( continues...) in the middle of a lot of conflicting interests. Today has been hard because it’s the first full day at sea, so they’re having a bit of a nightmare figuring out the logistics. We’ll be in ports at least part of each day the rest of this week, so it should get less stressful after tonight.

I’ve been kicking around on my own today and will likely be doing so most of the rest of the week. Not complaining at all, of course! I knew that it would be like this if I chose to come back, and I’m still thrilled with the general coolness of sailing around on a cruise ship in the Caribbean for two weeks for nothing. Plus, I’m 2/3rds done with my PADI Open Water Diver certification! Tomorrow morning I do two open water dives in Cozumel to complete the course. Wish me NO SHARKS. Or very nice, passive, leaving me completely alone sharks, if they must show up. I’m very excited about the dive, though a bit nervous. The pool training today was stressful! All that flooding of masks and losing regulators and pretending to be out of air and dire warnings about forgetting to breathe and exploding your lungs! Eep! None of that, please! Nice, uneventful, pretty underwater sightseeing, that’s what I want. I am proud of myself for overcoming my fear of drowning (that claustrophobic oh-god-humans-aren’t-meant-to-breathe-underwater feeling), though. I wasn’t sure if I could do this, and I’m psyched that I’m pushing past that fear for this new experience. Smooth dive~ma would be appreciated tomorrow.

Also general calm-down-and-get-along~ma would be nice for the cruise in general. I’ve had a bit of an issue with one of the corporate types who seems to think that the fact I was invited to be Drew’s guest on this cruise means that she can ask me to do all kinds of menial chores. She actually asked me to be the greeter /bouncer at the AmEx guest services lounge tonight. Um. No. Not my job. I am more than happy to volunteer to help out (and have done a bunch of things for them all week, including copyediting all of their guest pamphlets and such for this week), but I am NOT a servant. Luckily, she is the only one of all the wonderful people Drew’s working with who is at all like this—the rest are so gracious and welcoming (and horrified that I’ve been asked to do those other things)—and the truth is that she is really not a bad person. She’s just young and bossy and doesn’t really think things through. I’ve gotten along with her generally up until this point, but I finally had to talk to one of the other higher-ups about these requests today, and I’m worried about the fallout.

Wow, this is an obscenely long post. Going to cut/paste and post now…love you guys! Miss talking with you! (Obviously!)

Maybe her kink is for wearing her underthings wrong? It's perfectly natural!

Maybe her kink is for wearing her underthings wrong? It's perfectly natural!

Ha! The LJ I linked to, Midori's, makes the point that the stylist of the photo shoot should be mortified for putting the corset wrong, using cheap crap-ass boots, and such a poorly-fitting bra. All of which are valid point, kink or no.

Sigh.

Maybe I should just admit cooking is not among my gifts and stop trying new recipes just because they sound interesting.

Signed,
Just spent over an hour in the kitchen (30-minute meal my ASS) producing a half-burned, crappy-tasting mess, and on my way to pagliacci.com for a replacement dinner

common things that are considered to be wrong

...like not knowing how to lace a corset?

common things that are considered to be wrong

...like not knowing how to lace a corset?

Bingo, pretty lady.

Ugh. 12 hour day. School starts Thursday. Utter (well, not utter) chaos.

Nora and Tom -- suck. Job hunting is such a horrid stressor.

Barb -- does it help that I totally name-dropped you just yesterday?! One of my ex-students emailed me, asking to critique some fiction she's done, and I was all YES blahblah-cakes Rule #1 of Writing: READ EVERYTHING, and blahblah, ooh, read BARB! I know her! (my ex-stu is so very much like your protag in ATMOL.) She's Mexicana, not Cubana, but it was nice to be able to rec an author who was writing stuff that would be a lot closer to the things she's interested in, and blahblahblah I have logorrhea tonight I am so tired shut me up CALLATE!)

ION, I am making jambalya with chorizo. Yum.

Oh! Two students at my new school are old students of mine! One of whom I love! I was so happy to see her -- she got booted from my old school cause she is kinda fighty, but SO much better than she used to be, and I got along great with her, no probs.

Most of my new students are African-American, which is cool, but I really lovedloved the almost 100% Latino (Mexican)pop. at my old school -- I just got along really well with almost all the kids, and it makes me so happy to see Latino students at my new school. I'm so used to seeing them as the majority culture, it's weird to see them as a minority here. I feel protective. Is that weird, since I am white as Wonder bread?

Kristin, enjoy diving. But, um, Cozumel has sharks. Tiny ones were all I ever saw, but they were there. Turns out you can totally have and get past a panic attack underwater which was good to know.

You mean, they don't tell you why they're not pleased? They just wave it off and mutter obscurely?

Oh yeah... that's kind of the worst part about it. Each revision, I got an email from my editor telling me that she loved the changes I'd made, but if I made a few more... and then, again, how much she loved the changes I made, how I'd done everything she'd asked for but it prompted some other changes she wanted to make, until finally, after the fourth revision, I received the "I love it! I totally love it!" email from her.

That was in May. In early July was when I first heard that the publisher, in other words, my editor's boss and She Who Has Final Say, wasn't crazy about it. She feels it's not in line with what they publish. That it's too commercial.

That it's too commercial.

Yeah, that'd suck if it sold a lot of copies.