What's Up With My Life? I stole today's title from a friend’s blog, since she doesn’t bother to keep the blog up-to-date and I don’t want the title to feel lonely.

Yesterday we had 9" of snow overnight resulting in no school but three hours of snow-blowing and shoveling which was totally exhausting. Going to school would definitely have been easier!

I ordered three cds from BMG Music Club in their Buy 1 Get 3 deal: The Waterboys’ This is the Sea, Wilco’s A Ghost is Born, Best of the Scorpions and The Essential Clash, which is a double cd just like This Is the Sea is, so I got 6 cds which I am looking forward to hearing.

I tend to read both one nonfiction book and one fiction book simultaneously. I am still reading Nehru’s The Discovery of India–which right now is discussing the foundations of Buddhism; very interesting–but also Fantasy: Best of 2004, a good collection of short stories which run the gamut from myth and legend to contemporary and urban fantasy. It is a nice companion to the same editors’ Science Fiction: Best of 2004, which I read a few weeks ago.

I was advising one of my students today about the necessity of working to her fullest potential in order to maximize her chances of achieving her career goal, and while I was driving home I realized that I have definitely not been following my own advice. Ever since I started editing VoP, my fiction writing has decreased considerably due to a combination of pleasure at writing the magazine, and laziness since nonfiction is much easier to write than fiction. But I still crave being a writer of fiction–and I am not talking only seeking publication here, since the act of finishing stories is satisfying in its own way–and I need to put more effort into doing so while I am able. So I intend to squeeze some time for writing fiction into my regular schedules, at least on weekends and holidays. I actually worked a bit on a new story last weekend and yesterday, so that was a positive start.