would you take my candlelight

October has flown by in a whirlwind of work, freelance, writing, social life, and the beginning of the great apartment hunt. Work has been pretty intense due to a crash book. I've been taking more freelancing again so my bank account won't be totally wiped out by moving. I'm really trying to hold myself to an end-of-year deadline for this draft. Things are just busy! And on top of that, one of my neighbors is a drummer and is into jamming as soon as I get my bass out of storage, so I'm itching to start that too. Busy busy. I know, someday I need to learn to slow down and take more time for myself. . . .

Two books:

44) Storm Front by Jim Butcher. This is the first book in the Dresden Files series, and I loved it. Sharp, snarky urban fantasy with a gritty edge. I'll definitely be sucking down more from this series in the near future.

45) Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke. This is a graphic novel aimed at a younger audience about a girl named Zita who follows her friend Joseph through an interdimensional portal to rescue him from the aliens who kidnapped him. this is a totally fun, whimsical romp through a world populated with robots and aliens. Definitely recommended.

And now, a dream I had a few nights ago. I was at someone's house somewhere. My ex-girlfriend was there, trying to convince me to sleep with her, but I didn't want to. There was a hurricane coming, so I left that house to go to the store for supplies and then beat the storm home. I wore galoshes. There were large puddles at the intersections with golden koi in them that I avoided walking in. My ex followed me to the store, where I picked up some bottled water, batteries, snacks, etc. Two or three bags of supplies. Then I headed home. To get there I had to walk across this ridgetop, and when I got up there I saw that many people from my neighborhood had come out with lawn chairs and picnics to sit on top of the ridge and watch the storm blow through. I followed the path through the crowd and finally got home. My impression of my house is many windows and heavy wooden beams. The windows were open, as were the doors. The storm was picking up. I could see the water rising outside my house, so I ran around frantically closing windows. Then I sat down near a glass door to meditate and watch the storm. My sister came over with an arrow bundle in her hands and said something to the effect of, "This should help you focus," and rammed the arrow through my right shoulder, diagonally down through my torso, and out my left hip. I remember gasping in shock, but not crying out. I remember the inside of my torso feeling strangely hollow as the arrow passed through. I remember holding as still as possible so it wouldn't start to hurt, and trying to meditate around the hollow feeling. then my mother walked over and pulled the arrow out. That hurt. She handed me the arrow and a towel and told me to clean myself up. Then she walked away, leaving me bleeding on the hardwood floor.

Weird, right? I know, my dreams are usually weird.

And now, I have a lot to do. Happy Tuesday!