Welcome to my LiveJournal. I'm a science fiction writer with a growing collection of published short stories, and my collection Unwelcome Bodies is currently available from Apex Publications. It includes, among other stories, "Captive Girl," which was a 2007 Nebula finalist and which made the 2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards short list. I started this journal to have a place to talk about writing and the writing life, although you'll probably notice various digressions into belly dance and politics.

Please note that anonymous comments that aren't signed will be deleted.

And of course it's supposed to be a big one. February was very light on snow, so New England, as usual, has decided to punish us with an early March storm. The silver lining is that my office isn't opening until noon as a result. But it's not much of a silver lining, considering the amount of shoveling I'll need to do to get the car out of its spot. That also presumes that the end of the driveway isn't plowed in.

Meh, I'll take the morning off. It's better than nothing. I think I'll get some bellydance practice in while I'm at it. Might as well use my muscles for something pretty before turning around and using them for brute force work.

ETA: the snow has stopped. It looks like a second band will be here in a few hours, so I think I'll skip the dancing and instead shovel and flee before getting to the office by noon becomes an impossibility.

My mildly sore back from yesterday has turned into a full-on sore back today. Whee. And, of course, it's snowing again, so I'll probably need to do more shoveling. There is ibuprofin and a hot bath in my near future. There will not be yoga today, beyond perhaps some gentle stretching.

Woke up, did 15-minute morning strength routine. Ate breakfast while husband shoveled the front, then went out to try to locate the morning paper, which I retrieved from the middle of the snowy lawn with the aid of a shovel. Read paper. Went out back, shoveled back steps and around both cars, cleared off car, made sure I could get it out, shoveled the area I'd just vacated, put car back. Ate half a PB&J. Read the internets. Bundled back up and walked through the still-falling snow to the main drag, where I completed my Christmas shopping at several local indie stores, freed me and Andy's comics from their subscription boxes, and bought some curry leaves and poppadums at an Indian grocery for tonight's dinner. Ate lunch.

I am now bundled in flannel and drinking alcoholic beverages while my muscles do their best impression of jelly and my right wrist tells me that it's very cross with me and will be aching for several days yet.

Tomorrow's forecast? A ton of wet snow, changing over to ice and rain later in the day. Sorry, wrist. It's not over yet.

The Boston area is currently being nailed with torrential rain. My pants got soaked all the way through just crossing the street to get into my car this morning. Then I discovered that my usual route to work was flooded out, so I went home, put on dry pants, and attempted to try two alternate routes, only to find them backed up so badly that the only sane answer was to give up and come home, wait an hour, and try again. "I can practice my dance for tonight during that hour!" I thought to myself.

So I logged on to email to tell my coworkers that I'd be late, only to discover that my dance teacher is sick, and between that and the weather, she thinks we should postpone.

*whew*

I think I'll do yoga while I wait for the roads to clear, instead.

ETA: What a difference an hour makes. I left home again at 10:00. Both the traffic and the puddles had cleared.

For the second time today, it is snowing horizontally. The first time, we had thunder snow.

Damn, am I glad I don't have to be out in that.

I had a bunch of physical things on my to do list for today: bellydance practice, weights, cleaning house. But in shoveling out the front walk in my attempt to find the Sunday paper, I did something unfortunate to a spot on my lower back, so I don't see any of those things happening. Of course, there's a bitter irony in all of this. If I'd only cleaned house yesterday, then the tub would be clean enough today for me to soak my back in it. *sigh*

So instead, I'm going to launch immediately into "Kennel Club" computer edits as the sleet makes lovely plinking noises against the windows. Let's hope the heating pad on my lower back holds out.

If you leave your car parked on the street during a major snowstorm, the plows are forced to plow around you. Once the sleet starts and everything freezes solid, your car will be trapped inside that lovely plow ridge until the next thaw. And worse, you will be taking up valuable parking that your neighbors, who were smart enough to get their cars off of the street, would dearly love to use.

