Monday, August 26th 2002 - Thirty-one cups of grapes I'm gonna try real hard not to go on about my diet here. Really, I am. But it's very hard not to let it consume my thinking. I've subscribed to an online diet program, so I'm obsessively entering in what I've eaten, attempting to stay within their guidelines on how much I should eat each day. I entered in the day before I started and was shocked that it was twice what their guidelines are. Thing is, if I manage it right, I can still eat quite a bit, I just can't eat much if I kept on eating the junk I had been. Pizza? A fond memory (unless I can hold myself to one piece, which may be more likely as my stomach shrinks). But I can eat thirty-one cups of grapes a day, if I wanted to. Obviously there's more variety than that. So, anyway, my point is I'm thinking about food a lot. Tim and I are soooo busy on Friday at WorldCon! Like, non-stop fun from about 2pm until we go to bed. Thank goodness the whole con won't be like that (I hope)! I'm glad it's Friday, too, as it seems like a good idea to make a lot of connections early on, so we can find lots of cool people to hang out at parties later on. Or maybe I'm underestimating World Con. Maybe we'll never see folks again. I hear it's huge, and I'm having trouble not picturing it on the scale of Burning Man (with generally more clothing and much posher surroundings), but that's probably going a bit far. At least I'm not as terrified as I was a few weeks ago. Now I'm mostly excited. Mostly about the folks I finally get to meet and those I get to hang out with again. The best reason to go to Cons, if you ask me. Boing! Bounce! I'm all over the place tonight! Here's a story that will scare my mother, so, Mom, if you want to worry you should read the following paragraph. Otherwise skip to the next section. As Tim and I were parking around the corner in our neighborhood the other night, we witnessed a mugging. It was very strange; one man was rolling down the middle of the street in a wheel chair when suddenly he jumped up and attacked a man walking down the sidewalk. I turned the car around and parked in my landlady's driveway so Tim and I could get home (and away) and call 911. The 911 operator took the information, and said she'd send a car out, but we never saw anyone. I'm wondering if it's because I said both men were black. There's a lot of gang-related violence in Oakland; the murder rate is almost exclusively young black men killing each other. I wonder if the police even bother when everyone involved fits that description anymore. Sorry, sometimes it's hard not to be completely cynical. Work has been stressful lately. We moved into a new office and it's changed the way the whole company runs. This really affects everyone when there are 7 peole in the company. Anyway, we're still working out the bugs, and some days I just want to go home and hide under the covers. The stress is getting to me. I'm grinding my teeth more. Last Friday, when I went to the doctor for swimmer's ear, it turned out that I have TMJ instead. (Yes, I couldn't help thinking about Pamie's recent doctor's visit either.) Great. I'm damaging my jaw joints to the point where I'm making my *ears* hurt, because of stress. This is probably the cause of my headaches lately, as well. Why, yes, I need to chill out. A week or fifty on the beach and in the woods might help. Too bad I don't have any vacation time. Hm, this is rambling and getting more depressing the longer I write. I think that means it's time to call it quits. G'night all!

Exercise Log: Swimming on Saturday. Lots of brisk walking to places. I tend to walk pretty fast; according to my diet program, that's more exercise than the average American gets. Writing log: Typed up a bit I wrote for an invite-only antho and sent it off to David for a quick proof-read. Typed in a couple of poems which I shall send off to Gardener sooner rather than later. Hopefully. Current Publications: The Ever Book Shoppe (a collaboration with Tim Pratt in Slow Trains Literary Journal In the Shade of You nominated in the long poem category for the Rhysling and will be reprinted in the 2002 Rhysling Anthology! "How to Suck" reprinted in From Porn to Poetry: Clean Sheets Celebrates the Erotic Mind I've been reading: Currently Reading: Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

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