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Sleep: So various things finally drove me past my inertia and I had an appointment to talk to my doctor about Sleep Issues. Being the sort of person I am, I wrote up a two page history of the various things I had identified as contributing causes (tinnitus,lingering mini hot flashes, side-effects of sciatica, variable general stress), the various things I'm already doing to try to mitigate the problems, and the basic background life habits that they generally quiz you on with regard to sleep habits (e.g., exercise, caffeine and alcohol consumption, regularity of sleep cycle).

Even before the appointment, my doctor signed me up for a diagnostic test for sleep apnea (which you can do at home with a clip-on blood oxygen monitoring device) which I'll be doing next week. She approved of various things I'm already doing (in particular, audio masking for the tinnitus), made a couple suggestions I'm willing to try (chelated magnesium for the musculo-skeletal issues), and some I'd ruled out (HRT for the hot flashes…which aren't really "hot" flashes, just "slightly tepid" flashes, and there's no way the other effects would be worth it to get rid of them). And after I'd recited my detailed case history, she asked, "So what are you hoping I can do for you?" and I had to admit I really didn't think there was anything she could do for me, but I thought it was important to check in. But when I mentioned that I'd never really had the sciatica checked out, she signed me up for an MRI…which it turned out they could fit in that same afternoon. The preliminary report is "some degenerative/arthritis symptoms". Not very helpful and probably inaccurate since arthritis rarely strikes in the course of seconds like this issue did back when it first showed up. But…whatever.

Stories: I've realized I have an odd aversion to talking in public about where I've submitted stories. The analogy I made on Twitter was that it felt sort of like announcing who I was planning to ask to the prom. I wouldn't want to embarrass either of us if my prospective date said no. But I'll say this much: I have submitted a gender-queer Arthurian short story "All is Silence" to an anthology that just opened for submissions, and I have submitted my previously-published feminist Arthurian short story "The Treasures of Britain" to a reprint market that--in my opinion--it is particularly suited for. Any speculations as to the identity of the markets in question are not my responsibility. I've been dithering over finishing revisions to "Hidebound" (my final skin-singer story) over not really having any idea where I wanted to try it first. (The length is hard to find markets for at all!) But I think I've identified a rather ambitious first choice and maybe tomorrow I'll get back on that horse. The only other short story I have sitting around complete at the moment is the second in my "Merchinogi" series and it hasn't gone out to beta-readers yet. (I've been trying to avoid having more than one story out at a time, although I use different sets/combinations of readers for each story.) So I should probably dangle it in front of a suitable set of potential readers and get that started. Then I'll have to think about markets for that one as well. (As you recall, the first one was picked up as an audio original by Podcastle.org, but they normally do reprints, not originals, so I probably have to find a print outlet first before I could see if they'd be interested as well.) And then I really truly do have to get in the groove for Mother of Souls again.

Shopping - Part I: It being Independent Bookstore Day, I decided to make a lazy round of a few bookstores by BART and foot. Started out at Laurel Bookstore in downtown Oakland (which gives me an opportunity to remind people that I'll be doing a reading there on Friday June 5) then over to Borderlands Books where I rather failed to find any of the books I was vaguely looking for but picked up a few older ones on my "you really need to pick this up some day" list. I also knew that they carried a small selection of graphic novels and since that's the only Hugo category I have left to evaluate seriously, I figured I'd go ahead and buy the nominees rather than waiting to see if they're doing a voter packet this year. Borderlands only had one of the four items I was looking for but pointed me at a nearby comics shop. Alas, today by pure coincidence was "free comics day" and both that store and the one I tried in downtown Berkeley were out of the other titles I was looking for. So I bought them through the iTunes store, which will make them easier to read but I would rather have supported a brick-and-mortar vendor.

Shopping - Part II: So, I…um…er…bought a Thing. I promised myself I wouldn't buy this Thing until I'd finished paying off all the debt related to buying my current house and the associated moving costs. (It's been four years--it's about time.) So since I accomplished that just this past month, and have some mad money left over on top of that, I am now the vaguely embarrassed owner of a big-screen tv. Why "vaguely embarrassed"? It just seems so luxurious and materialistic. At any rate, tomorrow I get to deal with installing it (as well as connecting up all my components through the new tuner, plus adding the new speakers). The Fry's salesman was startlingly helpful, particularly in working with my rather odd and somewhat down-scale requirements. (No, I don't need the extra-sharp, extra-pixel-density screen because 95% of the time when I'm watching I have my computer glasses on so the resolution difference is lost on me.) He didn't even laugh when I mentioned that one of the components I wanted to be able (hypothetically) to connect through the tuner is an actual LP turntable. Not that I listen to LPs on any regular basis, but I still have some and I have the turntable, so it would be nice to have the hypothetical.

Strawberries: Yesterday I was able to pick enough strawberries to have something that could reasonably be called a bowlful. Also: the first ripe tomato of the season.