1 May 2003

I have to say, I'm jealous of Greg doing his May YA novel dare. He's writing a YA in the month of May. And I have many, many things that are more important for me to do, and I'm the one who decided that they're more important, so I really should be fine with this. But it was so neat to just plow through The World Builders in August, and I had a lot of fun...and I have the next SF YA I'd do pretty totally clear in my head, so it's just a matter of sitting down and writing it....

But no. Now is not the time for that. I have things to edit and things to finish and things to do from scratch, and all of them are just as exciting and interesting as the SF YA, if not more so. I can wait. I can be patient.

I'm still jealous.

And speaking of waiting and being patient (and jealous), another of my friends is pregnant. Dang! I guess we're just at that part of our lives, and I'll be glad to have babies to borrow, but...dang! I believe that is Pregnant Person #6 in my life right now. That's a mighty lot of pregnant people. It's a good thing I like babies.

I am restraining the urge to go buy lots of blue puppy booties. But I'm not sure how long the urge will be restrained.

Still no May baskets. Maybe next year, when it wouldn't take me a million trillion years to deliver them all.

I have a bit of a sore throat and a headache. I think I'm mostly just socialed out for the moment. We've had a lot of people and activity in the last few days, and everything is coming in just a little too loud and smelling just a little too strong right now. I'm glad to be having some quiet time around here this morning, and some work time. I finished "Moss" up yesterday and sent it out, so I'll be doing essay or Not The Moose Book stuff today. And then taking Timprov to the doctor, and then, if we figure something out this morning, meeting up with Liz and Tor for dinner in Chinatown.

We took them south yesterday, lunch in Half Moon, stopping off at San Gregorio on our way down. I know there are other beaches down that way, but San Gregorio is big, not usually crowded, nice, and so changeable. The stream going down into the sea was ten times wider than last we were there, and the slope near it was steeper. This time, there was a snake on the path (I took a picture -- I'll show you later) and the little mollusks were shedding fine, papery skins. It's a good place. The other beaches on that stretch of Highway 1 are nice, but it's not like we're experiencing the same thing over and over at San Gregorio -- it changes whenever we come back. Anyway, then we went down to Santa Cruz and got coffee and rosemary potato bread and used books and CDs. And then we came back and got the stuff for Liz's gyoza recipe, and we all ate manymany gyoza, and it was good good.

I talked to my friend who lost his girlfriend -- I guess I can just say that it was Andrew now. I didn't really want anybody to find out from my journal. (I also don't want to spill the beans on the pregnant people, either, in case mutual friends are reading, so I'll wait to name names.) Andrew's girlfriend's name was Chris, and her picture with him and me is here at the bottom of the page, and I'm truly sorry she's gone. Anyway, I talked to Andrew, and he's not doing any better than you'd expect, but also not any worse. His parents are there, so that's good. I'll call again soon. It's all I can do for now. Maybe when we get home, there'll be something better. Anybody who has suggestions for anything better, please, speak up. Your wisdom is appreciated.

But I'm trying to stay focused on the positives (and thanks for helping me do that, Newly Pregnant Lady!), and I think it'll be a decent day around here. I'll do what I can to make sure of it.