Category: Uncategorized

I didn’t watch the first few seasons of American Idol, so I missed Fantasia’s season. And whenever I saw her on something I never got her. This week I got her. I mean, my jaw just dropped her performance was so great. I know some people were “wtf” like Simon, but she just blew me away. Her and her smoking hot back-up girls. Everyone else, the other contestants, now seem like lifeless, personality-less, walking dead zombies next to her, I’m sorry to say. I’m not sure it comes across in this YouTube video, but it was just freaking amazing.

The video I linked to has been taken down, alas.

“Oh, did you want to work here? My sitting on your laptop isn’t working for you? Oh, you mean now? Move now? Me? You’re reaching for me. Maybe you just want to pet me. Or play. Maybe I just need to flip over on my back. Here. On your laptop. No, I’m just messing with you. I know you want me to move. Hey. Check it out. Look how big I am. I cover the whole laptop and more.”

Tonight my choir rehearses with the orchestra. Love this part. I don’t totally love where I’m going to stand. I’m the first person on the left in the front row. I like being surrounded by singers. But maybe the few people around me will be great singers and I will love my spot. Besides, there’s over 100 of us and sometimes you get a great spot, sometimes you don’t. It’s the luck of the draw, you win some, you lose some. The good part is being right up against the orchestra.

Love my cover, just love it. I had wanted the subtitle to mention the Duke Parapsychology Lab, but the publisher wanted something broader and this is what they went with. It’s fine. The inside flap copy and the back cover will go into how the book is about J. B. Rhine and a group of scientists at Duke who conducted the investigations and experiments.

I love it because it’s so eye-catching, and graphically striking and I think it will get people to pick up the book, and I believe if they just read a paragraph or two they will buy it. It actually makes me think of the Invisible Man before ghost, but that’s a good association and the subtitle quickly makes it clear.

So, the book comes out in March, which is less than a year away! It feels like tomorrow practically, to me. Scared! Scared about what reviewers will say. Scared about what the scientific community will say (if they take note of it at all).

Scared,
scared,
scared,
nervous,
scared,
but of course I can’t wait.

At least I will be waiting in my can’t-possibly-be-cleaner apartment! The picture is a little dark, which makes my place look kind of dreary, but I was experimenting with taking pictures without the flash. It’s actually quite cheery in here.

Update: Deborah has totally correctly identified the bird as a red-winged blackbird.

I went to a friend’s house warming party in New Paltz and there was this great pond across the street where I saw the bird in the second shot, which I couldn’t identify, and this one, which is a heron, but the only reason I know that is because someone walked by and told me it was a heron. He stood so still that at first I thought he wasn’t real. I thought he was a statue that someone placed in the pond. (Really. I thought that.)

The second bird was black with an orange spot. Does anyone know what kind of bird he is?

– T-shirt.
– Socks.
– Goggles.
– Goggles with lights.
– Flashlight. (Actually I moved that to my daily backpack after seeing the movie Cloverfield. Now, when a monster rampages New York and I am hiding in a subway, I will be able to see the smaller monsters that fell from the big monster when they come after me.)
– Toilet paper.
– Duct tape.
– Face mask thing.
– Matches.
– A tube of first aid stuff that they gave away at some City thing I went to on emergency preparedness. Not sure what is in there. It will be a surprise.
– Extra pair of glasses.
– Scissors.
– Screwdriver.
– Sharpie pen.
– Power bars.
– First Aid manual.
– A whistle.
– $100 in mostly small bills, because stores may not have change in an emergency.
– Gauze pads.
– A plastic bag containing info about my cats, out-dated forms that say they had their rabies shots (must get current forms) and a list of hotels that take cats.
– Tags with my cats name on them and my name and cellphone number.
– A plastic bag with info about me, birth certificate, social security number, phone numbers of family, friends, doctors.
– First aid kit, the zipper on the bag is broken. It’s got prescriptions, girl stuff, sun block, toothbrush, floss, Motrin, more gauze, bandaids, and lots of Imodium because my worst fear in a terrorist attack or tornado is to have bathroom issues and no bathroom.

I used to have an extra pair of sneakers and a pair of jeans in there, but I don’t currently have extra sneakers or jeans to spare.