Month: May 2011

Weekend wisdom

Today I bought some new shoes. I paid ten dollars in overdue library fines. I re-mailed a few issues of Kaleidotrope that had come back because of wrong addresses. I went for a walk. I read a little. I listened to this Radiolab podcast. I watched the last episodes of the season of Supernatural and How I Met Your Mother. (The former making poor use of H.P. Lovecraft but generally turning around an uneven season; the latter…well, there’s a reason sitcoms generally don’t have CGI budgets, I guess.) And I had dinner with my parents and aunt, who’s in town for her daughter’s bridal shower. (The wedding’s in North Carolina, but they’re all from here originally.) We ate out at a local Chinese restaurant. So I guess tonight the fortune cookie is entirely justified.

Anyway, that’s the nutshell version of Saturday.

A romantic evening awaits you in the off-world colonies

How is that Friday, the very last day in the week, was also by far my busiest?

Maybe it has something to do with the manuscript that landed in my lap, or rather my e-mail in-box, first thing this morning. I started reading through it and realized it needed more corrections — mostly typos, but some factual — than at first glance. So, aside from another project that ate into a lot of my time, I spent the day reading the book, with my red pen in hand. As I noted via Twitter, sometimes I don’t feel like I’m correcting grammar, but rather introducing it to a manuscript for the very first time. (I also realized that my life would be very different, at least in the way I think about my job and the way I do it, if I hadn’t taken that copyediting class my senior year of college.)

When I left for the day, I was about halfway through the manuscript. With luck, I’ll finish on Monday and send my corrections and queries off to the authors. It would be nice to put the book into production soon, even if at this point it’s unlikely to make the year.

And yeah, I’m fairly sure the world isn’t going to end this weekend.

This evening, after dinner, I got a fortune cookie, the one in the photograph up above. (That’s allowed even when you don’t eat Chinese food for dinner, right?) It said, “A romantic evening awaits you tonight.” So, of course, I spent the evening watching a zombie movie with friends over Twitter. Well, I had a lot of fun, even if I can’t say my feelings on 28 Weeks Later as a film are much revised from my original opinion.

Though never let it be said that zombies can’t be romantic.

Random 10 5-20-11

Last week, this happened. This week, this happens:

  1. “A Boy Named Sue” by Johnny Cash, guessed by Occupant
    My fist got hard and my wits got keen
  2. Somehow everything I own smells of you
  3. “Sunny Afternoon” by Tom Jones w/ Space (orig. the Kinks), guessed by Occupant
    Live this life of luxury
  4. “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)” by Nouvelle Vague (orig. the Buzzcocks)
    You spurn my natural emotions
  5. “Melt with You” by Modern English, guessed by Kim
    Never really knowing it was always mesh and lace
  6. “Hope it Gives You Hell” by the All-American Rejects
    Now where’s your picket fence, love?
  7. “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne
    She’s like “So, whatever”
  8. “Truckin'” by the Grateful Dead, guessed by Clayton
    What in the world ever became of sweet Jane?
  9. “Cryin'” by Aerosmith, guessed by Kim
    All I want is someone I can’t resist
  10. “Superstition” by Beck, Bogert & Appice (orig. Stevie Wonder), guessed Occupant
    Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin’ strong

Who can tell what will happen next week? Good luck!