Is she a light sleeper?

Not especially, but unfamiliar loud noises tend to startle her. She woke from a nice nap this afternoon when the repairman fixing our door used a power tool in the next room, for example.

Jeez, Rip Van Freakin' Winkle would wake up under those circs - did you rip his head off and spit down his neck? Way to wake up a sleeping infant...

Well, as power tools go it was fairly quiet. And this door repair process has taken so long that I'm not going to complain too much as long as it's done.

In writerly news, edits have been made, and I'm going to enter this puppy in one more contest and start submitting to agents again.

Excellent! I've got Matty out to my beta readers, and am awaiting pass-pages for FFoSM. If they arrive tomorrow, here's hoping it happens before I head out to my MIL's to do a day's work in the garden.

Me for bed. We have damned near emptied this office today, and I'm just reeling.

Another shot at Silence There’s a new kind of silence to be dreaded in American life these days, even as we get noisier. We’ve gotten spoiled, information flying across the globe like it does, that we expect it.Ok, I expect it. I sigh like a teenager when asked to leave anything after the beep, even though I remember when the only guy who had a machine was Jim Rockford on TV.And I expect everyone I e-mail to be as intoxicated by the printed word as am I(The reality is a Practice on living with disappointment a lot of the time, what with IM-speak.”thx but no thx, U know?” )

You Get What You Need

At my first job out of college, I sat in the middle of a news room. It was loud: Phones ringing all around me, coworkers constantly gabbing about TV and diets, a boss who expected frequent progress reports.

I hated it, wasted afternoons fantasizing about an office with a door and coworkers who would mind their own business.

Then I got what I wanted.

The silence overwhelmed me, drove me to inactivity, to depression, to -- in the end -- termination.

I have a new job, with a new loud office. When it distracts me, I remember the past, and give thanks.

Hmmmmm.

Show of hands, please.

Does anyone out there except me really, really, really enjoy pure silence?

I have tinnitus. I never get pure silence.

Pure silence with enough background noise to know you haven't gone deaf? That's pleasant.

Sound deadness, no.

Oh, I think sound deadness - the sudden knowledge that your ears aren't functioning - is horrid.

But silence makes me incredibly happy. It's why I work best first thing in the morning. I used to get up just before sunrise and write for an hour or two. No phones ringing, no outdoor music, no car alarms, no damned voices intruding on my head.....