BH: 344

Blessed Samhain and Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone!

I forgot to mention that yesterday I received a copy of Glyph, Issue 10, which contains my story “Blood & Promises”. (My response to the expectation that the wife will take care of the children.) They forgot the middle initial in my name, which I always use, so this one won’t show up in search engines. Ah well. Along with it came my whopping big payment cheque of $6.40. I spent more that half of it on a frozen mocha at Borders last night. Bde.

I slept really well last night, and dozed in bed for awhile, and was amazed to see it was only 9:20 a.m. when I finally sat up. Huh. My throat’s feeling scratchy again, and I’m fearing a cold. I’m resisting it mightily, but fearing it all the same.

From an e-mail to a friend: “Ugh. I think I'm coming down with a cold. This pisses me off. I really wanted to get through this year w/o another cold, and be pleased that my better health habits and daily echinacea actually meant something. Plus, getting a cold right when I'm diving into Blackwood House just sucks. CAN'T YOU SEE I'M BUSY HERE?! (she shouts at the Powers That Be. Who, as usual, ignore her completely.)”

Only Maren is coming over tonight for Samhain. This is what I get for trying to arrange things too late. Ah well. We’ll do some sewing, and talk, and toss candy at little monsters, and watch “Practical Magic”. It’ll be fun.

I think I need to paint my doorbell glow-in-the-dark orange. All the kiddies are knocking, and one group just yelled trick-or-treat like I was going to hear them from the other end of the house. (That was the annoying group of boys who took more than one piece of candy and didn’t sound nearly sincere enough with their thank-yous.) Ah well. I have on my black lace skirt and top, extra make-up, witch’s hat, and one purple-and-white striped over-the-knee sock and one purple-and-black striped over-the-knee sock.

My brain is slow from the cold. Blah. It’s been hard to get the energy to do anything today. I got a little writing done, went shopping. Put up some decorations (purple lights around the door, candles and little pumpkins). Copy edited a little. Blah.

Yup. Definitely sick. I don’t have to go anywhere tomorrow, so if I’m feeling awful I’ll just grab the laptop and crawl back into bed. The change of scenery might do me good.

I had a lovely evening with Maren, chatting about everything and nothing. Gave out lots of candy to surprisingly cute children (mostly). There were almost no product-placement costumes—two Spidermen, and I think that was it. No PowerPuff Girls or Spongebob Squarepants or whatnot. For girls, cheerleaders seem to be the In thing. For boys, athletic uniforms, although there were a fair number of vampiric-types, and a group of commandos. Anyway, we drank and chatted and ate cookies (er, Maren and I, not the monsters), and never got around to watching “Practical Magic”. So now I’m going to light the candle for my departed and faraway ones, and go to bed, and see if I can sleep without Nyquil (but I’ll take it in a heartbeat if I have to). Blessings of the season to you all.