Yesterday we did more shopping and wandering. We started off at FAO Schwartz, where I've actually ben before, but this time it was extra fun because I was with fangirls. We spent a lot of time squeeing over Lord of the Ring legos and stuffed animals.

We proceeded up 5th Avenue. When we passed by Tiffany's, Olivia said she really wanted to go inside, and go inside we did. There was much oohing and ahhing. When we visited the 2nd floor (engagement rings) my favorite story from the whole day took place.

I had pretty much finished my circuit. Jalen was visiting the ladies' room and I met up with Olivia, who was finally getting back around to the beginning as well. She had stopped to look at the yellow diamonds. As I approached I heard her conferring with the salesmen, asking if they were genuine yellow diamonds or some other gemstone. He comfirmed that they were.

The salesman was older, late forties perhaps. Tall, tired-looking, but not impatient. Olivia's eyes were wide with longing. She turned to me with a big grin and said, "I need to get a rich husband."

I gave a small smile and happened to glance at the salesman, who kind of looked at her with the same tired, this time mildly sad expression. After a beat, he opened his mouth, half-hesitating and said carefully, "Or... you could study hard, get a great job, and buy it for yourself."

I looked at Olivia and smiled and she smiled back and we both agreed it was quite possibly the most wonderful moment ever.

Jalen took us to Rockefeller Center and the NBC store, where I got a Community t-shirt, an Orange Orange hoodie from Chuck, and a Buy More mug. She's such an enabler...! Then we went to Grand Central Station for lunch and headed back home to relax and get ready for Broadway.

I took a nap and overslept and had a low moment or two with my hair, but it worked out. We hit the street again in all our finery. I don't care who you are-- a night on the town in NYC, especially when you look fabulous, is a great feeling.

Newsies was amazing. I'm so glad we decided to go see it, because it's still the debut cast and they're still full of novel energy. The excitement was high. Every seat was full. We were in the very back row on the end, meaning I had the upper rightmost corner seat in the house, but we could still see really well. I always forget that most Broadway theaters are built smaller than the playhouses up in Cleveland and getting the back row doesn't resign you to a feeling of exile.

I cried a couple of times, more out of nostalgia for my formative teenage years when I was such a Newsies fangirl.

We went to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co for a late LATE dinner and had a very nice time indeed. On our way there, we passed a street musician guy who was playing "Can You Feel the Love tonight" on a pan flute. We passed by right when he hit the chorus, and without consultation, Jalen, I, and about five other strangers burst into song. Jalen twirled.

That was probably my favorite NYC moment so far, the Tiffany's story notwithstanding. ;-)

Back home in Queens, Jalen and I sat up and talked the Shakespeare Thing for a little while, which was obviously super special to me. :-)

We slept in yesterday, and then washed up and headed to Brooklyn to sit in on jalen_mara's rehearsal. It was three hours long and conducted in a preschool room in the floors above where the theater space is, and I just now realized that sitting on a tiny wooden chair for three hours is probably why my lower back is killing me this morning. Anyway, it was a really good (and unexpected) research opportunity. It was a small, ten minute play, so there was a lot of micro-analyzing of the scene, the characters, and perfecting the blocking. Olivia is a theater major, so she enjoyed getting to observe as well. She even helped out by being on book for the director so she didn't have to bother with it.

After rehearsal we were off to finally do conventional tourist things. We took the Staten Island Ferry so we could do a cruise-by and have a look at the Statue of Liberty. Now, seeing the Statue of Liberty has never been one of my #1 NYC bucket list items, which I casually mentioned. But then I was forced to eat my words with a rather large spoon as we passed by, looking at it, thinking of all those millions of immigrants coming into New York, how they must have felt at the sight and... yeah, I got choked up.

From there we turned our sights to shopping. I think we probably spent about three hours in Macy's. I got two new very lovely tank tops at a great price. I didn't realize until after I was at the store how starved I was for a fresh new piece of clothing. Even better, I found a serviceable pair of red shoes to go with my River Song costume. They have a couple extra embellishments than hers, but the price was very good. And evidently the shoe gods were with me, because they only size left in that shoe was my size. Which almost never happens. Today it's my mission to see if I can find a pair of cat eye sunglasses to continue this happy trend.

