When breathing happens (plus, Merlin report and dream journal)

As you may have gathered from my last entry, I went to work yesterday. It was . . . interesting, physically. Mostly I stayed at my desk, because the whole world had this fascinating, floaty feeling about it that was exacerbated by movement. I slept like the dead last night. I'm going to try working again today. The experience will be enhanced by a new round of congestion.

Haven't reported on Merlin this week; my apologies to those concerned. He's eating better than I think I can ever remember him eating. His walking seems to have improved as well. He's currently curled up next to me, his head resting on my right arm as I type. He's been doing his a lot lately, insistently resting his head on my arm or hand, even if said limb is involved in another activity. So I'll type and watch his head bouncing along on top of my hand. It's actually kind of entertaining. "I don't care if you're busy, I'm going to use you as a pillow. Period!" Still have to call the vet about the next round of tests for Monsieur le Chat, however. The first set of tests resulted in our discovering that whatever is going on with him isn't kidney-related, that in fact his kidney levels have improved since the last time we looked at them, so we still have something of a mystery on our hands.

( Dream journal, beneath the cut )

Essay on "After This Life"

Shortly before the most recent issue of IGMS was released to the Web, Edmund wrote me and asked for an essay about how "After This Life" came to be written. He's just published the essay on the magazine's companion blog, Side-Show Freaks. Read it here. (It's free.) mabfan and erdnase2000 are name-checked.