Tuesday, May 6th, 2003 - Driving me crazy Currently, I am a very boring person. I am obsessed with getting us a good used car. We test-drove one last Saturday, and while it's a good solid car (a '92 Toyota Corolla) it has about $2400 worth of repairs it needs before it reaches its full potential. These repairs include a $800 full-brake job that is absolutely necessary before it's safe to drive, not to mention $1000 for new stuts so we don't wear down the new brakes. Now, they're only asking $1100 for the car (and it's likely we can get them down even further) but the repairs put it far out of our price-range. Thing is, our mechanic, Recco (whom we like and trust quite a lot) tells us it's a very good car, worth $2000 as-is, and it will, once repaired, last us a good long time (only 122,000 on the odometer, which is nothing on a Toyota). It has a CD player (w/ detachable face, which you need in our neighborhood), and it's faded and worn as far as paint and upholstery are concerned. Why am I obsessing about a car that needs so much work? Because if we get this car, we don't have to keep looking. The only time we can get our mechanic to look at cars for us is on Saturday mornings, which means if we don't like the one this week, we have to look again the next weekend. Also, it means I have to get up early, which I hate doing. The repairs we can do a bit at a time (after the immediate brake job) and put on credit cards (ugh). A nicer car, we'd have to scrape together the cash for it (we might be looking at a '92 Tercel this weekend that they want $2300 for). And, really, almost any car this age is going to need new struts, (we think), so are we really saving any money spending more on a nicer car? It's $85 each time we have Recco check out a car for us, so that means the longer we look, the less we have to spend . . . I am, obviously, so confused. Not to mention obsessed. This is another reason to get the car from last week -- it would all be over and I could think about something else for a change, something like my YA novel, which sorely needs my attention. So, any advice, words of encouragement, empathy, similar car buying stories? Tell me about them in the forum. I love this Random Kitten Generator. I'm keeping it loaded up on my computer today, and every time I get stressed I generate another random kitten. Want. Tim wants me to tell you about our weekend. So, Friday night I went to work out and was drawn into an African dancing class by the sound of the drums. The class was ok -- kind of boring and repetitive, with moves that were hard to do and left me hurting for days afterwards. I hate it when they tell us to go at our own pace and then yell, "Keep it up! Come on, you can do it! Don't stop!". I left early. After the class, Tim met me at the cafe to help me outline my novel, but I was too cranky and hungry, so we went out to eat instead. Mmm, noodles. Saturday morning was car test driving and hanging out with Jude (the seller of said car) at a cafe while the car was being looked at. Actually, we really enjoyed Jude's company, which may have some small influence on why we want to buy his car. Anyway. Saturday evening was the Locus 35th anniversary party at Borderlands books. Pretty fun. I especially liked Connie Willis' ability to tease Charles without hurting his feelings; she's very funny. Afterwards, we all went out to tapas, and Tim and I got to sit across from Connie and her daughter, Cordelia. Cordelia is a fascinating person, a forensic scientist in San Jose and full of funny/ strange stories about her job. I wish I'd taken more time to chat with her, but we were all hot and squished at the table (they gave away our table before we'd even gotten there, so we had about 20 people at a table fit for maybe 12) and conversation was sporadic. I sat next to Terry Bisson the whole time but spent all my time trying not to elbow him when I poured the Sangria. Sunday. Why don't I remember Sunday? Tim, what did we do on Sunday? Last night, I was still sore so I skipped working out and went to Trader Joe's with Tim instead. Then I came home and set myself up at my ergonomic keyboard and wrote for about half an hour. It was so much faster typing that I'm going to try doing that from now on, instead of hand-writing my novel. I'm trailing off here, so I'm just going to stop writing . . . now. Take it for a test drive!

Exercise Log: African dancing class at the Y on Friday night that kicked my ass so hard I'm unable to go back to the gym just yet. Perhaps tomorrow. Writing log: Approximately 2900 words on my novel for the May YA Novel Dare. Yes, this means I'm about 3000 words behind if I'm going for 1000 a day. Luckily, I'm just trying to keep on keepin' on, not meet a word count goal. Really. Current Publications: "Famishing" in Strange Horizons. My first pro sale! "Wetting the Bed" and a collab with Tim Pratt, "A Serious Case of Fairies" in Floodwater "How to Suck" reprinted in From Porn to Poetry: Clean Sheets Celebrates the Erotic Mind Currently Reading: Polyphony 2 ed. by Deborah Layne and Jay Lake (A treat waiting for me in the mail when I got home!) Donate money to my teeth, my grad school application fees, our writerly projects (Floodwater and Flytrap!). Every little bit helps!

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