Best line on my reading page today:

"...wash my dick for me, m'kay?"


Sunday, I managed (with someotherguy's help) to transform the house from a health hazard to just a pit. Today and tomorrow, I hope to get it a little more habitable, because my mom is going to be here tomorrow night! She will totally not care if it's a mess, but I can relax more when things are clean and tidy.

Also on Sunday, had a blast with aquenigmatic. I basically just read school scenarios and watched aquenimatic work out the answers with giantbrainpower, but it was fun. And we ate cherries and warm bread and butter, and gathered plums from inflectionpoint and worthyadvisor's tree (well, it's their neighbor's tree, but a lot of it hangs over their fence) and held them in our shirts. I love having cool people in my neighborhood.

Had a nice time at stonebender's yesterday, watching Buffy and eating watermelon. Had a little fight with the teenager -- yelled at her for the first time since she came to live here, which of course made me feel awful about myself, but really did impress her about the strength of that particular boundary that she crossed. She apologized. We had pizza. All is well. (I know several of you, including simplykimberly, will understand the thought process I went through, which progressed from "Damn, that was sucky parenting" to "Not as sucky as her actual parents would do -- hey, I wasn't even tempted to hit her" to "Okay, time to stop comparing myself to the Mommymonster and just do my best to relate to this kid as a person, with love.")

And today, I get to read lots of magazine submissions, reject most of them, and accept some really lovely work. I'm already working on filling up Winter. This is the fun part.

Mom gets here tomorrow night and leaves Sunday morning. I've missed her so much!

[posted here and at 42magazine]

You have my permission to thwap me if I make a post today anywhere except for 42magazine, the new community for the magazine. I will be chronicling the magazine process, along with adding posts there that say something about either the magazine or its ten key themes: Peace :: Justice :: Ecology :: Economy :: Self-reliance :: Simplicity :: Reason :: Joy :: Love :: Art

I've already added a few of the magazine's contributors to that community, but I encourage you to join it if you have any interest in either the magazine itself or its themes.

Now, back to work. I had 495 emails in my magazine inbox this morning. I'm down to 462, and I really really want to get it down under 200 today. In addition, I hope to pick a cover image, finish layout, streamline the contract language, and mail out everyone's contracts. Wish me luck!

Good: I have a job I love.
Good: I mean really love.
Good: I work part-time for a decent wage.
Bad: This means I don't make very much money total, but
Good: I get lots of time off
Good/Bad: It's also a ten-month-a-year job, so I get two months off every year,
Bad: Unpaid.
Good: My boss found money in the budget to cut my furlough to one month.
Good/Bad: That month starts next week.
Good: So I get a whole. month. off!
Bad: And my June 1 paycheck gets to stretch until August 1.

It's not going to be a real problem, but it's going to be tight around here, and I may have to do some fancy footwork or borrowing in order to get the magazine out on time. Won't be able to do anything that costs money for at least a couple of months, but I'm becoming such a hermit lately that that's unlikely to be a problem, and I have been to the movies THREE times in the past month, so I'm not feeling deprived or anything.

And I have a job I love. I can't go forgetting that.

1) Home from San Diego. Miss my mom already. Still, really happy to be in my home.

2) Ate non-stop while there. Had real Mexican food. Am satiated.

3) I have one Dreamwidth invitation to give out to the fifth one who asks for it in screened comments (I'll unscreen after 5 people ask), and am very excited about being serene.dreamwidth.org (thanks to waywardcats)! I have a feeling that's where all the LJ-ers I know will end up, but we'll see. I intend to sit and mull over its place in my blogging life for a while, and then start using it in earnest.

4) I go back to work tomorrow, and file my amended tax return, and then I have my first personal trainer appointment the next day, as well as magazine-deadline stuff to catch up on, so yeah, gonna be really busy.

5) My heart breaks for Sandra Cantu's family.

6) Alt.poly exploded while I was gone, and I don't feel much of an urge to ignite any of the embers.

