Despite massive waiting times for both buses this morning, my November is starting out wonderfully well. "Some Girlfriends Can" was published this morning on Strange Horizons, and I am just ecstatic about it. (To leap straight over to the story, click here.) I raced through my morning routines (breakfast, face-washing, etc.) so that I would have time to look online before we left for our morning writing session. When I saw the story listed on Strange Horizons' main content page, I shrieked so loudly that Nika came tearing downstairs to see what was the matter! I am shamelessly mega-happy about the whole thing.

Sadly, the buses took forever this morning, so we only had about forty minutes in the cafe, and I spent most of the time just brainstorming for Chapter Seven of The Music of the Stars. I only managed to actually write about a paragraph of it, but on the bright side, I also plotted out most of the rest of the chapter, so it still counted as a productive session. Then I went back out to the bus stop to come back home, and waited...and waited...and waited...

Waiting for the bus (10 minutes late...15 minutes late...maybe not coming?), I was reminded of the old fairy tales about genies trapped in bottles, who spent the first 1000 years of imprisonment planning the small fortunes they would give as rewards to their rescuers. The second 1,000 years, they upped the stakes, and planned palaces, fabulous wealth and amazing beauties to give as rewards to whoever let them free. By the end of the 3rd 1,000 years of sitting cramped up in those damn bottles, though, the genies were so unbelievably PO'd, they decided they were just going to kill whichever human was stupid enough to finally open those bottles.

I felt much the same way. However, not wanting to get kicked off the bus when it finally came (20 minutes late), I contented myself with just sending snitty mental vibes to the bus driver, while smiling tightly. I'm not convinced it had any real effect...

Now I'm about to start work for the PhD (article! statement of purpose for new job application! thesis chapter!), while Nika sleeps on the couch behind me. I will NOT join her! I will be strong today! Not like the other days! I've reformed...really!