Der Feuervogel aufersteht.

Have been for several days now. I wrote a post about it here. It's entirely inadequate, though.

I've been catching up on things, doing laundry, napping, and getting over the plague (which came to us courtesy of Lynch and Bear; hey, someone's gotta be the plague bearer among the 40-odd people). All I have left is a bit of a cough, so that's nice.

Friday I'm driving to PA for my 15th college reunion and seeing old friends. Today I got my oil changed and my tires rotated (and patched up a bit where some asshole hit me while I was parked). My brakes are ok, but I need to get them changed soon, they said.

Have I mentioned how awesome our mechanics are? I trust them not to bullshit us into spending more money, and they certainly go beyond the call of duty. One of them loaned Ben his personal car (truck) for a couple weeks while Ben's Golf was having the entire steering column replaced. Wagner Tire in Hillsborough, NC. Good people.

Anyway. I'm also researching flights for my practicum in February. Leaving the US Wednesday or Thursday the 5th or 6th and coming back Monday the 24th costs the same ($1077 on Delta right now). It's just a matter of whether the inexpensive B&B is available and if I want to try the youth hostel instead (cheaper, but shared bedroom and no guaranteed desk space). Now, it'll be February, which isn't exactly prime time for tourism, so the hostel might not be too bad.

I also need to decide if I want to fly back through JFK and leave on a 1:45 pm flight, which would allow me to leave my friends in Stuttgart at a reasonable hour Monday morning or avoid JFK and potential ice by flying through Atlanta (9:45 am departure), which would necessitate an evening train to Frankfurt and a hotel. There's one at the airport that's cheap (45€/night) and has a free shuttle. Honestly, given my travel hell flying through JFK in NOT bad weather, I'm inclined toward ATL regardless.

I won't know until mid-December at the earliest when the Hertha v Stuttgart game is going to be. If it's Friday night, I won't likely be able to go. If it's either Saturday game or Sunday early, it won't be a problem. Sunday late would be less ideal but still manageable (since I'd have to get that late train to FRA for an early flight if I went through ATL). But even if I can't make it to the game (the Friday night match is 1 out of 9), I can see Joey, and he can show me around Stuttgart, where I've never been. And if I can make the game, he can get us tickets, and we can watch together.

I've also revised and submitted the UST short I was working on. If CG doesn't want it, I haven't lost much. I don't know if there's enough of a spec hook for other magazines, but I also am not allowed to reject myself from magazines; that's all the editor's decision. But I need to make sure it's not something completely off their regular list. (ie, don't send it to Analog or F&SF or Lightspeed. Which rules out a lot...) Even if I can't sell it anywhere, I've got some character backstory for the novel, which isn't a bad thing. I like writing character vignettes for backstory.

I need to revise my Thursday story and submit it; I haven't had a chance to start that yet. I read a collection of Grimm's fairytales I picked up in college to prepare for it, though. I also need to revise my application story, which I haven't had a chance to even think about yet. Except that I'm indebted to Bear for the new title of it. Which is a good one, actually. (I am rubbish at titles.)

I'd intended to take a nap this afternoon, but that hasn't happened. Oh well.

Greetings from Martha's Vineyard, land of shitty wifi reception and cold wind.

I had my first one-on-one today with Teresa Nielsen Hayden. It was less terrifying than it could have been, and she gave me good feedback. (I know; she's an editor, that's her job.) Tomorrow I'm one-on-one with Bear, ack. I don't have my group critique until Wednesday.

Though I broke down in tears while giving feedback because the story was about a woman grieving for her dog (and also her husband), and a couple sections hit really hard. Like way too close to home. So that was a thing that happened. I started talking about the parts that were just spot on, and I couldn't. And I apologized for ugly sobbing in the middle of group :/ A lot. But I may have spawned a story to tell future students, about the student who started bawling and it wasn't even her critique! Eh.

Interestingly, this was at heart the same story I submitted, except hers was about a ghost dog in now-ish here-ish, while mine was about ghost war dead in 1917 Dresden. But hey. Using ghosts as a metaphor for the grief process. (I pointed it out, and Doyle said, "hey you're right, I didn't even notice that!" and then stated that the outline doesn't matter, but the execution does.

Have pages of notes and recordings of the lectures so far. My phone says it can record 176 hours, so I have a lot of space and don't need to worry much about clearing it out. Though I hope the sound quality is good.

I saw bioluminescent jellyfish! It was fucking cold, but magically glowing jellyfish!

I am terrible at Mafia and Thing. Somebody told me I was really quiet (because I wasn't really participating in the Mafia game), and that's something I haven't been called in a really long time. Though a couple folks said I was less garrulous than they expected from twitter. They'd just missed an epic wide-ranging conversation I'd been in (though I also don't want to dominate the conversation, which I know I can/will do).

I have been cured of scurvy, and I hope I can be cured of it again tomorrow.

And now I sleep, assuming the wifi works long enough to post this.