I can't stop looking at the magazine. I show it to everyone who stands still long enough. I've sold a few copies at work, but that's not really why I'm showing it off -- I'm just so happy about it that I can barely contain myself. And I keep thinking about how much better (or at least bigger and more diverse) the next one will be. I'll also have more time to savor the next one, now that all my Big Life Stuff(tm) is done with.

I think we're going to have enough multimedia content to do the CD in summer instead of fall, too.

*bounce*!

Magazines are packed up, addressed, and ready to mail. Tomorrow, I will mail them, and I will also send electronic copies to those who are getting those (I'd send them tonight, but I'm going to do a few things to reduce the file size some tomorrow -- it's still really too big to be emailing).

I'm very, very happy. The first issue is imperfect -- some of the trimming is less than ideal, and I would have loved to have had a bigger magazine and more art -- but it's beautiful, and I love it.

And now I'm going to go be silly and read myself to sleep with a magazine I've already read a dozen times.

(*bounce*!)

What an eventful day I've had!

I worked a longer-than-usual day.

I picked up the magazines, which are beautiful.

I walked into the OB/GYN's office to talk about getting the Essure and walked out with an IUD.


So I'm a little spent. I really really really don't like OB/GYN procedures, especially when they hurt -- they make me feel violated. So I'm gonna go buy something easy to throw into the oven for dinner, and then I'm gonna soothe myself by stuffing magazines into envelopes.

And I can't have sex for two weeks!

I can barely contain myself, because the magazine is due today at the printer. I will be disappointed if it's not PERFECT IN EVERY WAY, but come what may, I expect to get it ready for mailing tonight and mail it out tomorrow. So excited.

When last we left our heroine, there were 202 gems of emaily goodness in her 42magazine.com inbox. Right now, there are 225, and I'm gonna try to get down to 100 tonight, if I can. I have the house to myself at the moment, so I like my chances, but we'll see. I think I'll turn on some Sarah Harmer and get cracking.

1) Plugging subscriber info into my database in preparation for making labels for Monday's mailing. Very exciting. Also, they're gonna let me sell copies at the women's open mic. I'm also going to go around and put copies into the local bookstores that'll let me, now that I'll have an actual magazine to show them. And I'm working on not-for-profit status. And getting ISSN/barcodes for next issue. And so on. I really like this project a lot, in case you couldn't tell.

2) Haagen-Dazs has a new line called "five" -- five ingredients and that's all. This one, brown sugar flavor, has milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and brown sugar. It's odd but very good. I'm going to try the other flavors.

3) Feeling so good, physically and mentally. I mean, so good.

4) inflectionpoint and worthyadvisor are moving in. Yay, friendly neighbors!

5) wtfpotatoes cooked bacon today. I made someotherguy a grilled bacon and cheddar sandwich and some homemade tomato soup for lunch. My house smells good.

6) Speaking of the magazine (I was, wasn't I? aren't I always?), I've got some really good content for fall's multimedia CD so far. A flash "zen garden" game; a music video; some music; a cartoon. If you have art that doesn't suit a black-and-white-printed medium, but would do well in electronic format, PLEASE submit some! (I'm looking at you, video artists, animators, musicians, game writers, crafters, color photographers, etc. Also, if you've already got written work in the magazine and would be willing to either read it or let me read it to add to the CD, please let me know (I'll probably also ask you this individually in email).

Good things about today:

+ dryadgrl's kiddo dropped by to visit me out of the blue (they were in my neighborhood) and we talked and played with Legos for an hour and a half or so. I haven't seen him since his mom and I stopped being friends, and it was really nice that he came and paid me a visit. He's a great kid.

+ Sewed up cover art for three of the next four issues of the magazine; also have content aplenty for Summer and possibly for Fall. Will have lots more fiction than the first issue (which wouldn't be hard, but which makes me happy), and am on my way to having a really excellent multimedia disk to include with the Fall issue.

+ Made bean burritos for my family. They had issues, but they were yummy, and I've REALLY missed cooking for people.