After Macy's we walked a few blocks to Times Square. I had several blocks worth of ridiculous fangirling when I looked across the street and noticed three Tibetan monks only the other side walking parallel to us. I was like, "OMGosh you guys, look! AIRBENDERS!!!"
Yes, there I am, approaching one of the most famous photo ops on Earth, and I'm geeking out over airbenders. Seriously, the one guy had a yellow bag to go with his orange robes and I just couldn't get over it.

Olivia was still daydreaming about some Tiffany's sunglasses she'd fallen in love with and I had to turn her head to get her to look up as we approached the aforementioned photo op. It was pretty funny. And also fun. We actually approached Times Square with an agenda-- a dinner reservation at the restaurant where Jalen's boyfriend works. We were at dinner for quite a while. It was a lovely establishment, and due to our "connections" we got an extra sushi roll on the house and also a spread of what might have been the entire desert menu. That was quite excellent.

Then we went back outside, where it was as bright as noon, for all that night had fully fallen. We geeked out at the Disney store for the better part of an hour and I got Nolan and Noelle some toys from Brave, because every time I walked by the Brave displays, my fingers got all twitchy.

Then we stumbled back home to Queens and I had a mini River Song marathon with Jalen, who knew surprisingly little about the character but got interested as a sci fi nerd by all the wibbly wobbly timey wimey awesomeness of her character and by the fact that she's played by Alex Kingston, a fact heretofore unknown on her part. That was fun.

And then we collapsed into sleep and now here we are on Day #3!

Yesterday was a rousing success. Airport check-in, security, flight, and even baggage claim went as smoothly as fresh-churned butter. The only wrinkle was that we got the only cabby in New York who didn't know Astoria was in Queens, but since he didn't charge us the full price (and only asked about what Jalen said it should cost), I didn't let it faze me too much.

So this is my friend Olivia's first time in New York, and what did we do all day? Sat in apartment rooms. Hah! Admittedly, we knew that was going to be the game plan. Since we slated the book workshop (aka the Great NYC Litmus test) for the first evening, it was nose to the grindstone right away. Admittedly, it was a very pleasant grindstone. There was much fangirling and reminiscing in between, and finally getting to talk with jalen_mara about the book face to face (she's pretty much the book's "cool aunt/godmother") was uber-gratifying.

We ventured forth once to get an early lunch and also posterboard so I could draw up the theater floor plans for the benefit of our workshop participants. There was a brief moment of terror when my wallet wasn't in my purse, and I managed to keep it mostly together long enough to get back and assure that it was in my backpack. (Stupid airport security, bumping you through the line like cattle but you have to take out ALL THE THINGS and get all flustered at the same time).

Olivia took a nap (she can sleep through anything!!) and Jalen and I talked some more while I sketched out the floor plans on the posterboard. Then, after some YouTube share time of show tunes, we packed off and headed off for Jalen's boyfriend's apartment, where the workshop was to be held because of Jalen's crazy downstairs neighbor who would not have supported a bunch of people talking after 7:00 p.m.

I think the workshop was a marvelous success. Jalen's theater friends were very attentive, and I believe genuinely interested in the book itself. They took my request for input with consummate professional seriousness, offering lots of tips and insights into the technical and cultural side of the theater world, just as I asked. I have lots of tiny lingo corrections to make, and we even had a few moments here and there to discuss broader thematic trends in the story. Part of me feels bad, since I restricted the readings to four "technical" scenes and avoided most of what I consider to be the really fun stuff, but... hopefully they'll want to read it for themselves. :-)

Yesterday I put an asterisk in my post:

(1) Get to meet and geek out with jalen_mara, with whom I've been cyber acquainted for an even ten years now*

-- and forgot to follow up on it, as bookwormprinces so kindly pointed out in her comments. Whoops. ;-)


Roughly ten years ago (a little more for some, a little less for others), there was a group of fanfic writers on the Jedi Council forums at theforce.net who had regular, super insane AOL chats for almost two straight years. We called ourselves the Clique, which sounds very tween girl high school novel, but I think the group had a pretty open door policy.

The thing is, the core group of us are still connected, though it's broken down more into pairs of clusters of most special friends. This is how I met and came to collaborate with my dear friend laura_josephsen and ultimately get my first work of original fiction published.

