Monday, Monday, Monday, and the biggest crisis of the day is that my grocery-shopping buddy (with car!) can't go with me to Tesco's this afternoon after all.... Y'know, this is the kind of crisis I can handle.

It's windy and rainy outside, but I took Nika out for her walk early this morning, while the weather was still sunny and pretty, I've done an hour and a half of admin work for my teaching assistantship, and I've written four pages of Chapter Seventeen in my new novel. I'm feeling pretty good.

This weekend was lovely. Saturday afternoon, we went out to downtown Leeds and had a really wonderful time looking for wedding stuff. I had a Near-Tragic Tiara Moment (OK, for those of you staring at this sentence, just be aware that in the UK, tiaras are The Items for brides to wear, and I need one!) when I tried one on in Debenhams, and it didn't seem to even remotely fit. And then I realized that they were all the same size. And my head was too big for a tiara! Aaaugh! How much of a big-headed monster can anyone cope with being? Luckily, we then went to a wedding shop to find out if tiaras ever came in different sizes, and although they don't, the wedding salesperson laughed at me nicely and set one straight on my head, where it fit perfectly. Turns out I'd been putting them on the wrong way. Who knew? Maybe some women spend their whole lives knowing how to wear a tiara (and practicing?). Me, I'm just happy to have an excuse to buy one, and I'm planning to wear it as often as possible after the wedding--I will definitely wear it when writing, also whenever I'm feeling insecure, and then, no doubt, any time I can come up with a good rationalization. Luckily, I'm pretty creative that way......

And hey, I'm a nerdy academic and writer who spends most of her time on the computer (or reading musty books). How can I resist the lure of sparkly pretty girly things, when I actually get a good excuse????

Tomorrow I'm heading to the British Library to stare greedily at eighteenth-century musical scores, scratch my head, and think, "What? What?! What the heck is that word?"--because sadly, I doubt that I'll be very good at reading Antonio Salieri's handwriting. But I'm excited about getting the chance to try.