I’m here! All is fine–sorry for not posting. LiveJournal has been not letting me log in; today I finally had a moment to explore the issue, and found out that it’s a bug having to do with my logging in using my (fabulously convenient) mobile hotspot on my iPhone, which I do when I’m in Seattle because reasons. It’s an AT&T problem, not an LJ problem, but still, grr. (At the moment I’m stealing Mark‘s hard-wired internet, because I can.)

But, I hope AT&T works this bug out (it has to do with their deleting or ignoring cookies, more than that I do not understand, and also now I want a cookie) because this is Most Annoying.

Anyway! Foolscap/Potlatch started today, at a very early hour for us–even earlier because we were driving across the Greater Seattle Area to be there in time for 9am programming. And, alas, I’d gotten very little sleep because–

Oh, I’m telling the story backwards.

So! Okay. I got here Wednesday afternoon, in time for dinner with Miss A. and then attending Mark Teppo and Paul Tobin’s reading at the U-bookstore, which was totally fun. Then Thursday we did a TON of important things around here, including I went out for a meeting with my Brilliant Editor (of The Queen and The Tower), wherein we signed the contract and discussed all manner of things editorial and marketing-wise. Oh and I bumped into a parked car as I was parking. Gah. No significant damage, just a teeny scratch; but, gah. I actually found and spoke to the car’s owner and gave her all my info and told her to let me know if they want to do anything about it (she wasn’t sure), but…gah. And then Mark and I were up till 1am prepping my reading for this evening and our manuscripts for the 9am crit session this morning.

What with all that…at 1am I Just. Could. Not. Sleep.

At 2am I Just. Could. Not. Sleep.

At 3am I…well, you get the idea. It was probably 4:30 before I finally drifted off, shallowly; the alarm was set for 7; bleh.

I think it was the adrenaline from the car-bumping, the excitement-from-editor-discussion, the nerves-about-reading, the focus-on-manuscripts…I don’t know. Too much.

I used to sleep so poorly, for a few years, while I was divorcing and moving and leaving my career and doing all those other things I did during those years. Years of upheaval and wonderfulness and awfulness and entire thorough life change all the way down. This was like one of those nights, where I would startle awake as soon as I’d begin to settle down. But what was so hard about it last night was that I DON’T sleep so crappily any more–I sleep pretty much wonderfully. So there was all the What the heck is happening???!! What is wrong with me???

But, yeah, so apparently crappy sleep is still in there, if the circumstances are right. Good reminder: take care of self, don’t let stress become endemic again.

Despite all that, today went actually pretty well. The crit session was great; some kind and generous friends let us use their hotel room to crash in for a few hours mid-day (didn’t sleep, but having sleep-like downtime was very nice); had drinks and dinner with congenial folks; and then my 9pm reading went very well. (Thanks to everyone who attended! That was fun!)

And now, oh boy, I think I’m finally winding down. And there’s a bed right there. And this post is totally way longer than I’d intended, but, hey, there was much to say, after a busy few days, not nearly enough of which was spent sleeping…

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.