My good friend devilwrites wanted to know what books I got for Christmas, so here’s the list:

Books I bought at the used bookstore and that Matt confiscated as soon as I got home so he could give them to me:

• When True Night Falls by C. S Friedman – I have the first in this trilogy already, but haven’t read it yet.
• Arrow’s Fall by Mercedes Lackey – One of the few bits of the Valdemar series that I don’t have on my shelf already.
• Year of the Unicorn by Andre Norton – I’ve been looking for Witch World books to read for ages, but they’re out of print. I still haven’t read any, but at least I have some in hand now.
• Sorceress of the Witch World by Andre Norton
• Three Against the Witch World by Andre Norton
• Spell of the Witch World by Andre Norton

Then Matt also got me How To Be Your Dog’s Best Friend by the Monks of New Skete.

My brother-in-law Daniel gave me Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Annotated Brothers Grimm (which was on my wish list), and a copy of one of his favorites, Gene Wolfe’s The Knight, which I’ve never even heard of but which I am looking forward to reading.

And then with the gift cards I got, so far I’ve bought Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s Nobody’s Baby But Mine, which was pretty good; Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty and the Silver Bullet, which was excellent; and Carol Berg’s Breath and Bone, which I’m not reading until after residency but which I anticipate will be excellent as well. I have about $50 left to spend, but I don’t know what I’ll use it for.

Plans changed for Saturday, so today’s the writing day instead… unfortunately, with Matt home and playing Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii, I’m going to need to go into the office to work.  Trouble with that is the office windows leak and we haven’t been able to get maintenance out to fix them, which means the office usually ends up being about 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the apartment.  I’ve got a space heater under the desk and I’ll have my tea, but I really don’t want to go in there.  Also, at this point I hardly remember where I left off writing, much less where to start today.    

Maybe I’ll work on my legends. That’s not a bad idea.

I checked my flight info for Friday, when I’ll be traveling to PA for residency, and realized that I’m getting up at a ridiculously early hour. I’ll be a zombie by the end of orientation. Just you watch.

Also, I have no idea what to wear for the “come as you aren’t” wine social on Sunday. Ideas?

It’s the Friday between Christmas and New Years. There is no one in the office except the finance department. Non one is calling, except to talk to the finance department. It works, but it’s dead boring. I’ve stuffed about 1,000 envelopes today and have about 500 left, give or take. Also dead boring.

It looks like a big chunk of our Christmas money will end up going toward car stuff. We’ve got it in for routine maintenance plus another attempt to fix the dratted alarm, and there are various belts and brakes and other things that have come up needing replacement. Luckily, we only have to spend this much every three or four years. On the whole, considering how littler we’ve had to do for the last few years it’s not that much, but it sure does take a big chunk out of the checking account at once. A really big chunk.

On the upside, I have baklava for dessert, and once I’m done with this batch of envelopes I’m done stuffing for 2007. Whee!

Tonight, the agenda is cleaning the house, so that I can take tomorrow as a writing day. Yeah, you read that right. Ten days on the meds and I’m feeling like I can handle a creative day. It’s a good feeling. De-funking is good.

Lunch time for me, so I’ll catch you all later.

For those of you who are Carrie Vaughn fans, you should know that when I went to my local Borders this evening I found about 12 copies of KITTY AND THE SILVER BULLET on the shelf.  Needless to say, I bought one of them.  So keep an eye out – they may have arrived near you, too.    

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an advance-shelved copy of Carol Berg’s BREATH AND BONE, which I’ve been waiting for since May, even though the store inventory said they had one on hand this morning. I hope somebody bought it, because if they lost it I’m going to be quite sad. Also saw the mass market binding of FLESH AND SPIRIT, which looks very slick. I’ll try again in a week or so for BREATH AND BONE.

We got one of our Christmas cards returned with a wrong address. :( I’ll have to double-check that and try to send it again. Oops.

I got Aubrey’s Christmas card in the mail today – very funny. Matt and I both laughed. Good times.

It’s reading time!

Merry Christmas – I know I didn’t get the greetings out for the first day of Christmas, but the second’s not bad, all things considered.    

We had a lovely day yesterday, and I hope you did too, whether or not you celebrated it as a holy day. Though really, most Christians celebrate the religious aspect of Christmas on the 24th. Isn’t that odd? Especially as there’s no biblical basis for the idea that Jesus was born at night. But we like to think of it that way, because of all the carols.

