Thanks to everyone who voted in my book poll yesterday. Is it perverse of me that, now that I’ve seen which books are leading in the voting, I want to pack the least popular choices? Yes. Yes I think it is.

One of the weird things about traveling by train is that they let you check three big bags. I almost have too much luggage space for my trip, and I’m tempted to add some extra gifts to make the boy’s holiday super special.

And speaking of extra gifts, I have one more to buy, but I have to buy it online, download it to my desktop, then make a Christmas card for my son so he knows to look for it on that happy morning. Strike that. I have to *remember* to buy it. And it can’t be while he’s awake, either; I’ll have to do it in the groggy early morning hours, when it’s impossible to remember anything. ::shakes fist at mirror::

Anyway, today’s kind of a big day. It’s not my son’s birthday, but it is his birthday party. We’re only having 3 other kids (by his choice) and we’ve reserved time at the local parkour gym. They’ll get a lesson and then some birthday pie. (We’re not People of the Cake.) Then it’s home to eat his favorite dinner food (expensive delivery pizza) and open the rest of his presents.

Unfortunately, we’ve had heavy winds overnight and too many neighborhoods are without power. I’m not sure what will happen if the electricity is out there. It’s not like they have a ton of electrical equipment (more like mats, boxes, and pipes to walk on) but light and heat will be totally necessary.

And, weirdly, I had a horror movie moment this morning. While I was waiting for the bus that would take me and my gigantic bag of library books to the retail core, I looked down the street to see if the bus was coming. It was weirdly dark. Like, Encroaching Shadow of Evil dark.

It gave me a silly thrill and made me determined never to write a scene like it in a book.

Now I have to get the barista to rinse the grounds out of my mug, then refill me so I can get back to work.