I Am A Wiener!

Okay, I have three pieces of news:

1. I got iTunes and an iPod (which hasn't arrived yet), so I've been incredibly busy ripping every cd I have in anticipation of the iPods arrival. No longer will I have to lug my hard plastic 40-cd case around with me. Granted, the hard plastic case was cool and made me very happy, but this thing is (okay, will be) the size of a pack of cigarettes (and didn't even cost that much more!) and will hold every cd I own. This is cool.

2. I finished my Nanowrimo novel! At 8:50 this evening, I finished the last paragraph for a total of 50,049 words. Not nearly the length of last year's endeavor, but I'm really pleased. My husband is also thrilled to no end because this means that he gets to see me again. He was missing me, poor baby. I have already promised the baby that extra snuggles would ensue, and there was champagne and sparkling cider being uncorked as I was tapping out the last hundred-ish words. Huge thanks to all my fellow Nanos for being there for me. I need you guys, even if I never show up at your dos.I'm with you in spirit.

3. My younger sister is in town this weekend for the American Public Health Association Conference. She's a clinical psychologist in Chicago, but here, she's still my baby sister. We had some yummy birthday time with her last night and she took the girls out to Santa Cruz while the Pirate and I went to the opera (we went to see Don Carlos, got there late, I wrote 1500 words while in the opera, and we left before the last guy died). She and the Pirate are playing Scrabble right now. My sister rocks, kicks ass, and is the best, bar none.

I love everything right this minute. Everything.

In the Virtual Bank Line

Saturday night's dream:

I was at work and my boss called me into his office. And now, he had a real office with an actual door. And not just one door. He had a back door, which he opened to reveal a sort of back yard, full of piglets.
"Hey, you know what?" he said in that bright, enthusiastic tone that he always has when he's trying to sell me on doing some project. "Could you train these pigs? Like to sit, and fetch and stuff?"

"Jon, I don't know how to train pigs. I mean, are they like dogs? Can you clicker train them with treats and stuff?"

"Exactly! See, you know how to do this! Great. So, go ahead and go to a pet store and get everything you need. Can you have them all sitting by the end of the week?"

I told my boss about this dream and he laughed a lot. I told him that I feel pretty confident in telling him that training pigs is well outside my skill set, and I like it that way.

On Sunday night, I had this cool dream.

The seven who went on the Nano retreat were working on a tandem story. Each one of us had a sort of journal that we could look at and see the progress being made by others. We all knew that, when we got to critical points in the narrative, we would all be magically whisked away to some place where we would all meet and resolve the story problem. I was sitting in a class at a large univerity with Mike when I happened to look at my copy of the book and notice that we were coming to a critical point. I leaned over and said to him "If you're working on anything critical, you'd better wrap it up. We're about to leave." Seconds later the seven of us were running through a field in a big park, laughing together and generally being pleased to see each other.

Yeah. The retreat was sort of like that.

And I have no idea where last night's dream came from.

I was standing on a rocky hill. There is a large group of men doing battle drills because they are just about to fight some enemy. They're all really nervous because they know they are going to lose. Everyone who faces this enemy does. Little is known about this enemy, and at the time the dream takes place (let me place the time for you - everyone is wearing wool tunics under leather and metal armor, and sandals) there is no reason to expect that the opposing army has some superior technology. The best they can do is have some amazing new strategy that allows them to cut down their opponents like wheat, so this army feels that their time is best spent drilling.

I hear a noise and look behind me, but there is nothing to see. I look back, and suddenly the battle has already started. The enemy had materialized out of nowhere - but they are not ordinary men. They have the same uniforms (white tunics with black metal and leather armor) but they also have giant wings coming from their backs. Huge, glossy black wings that they beat in the faces of the opposing soldiers, terrifying them. There are winged men with swords and winged men with a sort of thing that looks like an eagle with its beak raised and its wings outstretched. They are goring people with the sharp beak tip, stabbing them with the razor-sharp wings, or bludgeoning them with the whole thing, which looks to be made of silver or steel and looks very heavy and lethal.

The non-winged fighters are frightened, confused and losing. They have no idea where these men could have come from or how they just appeared out of nowhere right in their midst. I look behind me where I heard the original noise and I see the answer. They are phased. Another column of the warriors is materializing, already in formation, all ready to relieve the winged men who show no signs of fatigue, but who allow the new group to take over anyway. Wave upon wave of the winged men is materializing and I see something odd. There are two kinds of men in each column. There are men with two swords crossed over their heads as they march, and there are men with the giant eagles held over their heads as they march. But now I see a third kind.

This man has the head of a dog (he looks very Anubis-like) and holds no weapons, but both hands are raised in clenched fists. As the column of winged warriors passes me, Anubis looks at me and winks, giving me the sign for "I love you" and keeps marching by. None of the warriors notice me, and I know that after the other army has been completely decimated, they will just leave.

And that dream had a bitchin' soundtrack too!

What A Weekend

Back from the SoBaNaNo retreat, and I have some amazing gratitude to unpack:

THANKS to everyone who showed. Together, we were all a force of nature. My hands-down favorite part of the weekend was the Saturday night reading. You are all geniuses and I feel honored to be in your company.

SUPER THANKS to Cliff for his unfailing positivity, support, good humor and curiosity. I feel like I don't see nearly enough of you, and time in your company is always a treat.

SUPER DELUXE THANKS to Rob for his forebearance. Your restraint was both remarkable and appreciated. We know that you are capable of the kind of puns that leave the hearers unable to blink both eyes in unison and hemorrhaging from most orifices, and I feel fortunate to have gotten out in one piece.

DOUBLE BONUS THANKS to Mike for his amazing mastery of both fire and popcorn. And I don't even like popcorn. That's how good it was.

ASTRAL MEGA-BITCHIN' THANKS to Lynn for a tarot reading that didn't tell me anything new, but helped me to focus. Your willingness to do a reading even after I had another reading was greatly appreciated. And thank you for sharing such personal things with us. It was wonderful and moving.

SUPER MEGA DELUXE UBER-THANKS to Stephanie for yummy cookies, a fabulous tarot reading, being the designated extrovert and dishwasher and being my biggest cheerleader. Even introverts need luuuv, and I'm no exception. Thanks for being a bud.

And finally,
ULTRA SUPER MEGA GIGANTIC BONUS DELUXE THANKS WITH CHEESE to Ian for organizing the whole thing. The venue was wonderful, the company was inspiring, and it's always nice to have one guy in the group who's guaranteed to be shocked.

I'm already looking forward to next year.

Retreat! Retreat!

Went to go see Matrix Revolutions on Wednesday. Disappointed in that the potential of the original remains unrealized.

There were several previews, one of which was very alarming
There were several previews, one of which was very alarming. The Alamo. I see our country becoming increasingly jingoistic, isolationist and xenophobic, and it frightens me. The lines between "us" and "them" are being continually drawn in narrower and narrower circles, and while ideologically I'm quite happy to be outside that circle, it appears to be an increasingly dangerous proposition. I can hardly wait to leave.

Off to a three-day retreat to see just how many words I can write when I've nothing else to do. If I'm very good, I'll make a sizeable dent in the book this weekend.