*sigh*

It's really coming down out there. I don't understand the logic of leaving cars out in this one when people were so good about pulling their cars in on Thursday. At some point, I'll go out and shovel before the sleet changeover happens, but there doesn't seem to be much point in doing any pre-shoveling now since it's so gusty out.

As of noon, I am done with my Christmas shopping. Okay, technically that's not quite true--I still need to pick up and pay for one last gift, but the order for said gift has been placed at the local bookstore and they'll call me when it gets in. I've also finished my grocery shopping for next week. This means I don't need to leave the house again until Monday morning, which suits me fine, seeing how there's another snowstorm bearing down on us tonight. Actually, it's ickier than a snowstorm. It'll start out as snow, then change over to sleet. Blerugh. Let me tell you, I would rather deal with a foot of snow than five minutes of sleet.

So yes, I am now officially a shut-in for the rest of the weekend, which suits me just fine. On the docket for the weekend are:

• printing out and polishing up "The Kennel Club," with the aim of having it in an envelope and ready to go out to its first market on Monday morning (thanks to pxcampbell, xochiquetzl, and mishaslair for your comments!)
  
• bellydance practice--both isolations and actual dancing in the new skirt
  
• getting my stack of holiday cards ready to hit the mail on Monday morning
  
• and other miscellaneous chores around the house
  

I feel like such a boring grownup for loving the fact that being shut in means I have all the time in the world to get shit done, but there you have it.

And actually, I will need to leave the house one more time to get my car off of the road before the snow starts to fall. But anything I can accomplish in my sweatpants hardly seems onerous.

There's nothing like going directly from watching an episode of Dexter, which takes place in sunny Miami, to shoveling snow in the middle of the night.

I don't know what the official totals are, but there's at least eight inches of that crap in front of my house.

Man, this snow is nasty. It took 40 minutes to drive the 2 miles home. It wasn't that the driving conditions were that bad (although they weren't great), but that the roads were packed with people trying to get out ahead of the worst of it. A downside of being sandwiched between a river and a university is that all traffic has to go down one road, so congestion can't be relieved by taking side roads. Then I decided to brave the four block trip to the laundromat, where I was the only one there (they closed as I was leaving). In the hour and a bit I was in there, about three inches of snow accumulated on my car. And, on the way home, in the five minutes it took me to buy provisions (whiskey, chips, and cheese), my back window became completely obscured by snow.

But now I'm home for the rest of the day, wearing a dryer-fresh, dryer-warm flannel nightgown. I'll probably get in some bellydance practice once I feel thawed out, and then it's on to the provisions.

I hope everyone else in my neck of the woods is home safe for the day. And if not, then I send you safe driving vibes for your trip home.

You know you're getting old when you're told the company's shutting down at 1:00 due to a massive snowstorm heading your way, and your first thought is, "All right! If the snow's still light at 1:00, I can finally go to the laundromat!"

(Sadly, this really will be the best time to go to the laundromat, since there's another storm heading our way Saturday evening.)

I met my goal. Go me! I've also done my bellydance practice and yoga for the day, and shoveled one last time. Of course, this last time, the snow was finally heavy and wet. Needless to say, I didn't do nearly as much shoveling that time around. And needless to say, I'm very glad I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow. Now I just have to hope that I can get my car out of its parking spot tomorrow morning so I can go meet a friend in Boston for breakfast. I've already heard spinning tires out there...

For lo, I have finally shoveled. Not a lot, mind you. There's barely an inch on the ground. But it's an inch more than we've gotten so far this winter. It's alternating between snow and sleet right now, and it's supposed to become rain this afternoon, so it'll all be a giant skating rink come sunset.

Whee.

No plans today, so I'll be tucked away in the house, writing and practicing bellydancing. I didn't write yesterday, so I have to get at least 2,000 words written today to make up for it.