Lord and Lady, what a weird night. I went to bed about 1 a.m. and stayed up until 2 reading. At 3, I turned the light back on. I was too hot because I’d accidentally turned off the ceiling fan, and my brain was doing all sorts of weird things, and I was terminally thirsty. So I fixed the fan and my thirst, and although I really did feel terribly tired, I decided to read some more to get my brain off the strange and horrible tracks it gets into when I’m tired and can’t sleep.

I was still reading at 3:30 when the phone rang, scaring me half to death. Because let’s face it, when your phone rings at 3:30 a.m., it’s not a telemarketer or your best friend calling to chat. It means something’s _wrong_. However, all I got on the other end was some weird beeping, and it took several tries of turning the phone on and off to get a dial tone again. So it was a phone glitch. My heart stopped trying to pound its way out of my chest…eventually.

I read until 4, flopped around awhile, and obviously ended up falling asleep at one point. I think someone knocked on the door later, or it could have been the gardener working next door; it’s hard to tell what direction some sounds come from. Eventually, at 10:30 a.m., with far less sleep than I can usually function on, I was awake. Period. Argh.

So now I’m moving slower than usual, and I just don’t want to face the projects on my desk, or exercise. I want to lie on the sofa and read. But a novel this does not produce. So I’m making a cup of tea and will be forcing myself to get on with my day. Like this journal entry…

Okay, there. The prologue, first two chapters, and synopsis for _What Beck’ning Ghost_, my first paranormal romance, are ready to be printed and sent out. I just need to write a pitch line, and call the publisher to get the name of the person to send it to.

Dammit! I just saw the first hummingbird by our feeder. But, the food in it has faded from red to clear, and the hummingbird didn’t try it out. I can only hope it’s simply going back to tell its friends.

What else have I done today? Answered a lot of e-mail. Critted Teresa’s story. Wrote and send my second-quarter protégé report to Albra. None of this, alas, counted towards my words for the day. It’s already 5 p.m. and I haven’t exercised, either. Ken will be home at about 6. Drat drat drat. (On the lack of time, not that Ken’s home soon, of course!)

Ken’s home! Happy, joy. We went out to the Acapulco with his dad, Mitch, and dad’s wife, Anita. I had the funky shrimp—they were stuffed with crab and wrapped in bacon. Unfortunately, the bacon was too salty and mostly overwhelmed the taste of the shrimp and crab. Not bad, but not as great as they should have been. The homemade salsa we got as an appetizer was stellar, though.

Afterwards, Ken and I stopped at the store to pick up some food for the event tomorrow, and then we went to the video store. After much deliberating, we rented “Kate and Leopold”. It’s becoming apparent that we won’t be watching it tonight. We came home and sort of collapsed on the sofa for awhile and read the newspaper. Then I went out to the sewing room and zigzagged along the edge of two pieces of woven cloth for basket covers, and I found all my garb and jewelry and headcoverings (much of which is in the garage due to the renovation of the library, where all of it used to be). It’s now 11:40 p.m. I haven’t made the pasties or the hard-boiled eggs, and I have no interest in doing so. We’ll probably pick up bread and cheese on the way.

I worked on a short story, “The Birds of Llanaderyn”, before Ken got home. It’s one that Teresa and I co-wrote. I need to rewrite the ending so I can turn it in as Spinners next week. I didn’t get to any rewriting, though, just tweaking and fixing up until the part that needs to be redone. So I don’t have any words to count for today. Yet. I haven’t fallen asleep yet. Although I’d rather be curled up with Ken… I only have three days with him before he leaves again. Dammit.