Where, oh where, did my free time go?

It's 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. I already had to go to the grab n' stab corner liquor store to buy some milk for my coffee. Soon Heather and I will walk to the Farmer's Market to buy some fresh fruit, which usually takes about an hour, if we don't stop for lunch. Around 2:30 I have to leave for Pacifica, where my writing group is meeting this month. After that, I come back to the East Bay and head to a birthday party. Then I'll come home and, in all likelihood, fall to sleep afterward. And somewhere in there I have to shower, and I should really do some dishes...

It's all fun stuff, and I'll enjoy it all, but there's not as much sitting-around as I like for any given Saturday. Especially since last weekend was so busy, with going up-and-down to Santa Cruz. I'm getting hungry for some quiet contemplation, sitting in a coffee shop, reading or writing time.

Then again, I shouldn't underestimate the peace-inducing qualities of sitting here now, sipping coffee and writing a journal entry.

Tomorrow will be better -- there's just one thing to do, a birthday party in the afternoon, and we don't even necessarily have to drive to get to that one, since it's happening over by Lake Merritt.

I did get some good, relaxing, hours last night. I sat with Heather, ate Chinese food, and watched a few episodes of (the original BBC version of) Coupling; apart from the annoying laughtrack, I liked it quite a lot. Breezy, funny stuff. Then I settled in for the real treat of the evening. Yesterday at work we got the galleys for Terry Pratchett's new for-grown-ups Discworld novel, Going Postal. My boss let me borrow one for the weekend. I read it all last night, and oh, it's good. One of Pratchett's more ambiguously moral protagonists, some good villains, lots of funny stuff. I won't go into great detail, but it's about the Patrician's attempts to get the Ankh-Morpork Post Office, long abandoned, into working condition again, and the unlikely candidate he appoints as Postmaster. And, natch, there are those who want to make sure the Post Office fails, at any cost...

Who but Pratchett could make a story about the Post Office so interesting? Well, okay, Bukowski, but that's for an entirely different value of interesting...

I don't know why I didn't update this week. There wasn't a lot of movement, I guess, at least, not writing-wise. I got a rejection from Sci Fiction, but it's only the second place that story's been, so no worries yet. I'm reading Maul by Tricia Sullivan and James Morrow's new collection, The Cat's Pajamas. I haven't been writing, but I don't feel too bad, because this was crunch week at work; we finished the August issue. After a day of cranking away nonstop on the issue, I don't feel much inclined to go home and work on the computer. This next week should be better for writing, particularly since I have my once-fortnightly Wednesday off coming up. Then we're off for fun in the sun in North Carolina for the whole first week of August! Whoo!

I should be getting the first half of my advance for Rangergirl next week, which will help a lot with travel expenses. It will also help with paying back a friend who loaned us a fair bit of money in our time of need, and buying an ipod (my one completely selfish indulgence), and paying for some dental work, and of course one should not underestimate the value of actually having some money salted away for a rainy day (or, more likely, a wedding day...).