5 November 2003

Good morning. Several of you have told me to feel better. Funny thing about that. Okay, actually it's not all that funny. It's just that I don't feel better. If anything, I feel worse. But I know what to do about it (keep resting, hydrating, getting vitamin C etc.), so I'm not particularly psychologically downbeat. I have had the problem of knowing that I'm not nearly as sick as I was that one time, so my brain has been attempting to tell me that means I'm "not really very sick." And on the scale of one to death, I'm pretty close to one. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't hydrate, keep my fuzzy slippers on, rest, etc.

I didn't put on real clothes yesterday. I showered and put on fresh jammies. Some days are just like that. Timprov fetched the mail and made orange sesame stuff for dinner. We watched "Empire Strikes Back." I put up move pictures. And I read, and read, and read. I finished My Teacher Is an Alien and read another Bruce Coville, I Was a Sixth Grade Alien. And I read another of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Alice books, Reluctantly Alice, and I can't say it was improved by its close proximity to its sequel. They felt way too similar to me, but I suppose some people find that comforting. And I read Gail Carson Levine's The Wish, which I liked. And then there were the Maud Hart Lovelaces: Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown and Betsy Was a Junior. And I just now finished Carney's House Party, which is an offshoot of the Betsy-Tacy series. I never read it as a kid -- it was apparently hard to find for awhile -- so it was neat to see what else the author had done with the characters. Next it'll be Marguerite Henry's Misty of Chincoteague. And I pray that if I have a child who has a "horse book phase," it's a short one.

My mom said that it was a good day to curl up with a book, a cup of tea, a fire in the fireplace, and a puppy. And I told her that .500 is a fabulous average for the majors. It would be a great time to have a dog, though. An already-trained puppy who makes worried puppy faces at sick people and sits on their lap and tries to get them not to go anywhere when they're coughing. Yes. I would be pretty happy with worried puppy faces just now.

I sing a lot. I notice this a lot more when I can't. This happens every time I get sick. It's no longer quite such a stunning revelation, but it's still true.

I need printer ink. Also, a thorough cleaning of the printer would be a wise thing. Mark usually does that, though, and just now we have no Mark. I also have no rejections in several days. We're also shortish on stamps, so it's probably just as well. I owe Liz a letter, though, so the printer and the stamps are a bit of an annoyance.

Enough of an annoyance for me to go out in the cold and buy stamps and ink? No. We also need to go to the county seat and the DMV and get a snow shovel and take the car in and get rolls and flour and another bookshelf and several other things, but none of them have us desperate yet. Timprov is battling off the cold. C.J. was fighing mightily last night (and prevailing more than I did). I can stand up and wander around and such, but it's in some ways best if I limit that. In the not sliding to the ground ways, for example. I'm not really dizzy: I don't have to go lie down. It's not a bad idea, but I don't have to. But driving seems like a suboptimal plan in those circumstances, if it's not strictly necessary. Why not take advantage of working from home as much as I can?

It's not you to whom I'm justifying these things, you understand.

In some ways, reading all these children's books makes me want to write one of the chapter books I've thought of, or at least another young adult novel. But in some ways working on grown-up projects is a relief, a good break or something. The pile of books to read for fun or for projects that don't have immediate deadlines is calling to me from beside my desk. But it will have to wait.

Hee. I just alarmed someone with the wrong number. I croaked, "Hello?" at him, and he said, "Julie?" Um, no. And aren't you glad Julie isn't sick! Heehee.

Okay. More tea for me. Be well. Be well-er than I am.