dirtylibrarian

This weekend, I made few plans, I had been sick all week. And now everyone I made plans with is sick. I am feeling really nicely free. Puttering around the house. Washing the mountain of accumulated dishes (I knew I should have tackled those before I went to Portland last week). Cleaning out inboxes. Catching up on book reviews. Making a big effort to seriously reduce the number of books/cds/dvds I have checked out. Too much has piled up, and finally finally finally I am feeling the urges to do some spring cleaning. I actually took down the rack my pans hang from and washed it free of dust, cobwebs, and grease! Having a nice balance of housework and house rest. Feeling glad for my recovered health, nicely recovering shoulder, my lovely house, my nice cat, and life in general.

Feeling like if I can just whittle down the accumulated projects and stuff from around the house, I can put more energy into doing things I dream about doing, but am far too good about making excuses not to. Writing. Making music. Getting fit.

I've been missing LJ, but enjoying twitter so much I didn't care too much. But while it is a fun exercise it isn't a place I ponder and think.

Something stuck in my head this week is the idea that you can form a new habit in 20 days. So I am thinking I am going to try and do 3x10x20. 10 minutes of writing. 10 minutes of making music. 10 minutes towards getting fit. 30 minutes a day, in the home. More = good (still plan to swim/run/gym), but I just want to get to a point where instead of thinking about these things all the time, I just do a little everyday as a happy habit (not a chore) and then can move on to the rest of everything, or more of each/some. I'm going to try and write here about what I have done of each for the next 20 days, to try and make it more likely to happen.

How are you? What do you want to be doing more of? Wanna join me on a 3x10x20?

I recommend:

1) Go to the Vietnamese deli and trying something totally new and unusual. In my case it was what could best be described as a small meat pudding made of pork and tuna fish. Luckily the guy a the cash register recommended I get some white rice to go with it, as it has an "unusual taste". That is for sure. But I ate it all anyways...followed by some sort of cake variation that was basically rice flour + something green, put into a waffle maker together, called Banh Kep. Mmmm
2) Then watch A Scanner Darkly followed by a couple of episode of Wondershowzen.

I can not remember what I dreamed about, just waking up in the middle of the night on the couch feeling quite astonished.

This morning I dreamed that my house was on fire. I saved my little suitcase of love letters from my fella, my saxophone, and my stuffed rabbit (Mr. Bun-Bun) my mom made for me when I was three. (This may be because I saw a car on fire on the freeway yesterday...very exciting).

technogreek then called to tell me he had just had a dream in which we were taking turns riding around in an electric wheel chair in downtown Seattle, then we went to the comic shop my mother apparently worked at, and he took off his shirts, and just then my parents showed up. My mother was disapproving, and my father was a t-rex wearing a shirt that said "world tour" spelled out in female Marvel superheros.

I love my man.

I dreamed this morning that I was terribly jealous, because a friend of mine got to move into the Mayor's mansion, and her rooms were bigger than my house. And she didn't have to pay rent. It was super posh. I don't think the Mayor of Seattle even has a mansion.

I had some good dreams this weekend, the most humorous of which were all conference related.

Got a good hat over the weekend, fleeing creeps with thisisnotanlj in San Antonio. Also got to see kzookev, librarian, anneheathen, rebellibrarian and Walter. Plus I got to hang out with bgliterary, whom I'd heard such fabulous things about from many friends.

Did get to go to one thrift shop and got a fuchsia fuzzy thing, which I thought was a $4.99 sweater, but turned out to only be $2 shawl. Yay!

Conference itself was good. My committee is shaping up nicely. And the discussion was delightful. I can't tell you how good it feels to sit around for hours and have intellegent conversations about graphic novels with 10 other people.

Awards ceremony very satisfying (if a bit early in the morning). I was THRILLED that Criss Cross got the Newbery, and almost as delighted by the Alex and Printz choices. Delighted to see a new award for Early Reader books. Makes me think that we could have a best graphic novel award in the next 10 years. Maybe that can be my next project...

Fell in love with Schilo's Delicatessen. Went 3 times. Especially adore the home-made root beer. And the pea soup.

Got hit on by:
1) drunk vendor - direct quote: "I have a large condom".
2) scary men on street
3) married professional golfer in hotel bar (and elevator...run away run away).
4) cute starbucks employee. - "Are you another librarian?" (I nod gloomily...I hate being grouped so easily)...his response: "HHHHHOT!" And then proceeded to flirt with me while making coffee. I blushed twice during the conversation.
5) drunk women petting me and saying how pretty I am (two nights in a row, completely unrelated or provoked)

Overall, dismal flirting grounds. Even at classy joints like Beers and Steers where we went for karaoke, and craptacular piano bars.

The weekend was a lot of fun, but boy am I glad to be home, with no plans to leave town at all until April, and no flights until June. Unless of course I actually get my house repairs together, and still have enough change to visit NYC this spring. And maybe Comicon, too. But for now, it is my couch, my bed, my gym, maybe gardening soon, or perhaps some camping, and of course work. But mostly, home.