26 March 2004

I went to the library book sale yesterday and got some good stuff for very little money: nothing was more than a dollar, and a lot of things were a quarter. We may go back this weekend when Mark is home; they have a bag sale on Sunday for even cheaper. And we all know that what we need here is more books. (But cheap! More cheap books! More cheap, out-of-print, impossible-to-find books!)

So I finished Messiah Node, but not until after meeting Lyda and Mason, the latter of whom was very sweet and managed to be sunny even when he was sleepy, and the former of whom was interesting and fun to talk to. I also read one of my library finds, Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane, which is hard to find -- usually it's fairly easy to get the four MP books I reread already. So I didn't quite finish "Michael Banks, Home from the War" last night, but this middle scene here is hard. (Yeah, I know, whine whine.)

So now I'm back to The King's Name, liking it, considering putting this pair on my mom's reading list. She has a birthday in May, so I have to come up with birthday and Mother's Day presents right in a row. I've started keeping files called things like "Momshouldread.doc" and "Michelleshouldread.doc" whenever I see or read something that reminds me of people for whom I buy presents. It's a good thing, having these lists. More lists! Yay, lists!

Mark comes home tonight. It's not one of his obscenely late flights, or so we hope. Last time he had a week in California, I was dozing on the car-ride home. The ten minute car-ride home. Pathetic. I hope not this time.

There's a lot of stuff I'd like to have finished before we go pick him up. I'm feeling scattered, unfocused. Writing a sentence and then wandering off and reading the paper. To a certain extent I think I should just go with it for awhile -- sort the laundry, start the chili, write a few more sentences, track down my state senator's address -- but eventually work needs to get done no matter how I feel. Sigh.

It rained for me yesterday, and thundered. Thundered! It was fabulous. We never got thunder in the Bay Area. I love thunder. I came out of the library and thought I'd spent hours in the book sale, because it was so dark, but it was all the storm. Bliss. I know I've said before that I don't know when the weather is going to stop putting a catch in my throat and a tear in my eye at the sheer enjoyment of being home. The short answer is: not yesterday, and not today. It's gorgeous out today, the more so with a little rain washing some of the winter gravel off. I got to see the hard, warm rain pelting the frozen surfaces of the lakes as I drove home from the grocery store. I love it. It's so wonderful. I think my attention span this morning may be partly due to the whole spring thing. I wore a skirt yesterday and have a dress laid out for today. It's time for that kind of thing. It's time not to have to wear trousers. I've got some bearable ones now, and they're convenient for some things, but...not with a choice, not with a breeze and a few drops of rain, no no no. And I'll have the tights off and bare legs again the minute it hits 70, see if I don't.

I have loved winter. I really have. But if it was winter every day, it'd be no better than the same day over and over again the way it was in California. As well as I love winter, I love seasons better.

All right. Time to focus now. Much yet to be done, and not all of it involves dancing on the newly melted lawn. Not all of it.