… and can you believe I’m not spending hours and hours deciding what to pack?

Me neither. I am notorious for taking three hours to pack to go anywhere, agonizing over what to bring to read and to knit and to write on and to write with and to listen to and on and on and on. And maybe a month ago, I just sort of gave up. I mean, it just wore me out. I’d get all exhausted… and finally it dawned on me: what am I doing this to myself for? Life’s too short.

Anyway. The big prep this time around involved taking the afternoon off today for a rare trip to Best Buy to pick up the gizmo that makes the iPod work with the radio. And I did a little last minute shopping for Leland’s birthday (which is on Tuesday of next week, ahem ahem) too. He likes to play this game called “I know what you got me for my birthday, ha ha ha.” Only he totally doesn’t this time. I guarantee it. How do I know? Because I thought of them all by myself. Okay, okay, I admit it: they were impulse purchases. I didn’t get his birthday story done on time so I was feeling the burn. Ah, well. It’ll just be a little late.

While I was at B&N, I picked up the 2008 Tarot Reader, which is notable for at least two reasons:

1. This year is the book’s swan song. Editor of awesomeness Kate Brielmaier has taken the next steps along the path. She was exceptional to work with and I will miss her.
2. I am featured on the back cover this time
3. I actually updated my bio and it actually makes mention of my Wiccan affiliations

Okay, three reasons.

I’d completely forgotten what I’d submitted for articles this time around, and when I saw them, I daresay I was pleasantly surprised. I think they’re my best of all the Tarot Reader pieces. Also while at B&N, I looked for WEIRD TALES 345, which features my interview with Jacqueline Carey (you can indeed read it at that link on the website too). Unfortunately, it wasn’t there. The latest issue of Cthulhu Sex Magazine was there, mind you, but not WT 345. This left me scratching my head. Funny how the world turns in ways you might not expect.

Have a look at the cover of WT 345. Stephen is really getting the gorgeous on with these cover designs. Love the F-holes! But of course I would.

What else? Scrapbooking and art journaling nerds who happen to be wandering by should have a gander at the AlphaStamps Halloween Collection.

Lastly, in the “and the hits just keep on coming” department, we’ve got the Bohemian Gothic Tarot on the way from Magic Realist Press (for a really huge clear picture that will make you drool, click here). I just heard Karen’s voice on a Tarot School teleseminar the other day. She was calling in from Prague and it was just so cool to put a voice with the name of the lady responsible for birthing so many amazing decks.

Now, which deck am I going to take with us tomorrow? Hrm…