Welcome back to being human...

I was originally going to post some little rant about how most "significant others" of my chums aren't good enough. But that can be saved for a later date, I think (was primarily brought on by a friend's "new" relationship. I don't think I could have found someone more unlike her -- which sometimes is a good thing, but in this case, I just find him so terribly bland and... and... Conservative. I could never love anyone who would vote for peddy-eyed Harper).

But I've had two marvelous days of blissful sleep and all of yesterday to be lazy, TV-watching, video-game playing, puttering me. Last night, I even pulled out a manuscript I have to read for next week and got a head start on it).

(It's quite dreadful so far -- a man gets "pulled back in time" to the mediaeval period, where he encounters a woman. The writer spent all this time reading up on weapons, chastity belts and parts of the crusade, but couldn't be bothered to write dialogue that didn't sound like it was from 1992.)

You see, I write back cover copy for a major romance publishing house. It's a brilliant gig -- easy, fun and pays quite nicely for a freelance gig. People howl with laughter when I tell them this, of course (especially because I'm about as un-romance, non-girly-girl as they come), but truly -- I find it absolutely fascinating and marvelous fun.

It's sort of a far more complicated and challenging version of those reading comprehension tests you did as a kid (I always sulked if I got a wrong answer). Only you have to try and make it compelling, well-written and fresh.

And even trickier is riding the careful lines of "acceptable cliche" and "unacceptable cliche" -- you can't use the phrase "hot hunk," torn between her love of (insert object or person) or "their love would be lost forever" (or some such nonsense). So naturally, it takes a bit of creative maneuvering.

Oh christ, last week sucked. A friend of mine very accurately described it my freelance life as "feast or famine." And it's a painfully astute observation. But I know I have to take every single assignment I can in the fear of the next few months being horribly, disastrously slow.

But am feeling more rested today. Trying not to think about all the upcoming work I have due, the video games to assign to people, the copy to write, or interview I have to transcribe. or that the dreaded X-mas is fast approaching and I still haven't finished shopping for Chris. Or thinking about the fact that I will spend the bloody holiday sleeping on an old pullout couch in a family member's basement.

"Fa lala la la laaa fucking la laaa."