Well, we just had some excitement! Lemme break this down for you:

11pm - Val falls asleep on the couch.
11:05pm - Emily attempts to wake Val from her deep sleep to get her to move from the couch to her bed.
11:07pm - Val plops into bed.
2:01am - Val hears something in her room fall, which awakens her. She thinks it's the cat, so rolls over and goes back to sleep.
2:02am - Val has an unsettling feeling after not hearing more things fall (must *not* be the cat*, so she puts on her glasses.
2:02:02am - "EMILY! EMILY! EMILY" she screams as she flies out of her room after seeing A MAN ON HER FIRE ESCAPE, AT THE WINDOW! (Val lives on the third floor.)
2:02:05am - Emily, startled by the woman screaming bloody murder, tries to find out what's going on, but all Val tells her is, "CALL 911! THERE'S SOMEONE TRYING TO BREAK IN THROUGH MY WINDOW! THERE'S SOMEONE ON THE FIRE ESCAPE!"
2:02:10am - "911, what is your emergency?"
2:03am - "Are they still there?" asks the operator.
2:03:30am - Emily goes to check. Yup they are. Emily bangs on the window and shouts, "HEY!" She is told they'll "get down."
2:07am - The officers are downstairs. Must go get them.
2:07:27am - The officers are confused by where the fire escape is. They decide the best way is to go through Val's room.
2:07:29am - For the first time in a long time, Val's first thought is not, "Oh my! But, my house is a mess!" and it's not because the house is clean.
2:09am - Officer opens Val's window and yells at the kid. "What's your name?" "I live downstairs. My name is Lee _______." Officer to Val, "Is that your neighbor?" Val to officer, "Well, we've never met, but that's the name of one of the people that lives on the second floor. Officer to Lee, "Wait there. We're coming down."
2:15am - Val and Emily laugh and laugh and laugh (What do they say, "If you don't laugh, you'll cry").
2:17am - Emily offers to make Val some tea.
2:30am - Val starts breathing again.

Turns out they were hanging a sign. A radio station sign or something. AT 2AM!

Ack, VW. That's scary, and bizarre. I'm glad it turned out not to be anything dangerous.

Yeah, it was pretty clear after my major freakout that they weren't anything dangerous, but the police, at that point, still had to come. But, at 2AM?! You don't go on other people's fire escapes that are attached to their BEDROOMS!

You shoulda seen me bang on the window. I was rather proud of myself.

Actually, I felt kind of silly, but it did seem like the thing that needed to be done, since "Excuse me, that's our fire escape. Who are you, exactly?" didn't seem quite the right followup to the earlier screaming. Or the right intro to the fact that soon, the police were going to show up and be all "Hey, buddy, what's your problem?"

I wouldn't think so, no. I would have freaked out if I were you.

EEEEeeeeekK! to vw and hooray for Emily's bravery. I'm glad it was just clueless people and not, well, clueful people with harmful intent.

Jilli, I dearly love Thornyhold. It's Stewart, but it makes me think of the way she wrote about Merlin in The Last Enchantment... The power is spent and slipped away, but the first magic, the fire magic, is still there. Thornyhold lacks the energy and power of her earlier stuff, but the magic is still there.

Aw, poor Deena's day. But Kara's listening to the corn dog has to be one of the funniest things I've ever heard--especially since I can picture her and hear her voice.

I've not ventured in to tell vw what a great thing it is she made it through the semester. Or that Stephanie's finished her classes and worked out a study plan for the bar.

I hope JZ gets home soon, safe, and sound.

And with that, I'm gonna try this new sleeping thing people are talking about.

Home. Tired, but not tired enough. About to pop some melatonin as the Ambien is all et up.

Having now put in some 20+ hours working for the circus, I must encourage every Bitch to run out and rack up some parking tickets in San Francisco. This is the best ticket-paying gig EVAH.

Ok, now I'm creeped out by the shadows outside my bedroom window.

Sorry, Eddie! Didn't mean to freak anyone out. Of course, I'm so freaked out, I can't go back into my bedroom. I just took some more sleeping meds, so hopefully I'll be able to at least dose out here on the couch.

I'm actually doing schoolwork. Go figure.

Wow. This time last year, I was in Oakland. Nightwing 93 had just come out, I'd scored a great wine-red formal a couple of days before, and had spent the night before somewhere around Eugene, OR in a room with a two-person jacuzzi tub after a long drive down from Seattle.

Later in the day, after a night's sleep and a day on the town, hitting all the spots that Hec, Phil, and WKFA hit last week, I put on that wine-red dress and a lovely tiara, and headed to the Church of the Guy with a T-Square, where, in the company of many of you, I saw the most beautiful bride in the world (they all are, on their day, but this one was especially radiant) walk down the aisle to take the swankiest groom (groom swank may vary) in the world to be her wedded husband.

Later, at Fancy Art Place, there was cake and monkeypants and the Green Lantern oath, and JZ introduced everyone to the boy with the world's prettiest penis, whom we'd all heard so much about, and then we danced the Snoopy Dance with Robins in our bosoms.

Hard to believe that was a year ago, even with all the changes in so many lives.

It feels like yesterday.

Congratulations, Hec and JZ, on the first year. May you have many more celebrations to come.