+ People are buying the magazine, sight unseen. Even people I've never heard of. I'm really happy that this thing, which I've been looking at as a moderately expensive hobby (I spent less on this issue so far than I've seen some friends spend on beads in an equivalent time period, for instance) may end up breaking even or better, which blows me away. And I have to say that everything that makes me proud of the first issue exists in even greater quantity in the second issue, so I have really high hopes for this thing. (I still need visual art in black and white, if that sort of thing is a thing you do, folks.)

+ Due to sleeping on a comfy chair instead of the bed (and perhaps with a little boost from the new pain meds, but this was true before I started those), I've had nearly a week of life without any major back/hip pain, and mostly none at all. This is huge, as it's been months since I had an HOUR without pain.

The minuses are things that really aren't about me (except for my sudden huge exhaustion just now, but that's explainable), and I'm not going to list them here. So yeah, on the whole, a really good day.

I tell you, if I didn't have someotherguy and stonebender to share the especially bad poetry and prose with, I'd have a hard time keeping from posting it, totally inappropriately, in my LJ.

Friday morning: 469
Saturday morning: 348
Now (Sunday morning): 290 281 276 -- go to BED, Serene!

And lots of email came in today, in response to stuff I sent yesterday, so I think I did really well on the backlog. A couplefew more good days and it'll be caught up. I'm really enjoying this, and I bought some really good stuff today.

(Other good stuff today: Surprise Ben & Jerry's; a walk in the sunshine!; a new slinky skirt for five dollars; magical beans like Jack had; long chat with my darling lcohen; fresh-baked bread; tuna sammiches; chips and dip; florentine cookies (sense a trend here?); french fries we didn't have to make ourselves.)

Good night, my lovelies.

This is probably a good time to remind those of you who plan to submit to the magazine that I would love to see your submissions. We plan to read year-round, but I'm already filling up the Fall issue (fiction and poetry for Summer are full; we could use more visual art, multimedia if you have it, and an illustration job or two). So c'mon. :-)

http://42magazine.com/submit.php

And if you wanna subscribe, the thing ships next week, so now's a great time:

http://42magazine.com/subscribe.php

When I awoke this morning (well, technically yesterday morning), there were 469 emails in my magazine inbox waiting to be dealt with. I set a goal of getting that number down by 100, but I decided I would settle for getting to a round 400 (thereby dealing with 69). Right now, I have 348 in that box, and I don't know how many came in today (I dealt with some of those, as well), so I dealt with (answered or filed or deleted, as warranted) in excess of 121 emails today. A few more days of that and the slush pile will be caught up to date, as will responses to subscribers and current contributors. That'd be nice.

And mad thanks go out to stonebender, who has been doing crack first-reader duty, saving me from a good chunk of the first passes on the fiction and nonfiction end.

Now I just want to spend a few minutes paying the last of the Spring contributors, since mail-out day is coming in just a few days, and then I'm gonna collapse and sleep for as long as I can force my body to agree to.

The bad this week:

- Crisis in the San Diego branch of the family (dealt with what I could today, but it will be a long slog)
- So very tired
- There's more to do before I go radioactive than I can possibly do

The good this week:

- Pretty soon, the magazine will cease being just pixels and proofs and come home to me as a magazine!
- So far, the magazine has taken in more money than it's expended. This will not last long, but I'm enjoying it.
- I got to pay people for creating their art! With real money!
- .pdf copy of the magazine is done, but I'm thinking I'll wait to send it out until I can also give people hard copy. (Besides, this way I can run it by my friends with visual impairments and make sure it works.)
- Went to a totally wonderful women's open mic with wild_irises tonight. It was very excellent to see my beloved friend. It was even more excellent to do it in such an amazingly loving and supportive group of women, bad comedian notwithstanding. (But she had guts, that one. She pegged that her clueless hetgirl act wasn't doing it for anyone, so she pulled out the cunnilingus routine. Gotta give her points for chutzpah.)
- someotherguy feeds me really well when I let him feed me.
- So far, my auction has raised $49

I did it I did it I did it! The magazine is laid out, and printing will commence tomorrow. While I would have loved for people to have this thing WAY in advance of its official release date, it's going to go out roughly on time, and I'm ecstatic. Yay! Next month's should go much more quickly, since I have a template figured out now. Yay!

