21 September 2003

A few days ago Jenn asked if we had recurring dream themes, and I forgot one. I don't know that it's grand enough to be a theme, really, but it's a motif at least. In my dreams, I can see clearly, and when I'm under a fair amount of stress, this is a problem. There is a part of my brain that knows that I am not supposed to be able to see clearly while I'm sleeping; that if I can, it must mean that I have left my contacts in and am going to damage my eyes. Ack! I sit bolt upright, ready to run for the bathroom to try to mitigate the damage. Then I notice that a) I can no longer see, and b) I am no longer doing whatever it was I was doing before, e.g. fighting wolves, wallpapering hospitals, giving David bobble-head dolls. And, in fact, that activity no longer makes the same good sense it did just a few minutes ago. Because I never put two and two together and figure out that if I'm sleeping, I must be dreaming. Not until I'm sitting bolt upright with a nervous gasp.

Luckily, I do seem to be able to fall asleep again after all that.

Yesterday we accomplished our missions. We found a place for Mark to live (for cheaper than I had feared, too!), and I will not worry that he'll have to live in a decrepit little hovel, because he won't, and it's got a nice fountain for him to walk past on his way in, and it'll be fine. Also we got a cookie tin and some Dajm and cloudberries and the stuff for Timprov's and my project for in the hallway, and I will take pictures of it when we're done with it, which will be after we live in Minnesota. Also we got The Lord of Castle Black, and the person on the cover is not Morrolan; the person on the cover looks like the love child of Dan Aykroyd and John Revolting, and Morrolan does not. I know, I know: buying another book before we move? But this way Mark can read it now and Timprov and I can have it as a Moving Book. Are you buying it? It sure sounds reasonable, doesn't it? Also we picked up birthday cards and groceries, dropped off the library books, and fetched Mark's books back from his Stanford office. Which used up all four boxes we brought for that purpose, so I can't pack any more books until I get boxes from Karalee tomorrow.

I could pack up stuff from the deck closet, though, and I might.

Despite all those successes, and despite a happy sandwich and juice at the University Café (which seems to have dropped "Coffee" from its sign, which is fine with me, because it seems to me that all cafés should serve coffee), I arrived home in a terrible mood. It wasn't that the Grand Marnier cake was a bust, either (although it was, and I only ate a few bites of it: you couldn't taste the Grand Marnier at all, and the ganache was four times as thick as the cake, maybe five, and while I like ganache...), or that the soup wasn't pleasant. It was probably that we had driven up and down El Camino Real all afternoon, and it was hot and relentlessly sunny, and I hadn't brought a bottle of water. But Timprov came to the rescue with a string of good ideas culminating in him, not me, being in charge of dinner. So that was good.

Two weeks from today, he and I and C.J. will be getting in the vehicles and driving off, and Mark will be waving us along and then coming after us in a plane. Two weeks. Does that seem like a long time to you? Because it really doesn't seem like very long to me at all.

Today, Mark and I are going up to our old church in Pleasant Hill to say goodbye to people, and then we're grabbing lunch at Pasta Primavera afterwards, so that we can experience the happy tomato stuff on the bread again. I'll talk to the folks when they can -- Grandpa is not doing as well as perhaps he might be, although I'm told it's nothing to worry about, just something to get through, so they're still spending a lot of time at the hospital and will call on the cell phone when they get the chance. I may be finishing my Halloween costume today, or I may not; I will most likely clean a few things, and work on a story or two, and we might call Mark's parents to check up on them and see if they have any news of his grandmother. And there's always the aforementioned deck closet, and also the rest of the list. And we may see Amber this evening. The day is full of possibilities.

I finished Many Waters yesterday, and read Analog, and started Forbidden Journeys: Fairy Tales and Fantasies by Victorian Women Writers. It was a birthday present, but I've been saving it and reading borrowed books instead. And this is when I've been saving it for. Neat.