Aries Moon 944: Back to the new normal

I got my grades in the mail today, a mere two days after finishing. I turned in an S.A.S.E. with my final so the professor would mail me my final and the grade for the semester. That way I wouldn't have to bite my nails for two weeks until it was posted on the college website. It was an A, of course, and arrived with a nice note from Mr. Kennedy. I am extremely pleased with myself for having done so well. It seems a little out of proportion, I knew all along I was getting an A, but there it is. Don't worry, I'll be over it soon. Say, about the time school starts again and I run smack up against Philosophy 103, a course I suspect will kick my butt. It involves analytical thinking, and I'm more of an intuitive type.

Also in today's mail was a summons to jury duty. Oh, well. I don't mind this time because now I live in San Mateo County and work in the county seat. I can walk to the courthouse from my office in about five minutes instead of having to drive to San Jose in rush hour traffic. I am to report on August 27th. If I'm chosen, my bosses pay me anyway so I won't have to worry about my bills. So far no one's ever chosen me. It might be because I was a paralegal for five years.

Say, here's a little test for you. I ran across this in the current issue of National Geographic and although I like to think of myself as a savvy world traveler I only guessed two correctly. John got five. Can you recognise the names of these nations in their native languages? I'm sorry I can't put in some of the diacritical marks, but it shouldn't affect your ability to figure out which nation is which.

Answers here.

On to social events. Jim Young, science fiction author, budding rock god, and foreign service officer, is coming to stay with us for a few days. I haven't seen him since 1998 so I'm looking forward to that. He and John have been friends since the Bozo Bus Building days in Minneapolis fandom (that's the 70's to you young folks).

Next Saturday I am attending a performance of Rice and John's Aida with my co-workers and our favorite sales rep from Hawaii World. It's a thank you for all the trips to Hawaii our office sells. I am looking forward to it even though it has gotten lousy reviews. I think it's pretty neat that it'll be my fourth musical theatre event this year. I saw only one play last year, and there wasn't any music involved.

The weekend after that Janice Murray and Alan Rosenthal are in town. I'm hosting a brunch at my favorite dim sum place (I almost wrote palace) in Mountain View since everyone I'm inviting lives there or points south. It would be cruel to make them all come up here, and this way I don't have to clean my house. Ha ha. It'll already be clean from Jim's visit. No, really.

I'm a little worried about so much socializing, but I've compromised. I will take one day of each weekend for myself. If I go out Saturday to Aida I stay home Sunday while everyone else goes to a pub for drinks. If I am having brunch on one day I will not meet up with the visitors on the other. I won't undermine the good progress I've made. It's important that I have unstructured time.

In fact, I think I'll go stretch out on the sofa and start reading my new book. Robert Silverberg's "The King of Dreams" is the last in his Prestimion trilogy, part of the Majipoor Cycle. I love that series and I found the book purely by accident Thursday night, so I'm going to go find out what happens to Prestimion, Dekkeret, and the rest of that strange, wonderful planet.

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