O, frabjous day! My literary agency just wired me the first half of my advance for Rangergirl (second half comes once the manuscript is all revised and my editor is happy with it).

I've never in my life has so much money in my bank account. Ever. (Which is actually kind of sad... I still live the paycheck-to-paycheck, spend-any-savings-on-occasional-travel kind of life.) This isn't quit-your-day-job-money by a long stretch, but it's the equivalent of about 3 months pay at said day job, which qualifies it as breathe-a-little-easier money. I'm a happy writer.

Soon, I shall buy an ipod. And then the rest of the money gets put into savings.

As for other kinds of wealth, I had a wonderful weekend with friends and colleagues. On Saturday, after a morning of not working as much as I should have, and a visit to the Farmer's Market, I drove to Pacifica for my writing group. Pacifica is south of San Francisco, along Highway 1, which is an incredibly beautiful and scenic drive, except when the view is totally obscured by fog, as it was on Saturday. The apartment where the group met is perhaps half a block from the ocean, but the water wasn't even really visible with all the fog. It was sunny in Oakland when I left. The Bay Area really does have some astonishing micro-climates. The group was fun, with good talk, good critique, and good snacks (including some wonderful cherries, which I tried not to devour all by myself).

Saturday evening, after a quick dinner of pasta and fresh tomatoes and garlic bread, Heather and I set off for Susan's birthday party. Such fun! I had a nice long talk with Dan (who'd just gotten married!), and drank much beer, and ate much yummy food, and generally enjoyed myself. I met the fabulous Mo, which probably brings me another degree of separation closer to, oh, every online journaler in the world. Heather and I stayed late, as the party wound down, getting to spend some time with Susan and Matt while they didn't have to concentrate on being good hosts. We played MarioKart. I am bad at MarioKart. Around 1:30 or so we headed home, to sleep.

Sunday, after a leisurely morning in which I did get some writing done, we went to Lake Merritt for Mary Anne's birthday party, which was funalicious. Mmm, curry buns. Mmm, fresh fruit. Mmm, cool people whom I rarely see. (Not that the food was more important than the people, by any means.) A nice afternoon, and after the party broke up, Heather and I lolled about on a blanket under a tree and read for a while. Really couldn't have been nicer. I was worried about the weekend being over-social, but the gatherings were so pleasant and relaxed that I didn't feel the urge to go into hermit-mode. Though I'm not going out of my way to make social plans for this week, it's true...