Had a lovely evening with britzkrieg and rigel_kent. They grilled up portabello mushroom burgers and home-grown veggies for dinner. There was much feasting. Wonderful conversation and delicious food! Hobkin was somewhat miffed at being abandoned for so long, but we bribed him with leftover fruit salad and all was well.
I have many Daily Dragon website updates to make. I can’t believe how soon Dragon*Con is.
Went to the Shakespeare Tavern last night to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was excellent, again. I think it was better this time than last. There were more off-the-cuff jokes, including what I assume was an honest oopsie by one of the actors who said “bugger” instead of “begger.” Much hilarity ensued. I laughed right out loud frequently and helplessly throughout. They got a standing “O” and well deserved it.
Learned that one of my Dragon*Con Daily Dragon staff is unable to make the convention this year, so had to do a mad scramble to fill his vacancy. It appears to be copacetic now. Got me a network person!
Watched Hobkin hunt, kill, and eat 
a big, black spider-person this morning. I was impressed. He actually ran after and caught the thing by himself. Poor spider-person, though.
Otherwise, an exceedingly unproductive writing day.
My Dragon*Con gears are beginning to turn. Sent out the first email to my staff, sent a note to the signage director to confirm the big schedule grid signs I need will be printed, and fired off a note to the director of the YA Lit. track asking her when the panels she wants me to talk at will be. Hoping they don’t conflict with my “marketing short stories” talk for Ann at her workshop.
Wingstubs are pissing me off. Took Clonazepam last night. Slept well, but still in pain.
Ducked out of work a couple hours early yesterday to catch a matinée of The Village with Matthew. M. Night Shyamalan hasn’t been able to repeat the oooo-factor of Sixth Sense. He’s trying. You can see the formula grinding away in the movies he’s made since: good actors and acting, paranormal happenings, twisty twisty twisty. But this time the twists were rather on the lame side. I predicted the “big” revelation way, way in advance, and there were some rather gaping plot holes. The acting, however, was excellent, as was the cinematography. The young Howard lass did a damn fine job. I also like how Shyamalan consistently tries to make all of his characters sympathetic. But in the end, The Village was disappointing.
Okay, meditation helps while I’m meditating. But as soon as I stop, the pain and breathing distress returns. And I can’t go around with my eyes shut, crossed-legged, focusing on my breathing all day! Stupid wing stubs.
In continued irritation news, the lock on Hobkin’s enclosure broke yesterday. It’s the fourth one that’s done so. While I think Rover Gate makes a great product in general, their clasps suck. With repeated use, the plastic gets fatigued and snaps in half. Right now, we’re “locking” his little door shut by a twist tie. It won’t hold for long if he works at it, but we’re hoping that he doesn’t realize the lock is broken and equates “closed door” with “locked door.” At least until our order of a new set of Rover Gate clasps arrives. I keep telling myself that I need to brainstorm a better locking mechanism and pick up something the next time we’re at Home Depot, but instead, we end up buying more RG clasps. It’s planned obsolescence, I sez! Pffft.
Also received an email from my mother. Her and my step-dad (that’s feeling more natural as time passes . . . huh), are going to be in the states in a couple months and will be swinging by Atlanta for a weekend. I actually think it’ll be fun seeing them again.
Wingstubs have become a great, aching throb from my shoulders to my fingertips. Also experiencing some really distressing breathing issues. I think I’m stressed, although I can’t for the life of me figure out why I should be more stressed now than at any other time. Things are on a fairly even keel . . . I think.
Took .25 mg of Clonazepam last night. I noticed that my breathing eased up quickly after taking it, another good indicator that my physical ailments have a root cause in stress. I slept well and woke up without the usual post-drug fog hazing my brain, so I’ve determined once and for all this new dosage works much better for me. But my arms still ache.
Going to try to do some meditating to relax. I’m out of practice–both in meditation and, apparently, relaxation.
Watched The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, of which I have to say: “RAWR!” Laughed myself loopy. People must see it. Go. Shoo!
Woke up this morning before my alarm went off. Hobkin was nestled beside me, snoring and snuffling occasionally, so I thought it safe to wrap him up in the blanket, and sneak off to shower. After all, Matthew was right there. He’d wake up if Hobkin started getting into mischief, right?
Wrong. Very very wrong. While I was in the bathroom, getting ready for work, Hobkin apparently woke up and decided, since I was absent and Matthew was asleep, that meant it was open season on everything he knows would merit many “bad skunk!” and “no!”s. I was getting out of the shower when I heard a loud *thump* in the living room. Hair dripping and half-wrapped in damp towel, I ran out to investigate, and immediately found a pile of black foam/sponge bits on the floor, and a guilty-faced skunk standing over them. He’d been very industrious, ripping one of our speakers, the woofer, to shreds. He’d pried off the front screen part, and was busily tearing out the inner foam section that encircles the sound box when I intruded. I suspect the woofer is now an ex-speaker, but we haven’t yet confirmed it. Sigh.
And, my wingstubs really hurt.
Monday again. Yuck. Major motivation issues, even with a large pot of green tea as encouragement. I seem to be having some general initiative issues of late. Must engage ass in gear . . . wingstubs ache too, which isn’t remotely helpful.
Got a phone call from dire_epiphany yesterday, a frantic plea for assistance. Apparently the printers of the Dragon*Con program book et al. bumped up their deadline, and they wanted all of the documents (guest bios, performer write-ups, etc.) today. She was expected to have 100+ pages of text edited and ready to go in like, negative time.
So, Matthew and I were enlisted in the great editorial marathon to help get everything spell- and grammar-checked, and consistently formatted. Actually, I like editing. I thought it was fun. dire_epiphany still did the lion’s share (and we’re talking gigantic, mammoth-eating cave lion here, not the little bitty modern-day lions). I hope she was able to get some sleep last night . . .
But it really sunk home that Dragon*Con is right around the corner. Eep.
.
.Is it skunk mating season? Hobkin has been positively wild this last week. And he keeps rubbing his chin and face on the wall corners, marking his territory. I actually dosed him with Rescue Remedy this morning, he was so frenzied. First he started trying to tear the speaker screens off, then he tried to wrestle open the printer cabinet, and finally he got a hold of a dangling computer cord which I only managed to retrieve from him with some difficulty. What’s so funny is he’s like a Jekyll and Hyde fuzzy. He’s all sweet and loving in the evening when he wants to snuggle. What a silly, exasperating beastie!
1100 words on the new SF piece. Yay, wordage!
LJ continues acting wonky with its comment emails. I assumed when I started getting LJ replies from entries in July at the beginning of the week they were doing some sort of system upgrade and the kinks would get worked out. But I’m still getting them. Oh well. No harm, I guess.
Wing stubs still hurting. Took a clonazepam at bedtime last night. Woke up decidedly woozy. Careened off the bathroom door lintel and went through the morning in something of a daze. Hobkin gave me a “What’s wrong with you, woman?” look when I kept interrupting his breakfast preparation to go do one thing or another that I’d forgotten about in my post-sedated haze. I believe the error was in taking the full dose. I think from here on in, I’ll be chopping my tablets in half.
