Ooo I'm So Excited!

March 18th-27th 2014 (As of April 6th I've added some pictures to make this epic less overwhelming.)

It was warm enough out to ditch the coat a couple days last week!

Happy Springtime at last!

Sort of. It dipped down again later this week but I'm hopeful enough that my heavy winter coat is safe and sound at home, and it has evolved to trench coat weather for the time being. And to answer the question you undoubtedly have, yes. I look awesome.

While I've been mostly reading manuscripts, mailing out books to authors and reviewers, and totally annihilating the next two weeks' worth of social media scheduling, there's also something pretty gosh darn exciting happenings this week in the DAW office.

BINGE READING.

Okay, that's not the exciting part. But if it's any indication to you from the last time I binge read...it means we got DAW authors in the office.

Over the weekend I almost slaved over Patrick Rothfuss' Name of the Wind, which I finished Monday and then started on Diana Rowland's My Life as a White Trash Zombie (which is hilarious, full puns as well as badassery, and finish-able in only a few hours). Laura Resnick's  Disappearing Nightly is the last one I need to read, and so far so good! I do have to admit I didn't even try with the fourth book. The other author I wasn't positive would come in--he did of course--but he writes SF about the same size as Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller books, and there was just not enough time for it. I'll get around to it eventually I'm sure, but I won't have appreciated meeting him as much as I would have had I read his work beforehand. Ah well.

But yes! That DOES indeed mean that I met Patrick Rothfuss. He has a pretty glorious beard, and all around he's a nice dude. I thought ahead and made cookies this week to help relieve stress of that many people mulling about.

I was so proud of myself for finishing his book before he showed up--and actually the coolest part of the book for me is really underwhelming for other people, but my favorite quote of the whole book is:

"You have the sweetest face...it's like the perfect kitchen...

 Everything matches and the sugar bowl is right where it should be."

I ADORE this line! It suits me perfectly, and I've already gotten a demand from my friend Miss S (the teacher-to-be) that I say this to a future lover. I sincerely hope he's at least read the book first, but it's not a deal-breaker if he hasn't. Just a project. (Kidding. ...almost.)

You know what I found out about this line on the second or third glance that makes it so much cooler than it already is? It's on page 626 of the mass market copy of Name of the Wind. Why is that significant? 6/26 is my birthday. Favorite quote. Birthday number. Coincidence? Yes. But I get by on the little things, and this one is stupendous.

The office also got in new computers, which was exciting--a little too much so in some respects. For some reason when they transferred the files, my username profile was the only one that got everything copied to the new computer. That is a much less significant username to transfer than, say, the accountant who uses the same computer. Oh yeah. That got fun. But they figured it out, so nobody dies yet.

Sales also sent out a call for those Title Info sheets for books through 2015--so books that don't all have synopsis yet, got to write out some sheets to express why they deserve to be published. They're allowed to be a work-in-progress, so that's good. The other TI sheet though, that one is for a reprint for something older than the online database. So it required some actual file hunting. The good news is that I retyped all that out, so it should be in the server now in case it needs found again. It makes me feel like a kind of mundane detective...

I repeat: the little things.

The coffee run also got a little more exciting, because this time it included a quick pop over to Papyrus to pick up a sensible card for an author and long time friend of one of the editors. Tasteful, but also some nerdy reference to the book. (It's perfect. And a lovely short cut through Washington Square Park, complete with scenic birds.)

On the way to work, too, an elderly woman and her little dog stopped me to say how much she LOVED my style! I didn't have it in me to tell her I was still in my black converse walking shoes, and not my office shoes that actually went with the outfit of bright red stockings, shin-length black skirt, heart blouse, houndstooth coat, flower clip, blue sunglasses, and neon green headphones. She said "You're such an individual!" I thanked her and replied, "Welcome to New York!" She informed me that she'd lived here her whole life, and I was "Not run-of-the-mill". Huh. Whatever the reasons, spirits were high and I felt quite stylish. I still changed into my office shoes.

And, at around 4 o'clock, I get this text from my mom that my dad was getting back from Norway that night and if I made it home for dinner she'd cover my ticket. I threw on some speedy music, and I've never walked back so fast. Great food, my own bed, my own shower, my own cat--and my parents were cool too, I guess. (Kidding. Maybe.)

My dad got me a Norwegian cookbook. Most of it's fish, and I don't know when exactly I'd get to the elk sandwiches, but I'm game to try if I find it! This going home in the middle of the week thing also gave me a taste of the commuter's life. I got up at 6:30 instead of 8:00, and I was not quite 5 minutes late. Not bad considering I'd missed the train I intended to be on and stopped off at the house before coming, but still. 6:30? Gross. Not for me if I can help it.

