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I'm in an in-between place. Part of my mind is suddenly stuck in the middle of my novel, but I'm also working on articles and cookbook and the Conflux banquet. This explains why everything distracts me. My latest distraction is why I don't know much about my friends' Must Always read lists. Maybe it's because I only just realised I have one myself. My Must Read List comprises authors whose books I always want to read, preferably instead of whatever I'm supposed to be doing. It's long, but the quality is amazing.

Since what I'm supposed to be doing includes mention of my own Must Read List - but won't emerge until December *insert evil chuckle here* - I'm throwing the question about Must Read Lists to the universe and getting back to work. Wednesday morning is teaching, after all, and I don't teach nearly as well if I work all night and I can't sleep until I've finished my current task.

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I know I should have been asleep an hour ago when I reach for my little list of stuff I had to do today, to cross one last thing off, find the draft vegetarian menu for next Conflux, and try to cross something off anyway. I guess if I don't have my list I can't do any more work and so the only option is bed.

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It might have been easier to stay up all night. I still can't find my list (or it still says that it's a list of vegetarian options for Conflux - it depends on how one reads my handwriting) and I am being bombarded with emails from people who wanted me to do their element of the list last night.

I was going to say that this means I'll have nothing to do when I get back from teaching, but I have today's work, too. Unless I use last Thursday's list, which has just magically appeared.

All of this chaos will resolve itself after Freecon. I have to get enough stuff done so I can take time out for Freecon, see friends, be prepared for a solid library visit in Sydney and have useful stuff to talk to my supervisor about. Because I'm just not the kind of person who overworks without provocation.

I wonder if I tell my students this morning that I'm a lazy sod if we can make 'sod' word of the day? (This idea has been coming for a whole week.) I also wonder if I can fit in another cuppa before I leave, so that I can shake off my headache. I really did do a lot of work yesterday: I know this because I forgot to so much as fill the kettle between 4 pm and now.




PS I have Chanukah presents. To receive Chanukah presents you possibly need to ask me if you can come to my party. All friends welcome. Or I guess I could do something silly and emailable for those who can't make it. Only on request, though. Should I do the eight e-presents of Chanukah again this year?

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Evil Gillian came out to play in class today. Why else would I spent half an hour of Creative Writing teaching the Anarchy? My students have many choices for homework: they can write about the White Ship, about Stephen's son and his elegant demise, or about Henry's first attempted invasion of England (the one where he was sent home with a pat on the head by Stephen). Or they can write about Matilda's daring escapes. What was funny is that I had an extra audience for this half hour: all the staff members were listening closely. It was too much information, though, and I left everyone with a list of search terms so that they could investigate for themselves.

I've told my class that if they want, I can explain Henry II's ingrown toenail and his troubles with Thomas next week. When I told them who Henry's sons were, one person wanted me to skip a generation.

Word of the day was 'judgemental' and I snuck in 'sod' as an example in an exercise we did. We talked about why so many legal terms have French links (everything is Medieval in my life, always). Since I chose apostrophes and their correct usage two weeks ago, my students got to ask for the technical aspect of English that they felt they most needed to understand this week. They chose the Great Vowel Shift. No prompting or hints from me. One of them had read about it and they wanted to understand it.

Simple.

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When the serial storms pass, then I shall cease making stupid errors in everything I write. This is a firm instruction to myself. Now I have to make sure I remember it.

I still haven't found yesterday's list. This means I'm listless and should cease work in a gentle way and fade softly into the evening.

If anyone knows what I intended for my novel in the note that says "cat #11" I would be most grateful for the information. Although if you think I intended to mass-murder cats, I would be more grateful if you washed your brain out and did not communicate this intent to me AT ALL.