(no subject)

My family is having Thanksgiving Dinner this afternoon at my house, which is whole piles of exciting. My work lets me out three hours early today (I love my work), so we'll be eating at about 3. I like having my mom and sister over, and I've gotten a lot better at putting on my calm-brain to deal with the inevitable frazzlement of giant meal preparation and family stuff. Between Mom and the three daughters (each of whom have friends or lovers in this city), we seem to have a dozen people coming. With the five couch spaces, four dining room chairs, and three random wooden chairs from around the house, we're covered.

I'm so glad I like my family.

I do wish Jason was more comfortable with celebrations, as I'd like to have him there, but as I said to him this morning, "It's all right. You can like me and not like holidays." It's all good.

I haven't written since early in the month. Let's see. Oh, I went on my week-long writing retreat to Eugene. Didn't actually accomplish either of my goals (first 50 pages definitely ready to submit, agent query letters written and sent), but I established rapport with the person I was visiting, got a lot of panicking over agent stuff out of the way, got a lot of letter stuff and plot summaries drafted, and subscribed to Writer's Market. Also, spent an entire week curled up on a couch with two large friendly dogs named Dharma and Fiona. I had a good time.

In the out-of-the-blue department: Anyone remember the LJ MindMaps? Well, I just got a link for one again. I was like, "What?" I ordered one probably two years ago, and I'm pretty sure I got it. Anyway, my cloud is still an incestuous nest of Midgard MOO people, and doesnt have any conspicuously huge or conspicuously tiny names, but if you're interested, it's here: http://ljmindmap.com/h.aspx?n=gement&i=l6ey

This has been another sporadic update by me. More pictures soon, really, I swear. I have five different hairstyles and a Joker costume to show you!