Just like we like to think of the 12 days of Christmas as the ones leading up to the Big Day, when in fact, religiously, the 12 days of Christmas are the 12 days between December 25th and January 6th, commonly known as Epiphany in the liturgical church. But I suppose there aren’t many of those around any more, either.

Epiphany is the representative day when the wise men presented Jesus with their three gifts (again, no indication of how many wise men there were, but we like to think it’s three because there were three gifts), which represent his three roles: gold was a gift for a king; frankincense was used by priests in their religious offerings; and myrrh was more commonly a funeral gift, used for embalming – an indication of his role as sacrifice for the sins of humanity. A precursor of his death. Great gift for a child, eh?

The 12 days of Christmas lead up to the gift-giving, which reveal and represent Christ’s threefold purpose.

Funny how we, as a society, forget things like that, isn’t it? It’s such a fun song, though.

I think every region has its own personal quirks about driving in snow.

In Syracuse and Buffalo, for instance, they just don’t notice it. I’ve driven at 50 mph on the New York Thruway in driving snow (a foot of accumulation in an hour) without a qualm about my safety. Their plow trucks look like fantastical monsters out to devour the winter for a light snack. They deal with winter by moving it to a more convenient location, thank you very much.

In Philadelphia, as soon as the Channel 6 News announces the possibility of snow, bread and milk suddenly disappear from grocery store shelves, as if Philadelphians believe that these two items alone will stave off winter.  (They do not.)  

In Tennessee, the entire infrastructure of the state shuts down at the first hint of snow. It doesn’t matter that it just melts on the road and never actually accumulates. School is cancelled the day before a rumored snow flurry. I’ve seen it happen.

In the North Carolina mountains, the towns share snow plows, which means people will get out whenever the communal plow gets around to them. They’re usually content to stay home until then.

In Ohio, people creep along through 6 inches of snow to drive to work and school (which doesn’t get cancelled) because the construction backhoes that double as plows in winter still aren’t enough to cover everything if there’s more than 2 inches.

And in Colorado, there’s a split reaction. Some people drive incredibly slowly. One would presume this is under the impression that any sign of white on the road renders their tires’ traction null. My theory is that these are all the people who transplant from Texas and California because of the great weather, low humidity, and convenient skiing, but who have no idea how to actually deal with snow. Slow is not always better, folks.

On the other hand, faster isn’t always better, either. This advice is for the second faction of Colorado drivers, those who try to gun it from a dead stop, and then plow into the median (or another car) when their wheels suddenly find purchase under the snow their spinning tires kick up.

Of the two factions, they must be declaimed as the stupider, though perhaps not the more annoying.

Here ends the lesson on regional tendencies for driving in snow.

Nathan Bransford (agent extraordinaire) has posted a quick recap of This Year in Publishing (this year being 2007), replete with his usual quick humor and insight.  For the record, his is one of the agent blogs I enjoy reading most.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll query him.  But first, I’ll have to finish the manuscript.  

What is the deal with giving presents?

I’m not saying I don’t like giving gifts. Or getting them. What I don’t like are all the darn rules around giving them. The following are the rules I have a problem with. Yes, I just ended that sentence with a preposition, and no, I’m not changing it. What can I say? I’m feisty today. The bad rules:

1. Presents must be given at Christmas no matter what. This rule has two aspects that peeve me.

a) Presents must be given even if the giver has no good gift to give.
Really? Just because it’s December 25th, I have to come up with a gift for you? And don’t give me any junk about celebrating Jesus’ birth, because that has very little to do with most people’s thoughts about exchanging presents at the holidays. This goes for people who expect me to give them fabulous birthday or anniversary presents. I buy gifts when I find something perfect, and if that happens to coincide with whatever monumental date you’ve got going at the moment, that’s great. But I’m so tired of buying something, sticking it in the designated gift box, and then forgetting about it by the time your Big Day comes around. Do you know how many double gifts I’ve gotten? Do you know how many times I’ve forgotten I already sent a present and then have to scramble for something else at the last minute? Did anyone ever think that maybe sometimes the best gift is no gift at all?

This rule is sometimes voluntarily suspended by families in favor of a gift lottery or other such thing, which is a good idea, but then other complications ensue. For instance: what if I have a perfect gift for one of my relatives that I’ve been saving for Christmas (mutter) and I don’t get that person’s name in the draw? Then I’m giving an extra gift, and that’s not fair! I say names for lotteries should be drawn a year in advance, to allow for all-year shoppers like me to have a clue about what’s going on. Of course, then some folks would send next year’s Christmas presents in January and I’d have to keep track of them too.

b) Gifts must be given even if the givee doesn’t want anything.
Honestly, people, the only things I need at this point are a house and more books. Ok, and some cash for some new clothes. A girl’s gotta have some new clothes now and again. And if I get many more books, we’ll need another bookshelf, so I’ll add that to the list now. Never hurts to be prepared.

