(no subject)

So. Let's recap what happened this morning.

I wake up at 5.45 freaked out about the brother's wedding overtop of DragonCon and how this year's DragonCon is going to be potentially way more professionally active in terms of writing than any other year before it and the wedding is a full formal event full of people I do not know and a small handful of family members all of whom are going to be even more awkward than I am. Try to get back to sleep because my alarm isn't supposed to go off for forty five fucking minutes. Fail. At 6.10, finally decide fuckit, get up, have shower, nap later before work. Get up, remember I was going to call Mom. Call Mom. Fail to reach her. Strip down for shower, get as far as looking at the shower, decide fuckit, back to bed, go back to bed and somehow manage to sleep for 40 minutes or so. Wake up to find that the boy has texted because he forgot the damn grocery list, and Mom has called and left a voice mail. Text the boy, throw on robe to stagger downstairs and feed the outdoor cats, fail to find the grocery list in the mess of papers on the coffee table, call Mom. Talk to Mom for 20 minutes freaking about the wedding and updating her on life stuff. Go back upstairs, finally get into the goddamn shower, text the boy to get shampoo because have just now used the last of it. Get out, finally stagger downstairs in a more dressed capacity, start the day. Pause the day because boy comes home with groceries to put away and a metric fuckload (as opposed to an imperial fuckload) of cocoa. Because he is the best boyfriend. Declare, 20 minutes before door-knock Zerg rush for the DragonCon Marriott that, fuckit, the other hotel a block away from the Westin still have rooms available, book that. Rush with the Zerg anyway as a fun exercise, can't even load the page. But the hotel room is booked. Continue to freak out about a) wedding, b) the blouse I got from Stitch Fix (and take two more pictures to send to BFF), c) what to take to work, d) is my ride here yet. Realize I haven't actually got a wedding invitation so I could actually fake ignorance. That would be underhanded and sneaky, though. Call Mom again and ask if it's okay to be underhanded and sneaky. Meet with pained disapproval but understanding, have Mom point out that if you just say it's an amazing professional opportunity brother will probably understand, and can you come Monday? Well, yes, everyone's hung over as hell on Monday. Good! That's settled then, fuss over blouse, finish Stitch Fix, change jeans, wander around house half naked while all this is going on packing and repacking bags because let's face it, I'm not going to get both studying AND writing done today, and the writing is more time sensitive. Finally get jeans and top on, settle on Stitch Fix, the whole time dodging the boy who is on the phone to an Indy hotel for GenCon, try to remember to take pills, try to decide if am taking stroganoff to work (not if we're going to have chili this evening, no), remember to pack Stitch Fix returns, is my ride here yet? Yes! Sweater? No! Grab sweater. Grab bag. Have not napped again yet. It's a fucking miracle I made it here with all my clothes on and my keys, wallet, phone, and workout clothes.

So, yeah. That's been my morning. And now I still have to email my brother and go "so, um, I hear your wedding is on Labor Day, right overtop of that yearly thing I do, is it okay if I don't make the actual ceremony but show up a day late to hang out for a couple days and meet people?" And then figure out what to do if the answer is but but but... I don't even know if I have guest professional status yet! But. I don't know, I'd like to have things more secure. Although at least the hotel room is good. That's a major part of the annual freakout.

Today's watchword is definitely going to be "managed expectations." Writing work happens first, which is mostly editing work anyway, and then Astronomy when I get home while I eat, and please god after that I can fall the hell over and pass the fuck out. This whole every other day is a day of crap sleep thing can fuck right off as far as I'm concerned. I much prefer the thing of getting regular goddamn sleep. There may be hot leaf juice in my future.

(And there are no Wednesday reads because I'm still working on the books from last time. Although there may be a word count updated at the end of the day.)

OC October Day 7 - Randi Teller

Day 7: Randi Teller
Randi. Miranda "Randi" Teller is one of my absolute favorite characters. Inasmuch as she looks like anyone she looks like Rosario Dawson, which puts her at least at the same height if not a couple inches taller than her current boyfriend, which also amuses me. Randi. Hm.

Okay, so, Randi was born to a somewhat religious Catholic mother and a less religious lapsed Catholic father, and promptly escaped their suburban middle class staid life to the city as soon as she damn well could. She did a two year associates' degree and ended up an EMT when she had the whammy put on her by someone, a love spell designed to make her fall in love with the unlikeliest biker ever. It was one of at least a couple such spells, meant to disrupt that particular biker gang for other reasons. It worked less well than expected, partly because Randi has a damn good head on her shoulders and realized this soulmate lovebond compulsion had to be imposed from the outside because no way in hell was her mind that overwhelmed by emotion. Granted, it was possible, but it didn't seem likely, especially when she'd never met the guy. Literally never met. Their eyes locked across a room once.

So, that happened, and eventually she got out of it by expedient of the guy in question dying. It's a long story. You can buy it if you want! And she went on to study nursing while working as an EMT, and somehow after that became a tad obsessed with the preternatural as well. She studied it and its effects, and became about as knowledgeable as you could without being able to affect it yourself. She also kept in contact with some of the bikers, because she had made some genuine friends and because they did like her for herself, and also because of her mad leet not reporting to the police medical skills.

Cut to some time later when she's working as a sort of transition nurse, shepherding preternatural patients and patients affected by magic around between hospitals, halfway houses, and ERs, when she meets this guy. This guy who also works at one of the halfway houses she stops by sometimes, and they get to talking, and this is also when all hell's breaking loose for her, for him, for a lot of their mutual acquaintances. This is also in that long story you can buy, but the short conclusion is she ends up finding herself a real boyfriend on her own, a decent guy, who she's falling in love with of her own accord and of her own damn emotions. Which is also a relief.

He might not be human, and her mother might disown her for that, but at this point that's the least of the chances she's taking both with her romantic life and her life in general.