Decided it was time to actually use my blogger, since I set it up in march, and then did bugger all with it...

I've never been very good at journal-keeping. My friend Melanie has had a journal up on her homepage, souldanse for ages and ages, and I've always admired her dedication to it. Then unca neil created one for the then-American Gods site (which is now NeilGaiman.com) and I realised that journal-keeping could be entertaining, as well as provide my friends and family a way to keep track of my comings and stayings and goings and sleepings and such. So anyway, I'm giving it a go.

Right now, I am glorying in the very first mix CD I created using my spiffy new iFruit. I've got dido's "My Lover's Gone" playing on a continuous loop as I drink my lunch.

For some reason, the singer has chosen to repeat the first again after the bridge. Which to me seems kinda pointless. The first half of the song, before the bridge, is haunting. I've fallen in love with No more his song. The tune upon his lips has passed. I sing alone, while I watch the ocean. I just really think those few lines from the second verse are lovely. The idea of them.

Silly and goth? Maybe. But sometimes, I fall in love with a song and will listen to it over and over again, until I know ever nuance and every note and every breath. Two that stick out in my mind are Fall In The Light by Lori Carson, from the strange days soundtrack, and Moorlough Shore from Caroline Lavelle's Spirit which was introduced to me in the pilot of EZ Streets. Thank you, Paul Haggis.

Anyway, in other news, everyone go out and read American Gods by Neil Gaiman right now. I finished it Sunday, and have a desperate need to talk about it, yet have not yet online, for fear of spoiling the plot for others. But I have, in the last week, while surfing various neil-y forums, reconnected with two old friends (heya Squiddie and Jan!) and am after sending my Judy a copy so she and I can discuss it when she comes to visit me next month. I'll be reviewing it for The 11th Hour in August, but will probably post the review here, if folks can't wait that long :)

Friday evening, I attended the book signing at the Barnes & Noble in Skokie, and all good things happened!

Okay, except for the part where I came home to discover I had taped 2 hrs of Telemundo instead of Invisible Man and Farscape (and it was Ben Browder's script
too, dammit!).

But I had the BEST time! I got yummy food at the Bagel (a Jewish Deli in the shopping centre) with Mary and her friend Debbie (who is now, like, my new best friend) who lives all of 4 or 5 blocks from me, and then I got my number for the signing, and then they raffled stuff off and I won a shirt! It was totally random, and I was in shock. 'cause I never ever win things. Okay, based on merit maybe—and even then, almost never ever ever, but I won a shirt! It is just the niftiest shirt! It has "American Gods" across the front, with "neil gaiman" beneath it, and some runes, and on the back is says "The Storm Is Coming."

And then Neil came out and was charming and didn't juggle but instead read one of the Chicago bits, and then he answered many questions (FYI: fave hardboiled short story is one of Woody Allen's. I forgot to write it down, but I think it's either "Mr Big" or "Whore of Mensa" and second is Chandler's The Little Sister because of an anecdote involving the script of the movie of the book, Jack Warner, a dead chauffeur, and Chandler's reply to Jack Warner...) and then he signed about 200 people's books and toys and stuff for many many hours. And there were grannies and goths, and everyone in-between and everyone at the store was just lovely and faboo. Mary, Debbie, and I played with Chinese yo-yos and were distracting to many.

It was so wonderful! I got to have a story read to me, and got to see unca neil, and I met many lovely fellow fans, and I got my picture taken with neil (which is the one thing in almost a decade of signings I had never ever actually done before), and I got my American Gods hardback and Quotable Sandman signed, and we folded chairs and everything was perfect and wonderful and I had the best time ever.

I then came home, and listened to the new Flash Girls album, Play Each Morning, Wild Queen many times in a row. This is a GOOD album, and everyone should own it.

Okay, lunch-time is over, and I should get back to work....