(44 pages; color cover with black and white interior; awesome stories and art; $5 a pop at http://42magazine.com/subscribe.php )

Some quick notes before I go from mostly-not-here to almost-completely-not-here:

1) ...because I'm busy working on the magazine, which I hope will be at the printer (or the DIY equivalent, depending on some factors) by the end of the weekend.

2) Mom doesn't have colon cancer. She does, however, have something else going on, because she nearly collapsed at work today. I wish that woman could get some kind of relief from all her suffering. It's very frustrating not to be able to fix it.

3) Hypothyroidism apparently makes one more sensitive to cold. In my particular case, this means that my feet always feel cold, but *from the inside*, so that covering them doesn't have as much of an effect as I expect it to.

4) The Best Job Ever is still totally the best. My boss said she's going to fill out my six-month review (I've been there 7.5 months, but whatever) and say I'm "superb", and she especially wanted me to know that she's going to mention on my review that the flexible work schedule is working out well for everyone involved. Whee!

5) I have been getting gorgeous, happymaking snailmail from all over the world. I am so very grateful to all of you for your care and time and effort and energy and and and.

6) One day a while back, I noticed that I had a "Least Complicated" earworm for the second time that week. Now, most times when I go to fill in my "Music" slot, my brain gives me a "Least Complicated" earworm even if that's not what was going through my head seconds before, so most of my "Music" slots now say "'Least Complicated' earworm". Aren't you glad I'm the scintillating conversationalist I am?


Okay, nose-to-grindstone time. Watch my smoke! :-)

1) Mad science wins again: someotherguy and I drink a lot of tomato juice. A couple years ago, we noticed that all the tomato juice we buy was (a) getting really expensive, and (b) made from concentrate. So we fomented a plan to make our own. After a few false starts, someotherguy made the perfect batch of tomato juice from 1 8-ounce can of tomato paste (the kind with no seasonings in it), 4 cans of water, and a heaping plastic teaspoon (we'll have to measure that more accurately) of salt. This stuff is really good, and it costs (and weighs!) a fraction of what we were paying (and carrying home). (Cost of one can of tomato paste: about 80 cents or less, depending. Cost of the equivalent amount of store-bought tomato juice: about $1.50 on sale.) Yay!

2) My what-I-did-today lists may start looking like today's for a while:
* Went to work
* Slept for a really long time
* Stared at brainless web content for hours while trying to convince myself to finish laying out the magazine
* Ate lots of pudding
* (oops -- also went to the bank and the post office)

Except for the part where it's becoming more urgent that I finish the magazine if I want to get it out on time, I'm okay with that. As mactavish put it, it's Take Care of Serene Month, and I'm not so obsessed about the magazine that I can't recognize that it comes second to my health. (I'm pretty obsessed about it, though.)

3) I'm going to be working for one of the students at work, reading for him while he takes the Bar exam. I've always been curious about what goes on during that exam, and now I'll find out. He also has a test this Saturday (the Bar isn't until July), so I've got an appointment to practice with him tomorrow, and then read for him on Saturday. Should be interesting. I should try to remember to take a bottle of water with me.

1) I really should start a blog for the magazine so I can bore THOSE readers with how I got a zoning permit and business license today, and plan to go to the bank for a business checking account tomorrow. :-)

2) Really nice date with stonebender in which he let me just sit and stare into space for hours while he entertained me and waited in bureaucratic offices with me.

3) The guinea pig is still cute and happy. He gets a companion on March 21st, yay.

4) Tomorrow's the last day of my thyroid meds. I'm nervous about it, but it will be fine. Slow and steady, Serene, slow and steady.

I fall down go boom now.