he doesn’t notice me here. I am getting a little paranoid at all these insect encounters I’ve been having.

We went to the gym again this morning so we feel achy, but virtuous.