(no subject)

There are some very hot young men lifeguarding at the municipal pool. It's just an observation, that's all.

Yes, the pool is open, and Paidhi Boy, who was last year crying and terrified of the place, has been agitating for a week to go. We went. I couldn't get him out of the water at the end of the day, and only got out with a promise to come back the next day. So I upgraded our passes to the kind where you just flash your card at the nice teenager at the desk, and stocked up on sunscreen and plastic ponies. (No, I don't know why ponies seem to be the pool plaything of choice, but we've got a stable of my little pony type horses in the pool bag now.) The concessions are very reasonably priced (big bag of popcorn, fifty cents. Hot dog, a dollar. Soda, fifty cents) and they cover everyone's favorite foods. The only drawback is I can't just read, because Paidhi Boy isn't quite big enough or confident enough for me to not keep a wary eye on him pretty much all the time. I'll survive, though, and in a year or two he'll be like Paidhi Girl, who knows to stay out of the parts that are too deep for her, and pretty much spends her time swimming with the ponies or practicing actually swimming in the semi-shallows. So basically we spent every evening after school at the swimming pool last week.

I meant to take them yesterday, but I couldn't bring myself to do it--I was nearly finished with the damn short story, and I wanted to get it done and move on to the next thing. So instead I worked on it in bits and pieces while the kids were awake, and then once they went to bed I got down to business pretty quickly, since my mind was already more or less in gear, and I finished the damn thing. it came to 6K, which was longer than I'd hoped but I think I may already have cut it down too severely. Of course, it's hard to read it objectively now to find out, because I'd been focusing on it so obsessively all evening.

What that means is, I'll have to do a stack of crits to catch up--I need to do six (it'll be seven when Wednesday rolls around) to get to the 75%. Yeah, I've been lazy about Critters. I started back up a couple of weeks ago, and now that I have something to submit I'll have to really get my butt in gear. Mr. Cameron hasn't read it yet to tell me what he thinks, but then he's not really a habitual reader so it's more an act of support (and a very important one at that) when he reads my stuff.

Anyway, even finishing the story is exciting, because it's the first short piece I've written since college (not including things like The Mospheirans, and Operator, which aren't really in the same category--they weren't even big enough to be short stories, and they were really just sketches and playing around). I was beginning to wonder if all I had in me was novel ideas, and it's good to know that I can do shorter and get rejection slips that way, too.

In other Mr. Cameron news, he's gone on day shift! Yes, that's right, I'll actually get to see him in the evenings. I won't know how to act! This working nights thing has been straining. I know he likes the people on nights better, and it's slower paced and less competetive, so I haven't wanted to complain much, but really, I didn't sign onto this moving in and having kids with him thing so that I could never spend any time with him. Of course, the first night that he's home (tonight) is a night I've got one grandma coming over to watch the kids because the other grandma wants to go to the opera and invited me because she knew I would enjoy it. Which was very nice of both grandmas, but it seems not right somehow that the first night of Mr. Cameron's new schedule I'm going out.

Today is also the last day of first grade for Paidhi Girl, and since Mr. Cameron isn't here to take her, I'll have to get everyone dressed and packed up. We're going to have to change a lot of routines, but I think it's going to be much, much better this way, unless he finds he just can't work with the people on day shift.

(no subject)

There are some very hot young men lifeguarding at the municipal pool. It's just an observation, that's all.

Yes, the pool is open, and Paidhi Boy, who was last year crying and terrified of the place, has been agitating for a week to go. We went. I couldn't get him out of the water at the end of the day, and only got out with a promise to come back the next day. So I upgraded our passes to the kind where you just flash your card at the nice teenager at the desk, and stocked up on sunscreen and plastic ponies. (No, I don't know why ponies seem to be the pool plaything of choice, but we've got a stable of my little pony type horses in the pool bag now.) The concessions are very reasonably priced (big bag of popcorn, fifty cents. Hot dog, a dollar. Soda, fifty cents) and they cover everyone's favorite foods. The only drawback is I can't just read, because Paidhi Boy isn't quite big enough or confident enough for me to not keep a wary eye on him pretty much all the time. I'll survive, though, and in a year or two he'll be like Paidhi Girl, who knows to stay out of the parts that are too deep for her, and pretty much spends her time swimming with the ponies or practicing actually swimming in the semi-shallows. So basically we spent every evening after school at the swimming pool last week.

I meant to take them yesterday, but I couldn't bring myself to do it--I was nearly finished with the damn short story, and I wanted to get it done and move on to the next thing. So instead I worked on it in bits and pieces while the kids were awake, and then once they went to bed I got down to business pretty quickly, since my mind was already more or less in gear, and I finished the damn thing. it came to 6K, which was longer than I'd hoped but I think I may already have cut it down too severely. Of course, it's hard to read it objectively now to find out, because I'd been focusing on it so obsessively all evening.

What that means is, I'll have to do a stack of crits to catch up--I need to do six (it'll be seven when Wednesday rolls around) to get to the 75%. Yeah, I've been lazy about Critters. I started back up a couple of weeks ago, and now that I have something to submit I'll have to really get my butt in gear. Mr. Cameron hasn't read it yet to tell me what he thinks, but then he's not really a habitual reader so it's more an act of support (and a very important one at that) when he reads my stuff.

Anyway, even finishing the story is exciting, because it's the first short piece I've written since college (not including things like The Mospheirans, and Operator, which aren't really in the same category--they weren't even big enough to be short stories, and they were really just sketches and playing around). I was beginning to wonder if all I had in me was novel ideas, and it's good to know that I can do shorter and get rejection slips that way, too.

In other Mr. Cameron news, he's gone on day shift! Yes, that's right, I'll actually get to see him in the evenings. I won't know how to act! This working nights thing has been straining. I know he likes the people on nights better, and it's slower paced and less competetive, so I haven't wanted to complain much, but really, I didn't sign onto this moving in and having kids with him thing so that I could never spend any time with him. Of course, the first night that he's home (tonight) is a night I've got one grandma coming over to watch the kids because the other grandma wants to go to the opera and invited me because she knew I would enjoy it. Which was very nice of both grandmas, but it seems not right somehow that the first night of Mr. Cameron's new schedule I'm going out.

Today is also the last day of first grade for Paidhi Girl, and since Mr. Cameron isn't here to take her, I'll have to get everyone dressed and packed up. We're going to have to change a lot of routines, but I think it's going to be much, much better this way, unless he finds he just can't work with the people on day shift.