Mortaine’s Blog

Well, the party was, as usual, a success. I honestly have only the nice things that my guests say ater they leave and email me later in the week to go on, but I think it was a good party. The only thing missing was my good friend, Brian, who is still MIA in Europe, without even an email to let us know how he’s doing. Although other guests weren’t able to make it, Brian has been to every Halloween party we’ve hosted, including the year I wasn’t there (due to a wedding), so it was strange to have him absent this year (I hear he comes home this week).

Yesterday marked the 1st anniversary of my cousin’s wedding. I am now, officially, Impolite for not having sent them a wedding present before now. Also, it’s inappropriate to send the wedding present after the baby shower gift, unless the baby is born less than a year after the wedding (the grace period for wedding gifts is 1 year). I got the baby shower invite 2 weeks ago– guess I’d better scurry up and go shopping!

Friday is the start of NaNoWriMo. It is also 1 week before the MA exam. I am. . . . preparing for a meltdown, I think.

I bought hiking boots today.

They fit.

This tells me the universe has shifted into a new gyre.

Yeats was right.

We are all

doomed.

The Halloween party was last night. Lasted until 1 AM (including daylight savings times), which makes for an early night, all things considered. But the party started off slow, due to watching the last hour or so of Game 6– I cannot believe the Angels won. Between the time I got up to answer the door and the time I opened it, they had picked up the lead. Eep!

Anyway, the party was much fun. It was really cool to meed and her boyfriend, Drew. I did Tarot readings for everyone– lots of BSing folks into believing there’s going to be great things after great hardship, yadda yadda ya.

We did the Haunted Gingerbread house thing again this year. Sienna’s came out so beautiful– I will post pictures later today. They were really fantabulous.

I went low-key on the decorations this year, too. I did that last year as well. I didn’t have a lot of time to work on the decorations because of our travel plans the week before, so I figure, what we got is pretty darn good.

might be joining the Santa Cruz City Band (yes, that’s a link for you, ), after I told her about it and showed her the music, she got pretty excited about the prospect. She’s another bass clarinetist, which would be pretty cool. I’m going to have to drop until the Spring, but I wouldn’t feel as bad if she took my spot.
My legs and feet are killing me today! I need to get new inserts for my Mephistos, and I probably need new high tops as well.

John is getting more and more into the “imagining I’m backpacking” trip. Ah, well. He needs a hobby, and I can understand the lure. I’m not going to discourage him in this, even though I personally seem to court the “my boots have turned my feet into hamburger” type of hiking. Sigh. We will go back and forth on this one, but secretly, I want him to win– I want to enjoy hiking again.

Well, I’m off to either go get mocha, post my pictures from last night, or go shopping for hiking books (urk!).

Today was the first day I actually felt confident about taking the exam!!! Wheee! Inga & I went over the questions on a past exam, and I felt more comfortable with the answers I would be able to provide. It also helped to focus in on the poems that I should read in the next 3 weeks, as we get closer and closer to exam day.

Inga also wants to re-read Beowulf this winter, after my exam, in preparation for her GRE this April. Whee! I love Beowulf! And she had syllabi for me to look at to compare for the science fiction class in the Spring.

When I got back from lunch/study group, I got an email from my boss reminding us that, because of our ship date, we should plan to work over the shutdown week. Erp! I was planning on finishing my novel that week! Oh, well. At least I won’t be losing paycheck over it! Still, I think we should have been notified earlier– a lot of people probably planned vacations with their families for that week, and now they won’t be able to go. Of course, most of the folks in my dept. are Chinese, so sacrificing a family vacation for work is a cultural virtue.

Sigh.

I then went through my proposed writing schedule for the novel and decided that I could probably write 500 words each morning, and at least 1200 words each night, using the weekends to catch up for that first week when I won’t be able to do much at all. In the end, with my imaginary schedule for writing, I ended up with over 50,000 by midnight of November 30. Whether I actually manage to “walk the walk,” is another story entirely. It will be easier if my favorite TV shows can find it in themselves to go into re-runs next month, I must say.

I’m meeting with my study partner today, going over a group of poems by female writers this week. I think next week I’ll see if she wants to go over a sample exam or something, since the test is in about 3 weeks now (EEEP!)

I currently have 9 confirmed “Yes” RSVPs for my party, with 4 “Maybes” and 2 or 3 folks who have verbally told me they’re planning to come.

Tonight’s to-do list:

• Laundry
• vacuum
• declutter living room and put away the dining room table
• Febreeze the house (dog smells!)
• Declutter piano area
• declutter guest bathroom
• check chemicals in hot tub

Tomorrow’s to-do list:

• Clean master bathroom
• declutter den and finish snake wig
• buy Halloween costume (for John) and costuming bits and pieces (to embarrass non-costumed party guests!)
• pick up John at airport, if needed

Friday:

• Shop for Halloween party food
• decorate the house for party
• select music for party
• balance chemicals in hot tub
• crash!

Saturday:

• Make food
• put on costume and makeup
• Start the party goin’!

Sunday:

• Clean up, but leave decorations up.
• Crash!
• Reset clock
• Study for exam