Coherence Is So Totally Overrated

The party is less than 48 hours away, my refrigerator is stuffed with food, the platters, cakes, and bagels have been ordered, the great whitefish crisis of 2008 has been resolved, all but five of the party favor bags have been assembled, there are two red balloons with yellow 75ths on them hanging off a dining room chair, and I've been given a key to the clubhouse room so I can move stuff over Saturday evening, which will make Sunday morning a lot easier.

My friend Christy sent flowers (she is a sweetie pie), my friends Beth and Al sent a box of chocolates (they are sweetie pies) and Harcourt sent an assortment of chocolates (they are also sweetie pies). Did you know that there is such a thing as chocolate covered Cheerios? News to me too.

I woke up at five this morning, gave myself thirty seconds to fall back asleep, and then began working on The World We Live In. I worked out why and how Will dies. So far that section of the book is one half Wuthering Heights and one half White Cargo, by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh. I also decided this morning that Eden was too mean, so I making her more naive and less exploitative.

Speaking of White Cargo (which I'm still only midway through the seventeeth century in), my new favorite fact from it is a law that said if an indentured servant had a baby, she had to add two years to her time of service, even if her master was the father of the child.

I never approve of any era that doesn't have indoor plumbing, but the seventeenth century seems particularly unappealing.

I've been given an Elluminate Private Online Meeting Room by a very nice librarian in British Columbia, who is going to explain to me just what it is Monday morning 10 AM my time. Tomorrow, when I'm feeling a tad less crazed, I'll go there and explore. If it's like a chat room, then maybe someday we could all go there and chat. I've never been in a chat room, but I'm a friendly sort and it might be something interesting to do. Let me know if you think it's a good idea.

Decades ago, when Todd Strasser was a young whippersnapper, he moved to Middletown, NY, and was told to call me (we had never met). At the time I was having problems with a crank caller, so when he called I hung up on him, but he persisted and we became good friends.

Somehow when he tells the story, it's funnier.

Anyway, our lives changed (he got to be more successful than me) and we lost touch, but thanks to the miracle of bloghood, he e-mailed me, and we've resumed our friendship, which makes me very happy. I guess he's happy too, because he's coming to my party, and he's started a blog, http://toddstrasser.blogspot.com/. Todd's so new at it he's turning to me for technical assistance, but I'm sure he'll come to his senses soon enough.

Which is more than I'm sure about myself these days!