Now, if you find something that just screams “Betsy needs this!” and you still believe it after five minutes of sober consideration, by all means send it my way. If you just think it’s cool, take a picture and email it to me. I’ll enjoy it just as much. Or follow my mom’s example with her garage sale shopping (hi Mom), and just send me the money you would have spent. Really really. I don’t need more knickknacks. Even if I really liked them (which I generally don’t) I don’t have room for any more. If we had room for anything else in our house, it would be more stuff for the kitchen, and we already have everything except an angel food cake pan and an air popper for popcorn. No really. Ask me. We probably have it in some form or another.

Just to be sure this doesn’t focus entirely on me, I have to say that I know a whole lot of people who feel the same way. We’re a society that buys what we need when we need it. And most of the time we buy what we want when we want it, too, which makes for precious few gift-giving opportunities. I realize that.

An interlude here.
For those who are familiar with the whole idea of love languages, receiving gifts is not one of mine – which means I often don’t put much importance on giving them, either. For those who aren’t familiar with the five love languages, go here to learn more. And since we’re on the topic, I’m a words of affirmation girl.

Now, back to the rant. Bad present rule #2:

2. Presents must be appropriate in size and value for the social norms surrounding the giver and givee’s situation.
Now before I go on I want to make a distinction in this section between a present and a gift. To me, a present is something bought to be given at a specific occasion – a wedding, shower, homewarming, birthday, anniversary, holiday, etc. etc. etc. A gift is simply something that is freely given, regardless of circumstance. Some presents are also gifts – some are merely presents. And some gifts are presents, as is only logical, but some are just gifts, not for any special purpose or at any certain time. Just gifts. I guess what I’m saying with this whole thing is that I’m interested in giving more gifts, rather than presents.

The reason this is an important distinction is that a gift often doesn’t conform to the social norm for presents. If I know the perfect gift for my coworker is a handmade queen-sized quilt, that’s what I want to give her, not the little tin of candy that is socially acceptable. Heaven forbid that coworker be a man, because then something Serious might be happening. Yeah, like me seriously caring for and knowing about what my close acquaintances and friends like.

What’s the point? I’m seriously declaring a personal moratorium on all enforced present-giving. You’ll get what I want to give you when I want to give it to you. Anybody have a problem with that?

Now, if only I had the spine to enact it.

We haven’t called maintenance about the microwave, but I’m not sure why not.  It’s so odd to live without a microwave.  I take it for granted, and never realized how often I use it.  I might have to melt chocolate on the stovetop for my toffee this afternoon.  How wacky would that be?  I think I’d have to make my own double boiler to be sure I don’t burn it.   The mind boggles.

The doctor stuff yesterday went well, which shouldn’t be surprising, really. I stayed up late reading for no good reason, and consequently slept in.

On the list for today: finish laundry, make more toffee, finish editing a dvd slideshow, take the dog out for a run in the field, finish reading journals, write a bit, and design a quilt.

I think that’s enough, given that I’m starting at 11 instead of my more usual 8. But if I’m done early, I’ll take that quilt design and head to a fabric store to stock up for it.

Oh, also on the list: enjoy the Christmas tree we bought and decorated yesterday. Yay Christmas!

• The microwave is broken. Really broken. Not just the turntable doesn’t turn, like last time; things apparently crackled and popped and there’s no clock and no microwaving power at all. We have returned to the dark ages, also known as the 80s.
• I found a name for the female lead for a story that’s been bouncing around in my head for a while. That’s always nice.
• We might very well turn into Those People who buy winter outerwear for our dog. This after a short snowshoeing escapade on Saturday, after which poor Shiloh was shivering so badly that we think we need something that is at least windproof for her. Funny, because it looks like she’s got a nice thick undercoat. We’ll wait until she’s full-grown for anything like that, though. And no, I will not be buying fashion sweaters for her. Good grief.
• Not particularly looking forward to my doctor’s appointment tomorrow, but the combination of ignoring it and reminding myself (when I do think about it) that it’s for my own good seems to be working okay.
• I’m rather cold.
• Finally catching up with my reading journals. Clicky clicky the link above if you’re interested. More will be coming tomorrow, too.