In addition to Laura, I've met emmaorgana, rangersebulba, and miana_dude in real life. Tomorrow I get to meet jalen_mara (she was our demolitions expert) ;-). I've probably typed several encyclopedias' worth of words chatting with melyanna. And so many others: womp_rat208 (getaway driver), luney27 (recently returned from a long, long absence!!), emmy_roo, handmaiden_yane, and more... We also lost our "Mom" to cancer a couple of years ago, and that was a very sad day for all of us.

I just can't believe it's been ten years! I would pay quite a lot of money for the transcript of that first chat. How little I knew what a huge moment it was to be in my life. Alas, it was about three hard drive crashes ago.

Cheers to you, Cliquers! Here's to ten more!

The vet believes Toby is suffering from allergies. He got two shots yesterday: an antibiotic and a steroid, and she also gave me some medicated wipes to treat the irritated areas of his skin until they clear up. Depending on how he responds, I might need to change his diet in the future. For now, though, I think he's already starting to feel better, and that makes me happy.

Wow. It is now only 48 hours until the Great NYC Litmus test. By my estimation, at this time on Friday, I will be in a cab on my way to jalen_mara's house.

THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO!!!!

Tonight I need to clean, start packing, help my friend Olivia with some alterations for a dress, and maybe squeeze in some time to work on my list of questions for the workshop on Friday. Fortunately, Music Man rehearsal is an hour shorter tonight due to a conflicting even at the church where we practice.

Tomorrow I need to finish packing and get my butt in bed at a reasonable-ish hour, because we need to leave at 4:30 a.m. at the latest to make our flight. One really cool thing is that Olivia has recently started dating a guy who works for the airline we're flying on (complete and utter coincidence) and he got us bumped up to business class with two free checked bags. W00t! It's only for the flight out, but I honestly prefer that because it's so early it's going to be a much bigger hassle.

For those of you who don't know, the Great NYC Litmus test has a twofold purpose. (1) Get to meet and geek out with jalen_mara, with whom I've been cyber acquainted for an even ten years now* and have a proper NYC vacation. (2) To put some of her theater friends in a room (however many we can bribe and wrangle) and pitch the Shakespeare Thing to them. I've got a priority reading list and I'm working on that list of questions. One thing I did FINALLY manage to accomplish on Monday night was hammering out a floor plan of the theater in the book.

If all goes to plan, I'll come away with some new food for thought in taking the book up yet another few notches in quality, most especially on the technical side of things.

Oh, and we're also going to see Newsies on Broadway on Sunday evening. I've been trying to decide what to wear. Right now I'm leaning heavily toward my newly-finished River Song dress. :-)

A long, long time ago when laura_josephsen and I were a million discussions deep into "Restoration" and the mythology of the world was finally starting to congeal, I made the following lofty, sweeping suggestion:

"Let's write twelve books!"

Awww, such adorable hubris.

Now, in my defense, twelve books matches the twelve speakers who are (or will become) the central heroes of the series. Also, twelve has a particular symmetry that I've always loved, as well as a great deal of mythological, literary, and spiritual significance.

To date we only have four books written, and the fourth one is only a weak, wee little baby of a first draft. In the intervening seven, eight-ish years since Laura and I started writing together, many things have changed, including our respective writing journeys, the direction of the series, and that precious bliss of Inspiration-High!!! we had when we began.

I was muddling all of this aloud to a coworker over lunch last Thursday, and unbidden, I tacked this onto the end of a completely different point I'd been making, "... unless we just write fewer books to end the series."

It was like someone hit my brain with the writer's equivalent of jumper cables. For the rest of the lunch I became the worst conversation partner ever, and as soon as I got back to my desk at work I hastily scrambled up an email to Laura, explaining what had happened, a proposal, and some specifics to support it. After waiting 5 minutes, I picked up my phone to call her and ask her to check her email if at all convenient. She did. And didn't hesitate one fraction of a second in agreeing with me.

In short, Restoration is no longer going to total twelve books, but seven. It will probably require pulling apart over half of Book 3, but the good news is, by my estimation we are about halfway done with the total necessary work for the series.