Torn Page is basically the same, but they've got all this fancy camera equipment in there now, so it feels like an actual set. I've sat in front of the camera a bit too, because it means more stuff to wire up and make sure works before the students show up. Mostly that means I'm rambling out anecdotes until the mic works.

Recreationally, I was trying to spend as much time with my Kalamazoo friends as possible since they left this week.

That meant two final shows (I'm at 9 out of 10 now! BAM. And that comedy show I bought tickets for in the first week that I haven't gone to yet. Soon...), Sherlock, and some good ol' Dallas BBQ. No seriously, there's a Dallas BBQ down the street I'd been dying to go to for the longest time, and nobody would go with me. Turns out Miss Techie-mazoo had been having the same problem. Problem solved: we went together. And it was delicious, of course. What really set the mood, though, was this guy who literally threw things at people when he didn't get the only thing he ordered that existed no where on the menu. I'm talking plates, foot, the chair, and the table got thrown. Not far, but enough that the table a couple inches closer to this guy than we were, was in the "splash zone". The restaurant called the cops on him, but ended up throwing him out themselves since he got too rowdy. It's a little sad, because I'm almost positive he wasn't all there, but part of me also hopes it was an elaborate ruse for him to get a free meal from the rest of what he'd ordered. He wasn't wealthy looking, but this wasn't an expensive place depending what you got. If it was a ruse, good show, sir! Rude, but well done. And they gave us free cupcakes. I don't know if that's a usual thing for this Dallas BBQ place, but I'll take it.

The first show I saw over the weekend was Techie-mazoo's show that she helped do lights and stuff for. It's called The Witchelor, and it makes fun of The Batchelor if that show ever met up with Sabrina and Carrie. It was a one act in a black box theatre, and I almost didn't make it in because they were sold out. By lucky happenstance, we both got in free and it was hilarious. A witch goes on The Batchelor and tries to fit in as she falls in love with the leading man, but when he falls in love with her back, the other girls find out her secret and in a jealous rage try to reenact a Salem witch hunt to get her out and away from Jason, whom they fear is under her spell.

The second show was out on Coney Island, and the fire eater from the house was in it. He didn't eat fire this time, though. He juggled and did some neat tricks to ooo and ahhh the crowd. Good as he was, he got schooled by this 9 year old ginger with a bow tie and six balls he juggled at once. Dang. Not to mention an absolutely adorable six year old Asian magician named Moonlight who made balls disappear under a series of cups. She wasn't just cute either. She was actually really good!

The show did make me wonder how weird it is being one of the acrobats at a young age. The fire eater was the oldest, just making the cut-off of "under 21" by about a month. Most of the performers were between 11 and 16. Much of the cast was dubbed "jailbait" specifically because performer clothes, like for acrobats, accentuate the body since that's what does the flipping and twirling and twisting and making whatever shapes it is that bodies are not meant to make. And a lot of the movements are fluid and should be sexy, except...the kid's 11. Talented as anything, but...you're 11. The glitter is lovely, but where are your pants?

It was still a really fun show, and the trip even came with an outing to get some NYC pizza. Yum!



You wanna know my favorite part of the weekend, though? Well I'm gonna tell you anyway.

THE NYC TEA AND COFFEE FESTIVAL!

I got there 10 minutes early, and the line already almost covered the whole perimeter of the block. And that's after tickets sold out. Right? But I loved it! No one else in the house ended up going, but I didn't mind. It's the Comic Con of caffeinated beverages, both of which I love, and I was there for several hours. It was about halfway through that I'd realized I had only eaten/drunk caffeinated beverages, and many of them. Why not when they're free? You walk in and are handed a goody-bag already with free stuff in it. Then pretty much every stall set up has another sample for you, and multiples of them. What makes it differ from reports I've seen of Comic Con, is that instead of smelling like nerdy sweaty bodies, it smelled like a tea and coffee shop plus nirvana. Right? And they had a crepe stand in the back!

Some how I'm going to be around the next time this happens and go for the whole weekend. I'll need to save up, though, because I ended up buying almost $60 of tea to build into my arsenal. Oops. It'd be a shame except I regret nothing and tea has a shelf life of forever until you drink it all. But still...and on top of $20 tickets? Should've gotten tickets earlier. Then they at least would've been half price. Ah well. Next year!

And this weekend, get ready: rainy though it may be, I'm busing off to DC to visit Captain Cadaver in her natural habitat.