It’s been a 98 percent awful sucky lousy month. We’re just about half-way through and I’m beginning to think it’s salvageable. But when you have someone sick at home, who you really have to take care of, and you’re not all that strong to begin with, and well, shit.

Since the convention and the news that Octavia Butler had died, it’s been pretty downhill. Wonder where I’ve been? Here. Stu caught something that started out acting like “wow, that was a tiring event” post-con “hey, we’re not 25 any more” weariness but still seemed out of proportion for just a couple of days. He ended up with a raging fever and chills. He doesn’t get sick often, and this is certainly the first time since he was diagnosed with diabetes which oh man, so complicates things. When you’re sick and exhausted and have no appetite, it’s hard enough trying to eat. When you’re diabetic, it’s pretty critical that you do it anyway. At one point he was dizzy and fell down in the bathroom; I wasn’t aware of it, but he ended up lying there for a while. You can see how I’ve been a little crazed. So through let’s see, a fever that spiked at 103, me trying to find anything he’d be willing to eat, a commitment to work on a fund-raiser which I did, meeting Patty for coffee, which was one of the few nice things about March, dealing with a delivery company that is so inept that we still don’t know where the hell it allegedly put the book it was supposed to bring me (which appeared four days later), well, shit. All of a sudden it was time for Left Cost in Bristol which no I’m not at, and not attending, but I have a table there and am supposed to have people staffing it along with papers – flyers and progress reports and stuff. I was too dopey to realize how behind I was on everything and suddenly am writing to people I should have written to weeks ago. I meant to call my guest of honor the other day to check in with her and forgot.

I made my writing deadlines for Library Journal – oh man – by the skin of my teeth and no thanks to DHL. It’s for the April 1 issue – two new author “Q&As”. I had been approached by my editor Wilda with the usual “short notice” (they always are racing against deadline – I think she’s doing like 3 people’s jobs) and I want to write for LJ because, well hell, they’re a print publication, they’re a library publication and it’s a chance to what, have a say? Make an impression, maybe get some folks to look at a book or two. And Q&As are, I admit, different animals from reviews; hell, you don’t even have to like a book to ask the author intelligent questions about it. Although it helps.
I had no trouble getting the first book from them – and had a blast interviewing the author. Look for Louise Penny’s STILL LIFE coming out in July; a “traditional” mystery set in Quebec. DHL managed to screw up the delivery of Casey Daniels’ book but I got an extension, managed to read the book (with the fine title DON OF THE DEAD) and happily, Casey was there and able to reply to my questions in time for me to make my extended deadline. Pant, pant pant. In the mist of all this, I called Wilda, which I never do (I’m cheap, I don’t call New York when I’m getting paid all of $50 for something) to let her know about the screw up and as we talked she said “you can always pitch me an idea, or an interview” and I said “oh, goody, I’d SO love to do a Q&A of Cornelia Read.” Heh-heh. Well, I already knew that LJ had good things to say about A FIELD OF DARKNESS and so boom, there was Andi’s next assignment.
After coming home on March 7 and going to bed because he was so tired (this is SO unlike Stu as to be croggling) and staying out of work sine then, he now appears to have finally gotten mostly over the attack of the bug which left him coughing so bad neither of us slept for days. (The 103 fever only showed once; it then went down to 101.7 and then a day later, totally normal. I was THIS CLOSE to taking him to the ER because I was so crazed that he wasn’t getting enough food in and was freaked about diabetic reactions.) And there he was apologizing because he find Campbell’s chicken noodle soup more comforting than homemade. Even if mine is pretty fabulous.
The fundraiser was for Prosthetics Outreach foundation, one of my favorite non-profits. I found them sort of by accident once and they’re one of the charities that gets money if you click over at Thechildhealthsite.com which I try to do daily (as with theliteracysite.com – see above). But honestly? They could have done it without me. But I did get a present for my sister there. And I got to meet someone I just HAD to meet; the new development director for POF is named Shira Rosen. You gotta imagine the shock I got getting email from her. For those scratching their heads, SJ Rozan’s first name is “Shira”. I use it interchangeably with SJ, but tend to think of the latter as “SJ” mostly and her email does not come from “Shira Rozan” so was I confused.
I also had an appointment with the rheumatologist this week; first one in months, first one since I started on the Fosamax. He decided it’s time for me to consult with an orthopedist and to get a new CT scan. So Friday I got the scan (the fastest CT I’ve ever had) and Monday saw the orthopedist, a fine doctor named Sorensen. Nothing new folks, just still working on what to do about Andi. Sorensen DID think I should consult with some very fancy-schmancy guys at his hospital but they aren’t sure they could do me any good – or get Medicare to pay for treatment – so for now, I’m sorry to report, I can’t do the cool story I was going to about hyperbaric medicine. We’ll see…
I’ve been so ragged that I haven’t managed after a week to figure out how to use my new cell phone. My mother sent it to me; it took me a while to figure out where it came from. I managed also to lose an ARC of a book I wanted to read and would like to comment on the courtesy of certain authors who are willing to overlook such rudeness and send me another one – thank you Naomi.

In all this was my birthday (thus the phone maybe) which was a complete total bust of course, except for having coffee with my friend Adam. But not that it was a big deal but it just didn’t happen this year; Stu did arrange for flowers and we still have some lovely tulips in the house and at least one of my gifts showed on time but I’ve been too tired to watch it (penguins, oh boy!)

Life has gotten on the road back to normal; it turns out that the reason the doctor did not return my two attempts to reach her (I don’t usually call doctors on weekends or after hours, but I needed shall we say guidance) was that the doctor’s pager disappeared on her this weekend – and how are you to tell anyone that? He wanted me with him at the appointment – he was feeling a big vague and not tracking still and we were fortunate once again in our friends, as Vonda was willing to give us and lift AND to wait and bring us home. (Giving directions to this doctor’s office is now one of THOSE routines since it’s “go past where the Albertson’s used to be”; they’ve torn down the local supermarket that was the major landmark in that area.)

Giving Stu antibiotics against the pneumonia that seems to be in his lungs and some codeine for the cough was astonishing; he’s stopped coughing. And he slept last night; me? I haven’t gotten the hang of it yet, and was up every hour on the half hour, don’t ask me why. The tired of course is partly due to how much I hurt, since I’ve been cooking and washing dishes and trying to nurse someone who’s ill – he was absolutely undemanding but he really did need tending to – dehydration is a bad thing for a diabetic and that whole “falling down” think was a bit nerve-wracking.

I did get asked if I’d be at all interested in doing an interview of Harley Kozak for bookreporter.com. I basically emailed back going “oh, MAN did you ask the right person” and then found out that Harley’s actually gonna be in town next month. One of my other presents arrived yesterday, no, not the bunny DVD, but a book on the work and writing of Aaron Sorkin, who created “West Wing” and wrote “The American President” and is one of my Big Deal favorite scriptwriters. Anyone who created CJ Cregg is on that all-time list.

And Stu just made himself lunch, which means he no longer feels like he’s going to fall over and that food almost interests him again. I can actually focus on more than one paragraph at a time and can even think about writing that review I owe Linda. Real soon. And this week, dammit, I am going to figure out how to program the damn cell phone. Or I’m going to hire Adam’s teenage daughter, who will be able to do it in seconds flat.

And as soon as I think I'm not on the verge of tears, (only fell apart once, which I really didn't want to to but well, never mind, but it was justified, I tell you) which I seem to have been for so MANY days now, I'm sure i'll be happier.