It's such a weight off of my mind, and Laura's too, and it's renewed my excitement for the series and the characters. I think they're going to be stronger for it. Hilariously, the series is going to end up having a much stronger element of "Stop the evil empire", which we were desperately hoping to avoid, but what's good enough for Star Wars, Avatar:tLA, and countless others is surely good enough for us. Anyway, there's also a tolerably more benevolent Empire too. ;-)

What's truly amazing, in hindsight, is how long it took for us to come to this. I have a notoriously bad habit of complacency with the status quo. It's not that I'm even stubborn about it sometimes, it's just I truly don't see some other possibility because there's a way that works and it's good for me, so why look elsewhere?

Even when it does save you the trouble of five whole novels. ;-)

I made it to emmaorgana's more or less unscathed on Friday afternoon, which cannot be said for poor grav_ity (major border-crossing headaches). On Friday evening we watched The Emperor's New Groove and The Princess and the Frog and then sort of simultaneously collapsed. Apparently we need laura_josephsen around to help us pull fangirl all-nighters.

Saturday was our long-anticipated group watch of Korra. I proposed we wait until 11:30 to watch the DVR to be able to fast-forward commercials and Emma was like, "Um... no." ;-) Man, it has been so long since I've legitimately watched Saturday morning cartoons on Saturday morning. Those kids are still being mean to the poor Rabbit, not letting him have any Trix. *shakes head*

At some point we made our obligatory visit to the grocery store so that Kate could buy baking supplies. This was just one of many moments in the trip where I was a complete and total space case. I won't go into details. Let's just say I left my cogency in Ohio. That evening we went to Olive Garden for her birthday and had a lovely time talking fannishly. After we got home we made Emma and her BF watch Doctor Horrible. I kept saying Doctor Who without realizing it...

ETA: Oh! And Emma and her BF helped me start a game of Dragon Age. As I suspected, I enjoyed RPG vid games much more with good company (and a little bit of help). It's a good thing my brother sold his Xbox, because I do NOT have time for a game right now. It might be something to look into after Dragon Con is over and I need a break from sewing and a chance to recuperate before prime writing season begins. Anyway, we decided it would be better for me to start a different game as a rogue, not a warrior. ;-)

Yesterday we went to see the Avengers together before I had to hit the road. It was fun.

In sadder news, when I got home I discovered whatever ailment Toby has been fighting seems to be getting worse. There was an icky patch of fur missing on his neck, and he's been acting lethargic, walking around slowly, like his joints hurt him. I already had a followup vet appt for him tomorrow afternoon, but just looking at him makes me feel fretful.

As usual, being with my fangirls always helps me to renew my creativity. Emma is a great enabler for the Superhero thing, so last night when melyanna and I got online we spent a good couple of hours doing some more hashing. We even achieved two drabbles' worth of actual writing. Quite exciting. Perhaps not ideally timed, since I really ought to be focusing on the Shakespeare thing more than I ever have before this week, but muses are tricky creatures.

Four more days till I get to meet jalen_mara!!!

Even though she is sitting four feet away from me and I already gave her a birthday card and wished her happy birthday, I must do a birthday post as well.

The cupcake song!!!!

My first blog entry to officially chronicle my Red Riding Hood costuming efforts:

The Tale of Rose Red, Part 1

On the writing quest front, I didn't send out any queries this weekend, but I did get four copies of my latest manuscript iteration printed and bound from a print shop. This is for the great NYC Litmus test (WHICH IS LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AWAY, OMGosh!!) so that my helpers can have their own copies for reading, marking, and note-taking as needed, and also for a keepsake.

I've already found two typos in it. ;-)

In other news, today is day 29 of no pop, no coffee. I'm doing fine with it, but I kind of ate like crap on all other fronts this weekend. I'm really looking forward to a cup of coffee on Wednesday morning and also a nice, cold, Diet Dr. Pepper with my lunch. I'm not going to worry about imposing any sort of new limitations until both of my upcoming out-of-state trips are behind me.

I am going to see Emma and Kate this weekend!!! *bounce*

Also, tonight is the How I Met Your Mother season finale two-partner. Pretty pumped up for it, though even if all my hopes come true and ( potential spoilers ) I still don't think I could possibly love it as much as I loved Once Upon a Time's finale last night.