In Which Our Heroine Keeps Shoveling

18 December 2003

I dreamed of a half-Yoruban witch who was Baba Yaga's half-sister and the patron witch of transsexuals. Dude. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a patron witch. Now I do.

It started snowing when C.J. left last night, and it was still snowing when I went down and got the paper half an hour ago. We have to shovel before fetching Michelle from the airport. If it's still snowing, we may also have to shovel after fetching Michelle. But we need the precipitation here, and I desperately want a white Christmas, and I like snow. I fear, however, that we will need a scoopy shovel by January. You know how there are two kinds of shovels, the pushy kind and the scoopy kind? We have the pushy kind so that, theoretically, someone with a bad back, if we had anyone like that here, would not have to do a lot of hoisting and carrying of shovels full of snow. But it's piling up in places like right near the mailbox, and we're having to scoop there to get the snow to the top of the pile, and at some point we will probably decide that we might as well get a shovel designed for scooping if we're going to scoop anyway.

It was a very social day for me yesterday, the sort of day that underscores that, no, I really am not an extrovert. I can have a great time playing one, but unlike a true extrovert, I will be beat-down exhausted long before my bedtime if I do. But it was worth it. Jon came late, due to an alternator problem that (luckily) manifested itself before he left Tessa's rather than after. And (of course) we had a good time. Got introduced to Dar Williams with the song "Christians and Pagans," which is a fabulous Christmas song. Got a list of colonial Mexico book recommendations. Got hugs and a good bagel. All very nice.

Then Stella and Mike and Roo came, and we introduced Roo to the piano and to one of my sturdier Christmas music boxes and generally had a really good time hanging out. We thought about watching "Real Genius," because they really and truly do need to see it, but we were doing fine just talking for awhile; we can save "Real Genius" for some time when the Rooage is less adorable. So somewhere around 2015, then....

The plan for seeing "Return of the King" has altered significantly. The original plan was to wait until Mark got home, then wait until the opening weekend crowds had thinned out, then wait until the pre-Christmas Teenagers Out Of School were gone, then wait until my family had gone home, then wait until Mark and I had gotten home from Milwaukee. Which is, you will note, a lot of waiting, and gets us to this movie on the 30th at the very earliest. But Mark is going this morning with his work people. So while we may go again sometime in January, the "wait until Mark gets home" component of the plan has gone. Tomorrow. My plan for tomorrow is to go to the chiropractor (shoveling first, if necessary), then run Christmas shopping errands, then stop by C.J.'s, then go to the movie.

But first, today's plan, which involves shoveling, driving to the airport, driving down to Hastings to drop Michelle off, and work on stories and novel and house stuff. I think it'll be good, but there's only one way to find out.

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