I had a spare pair of dry socks in my car today, which of course guaranteed that it would not rain until after I got off-duty. Instead today I was dealing with a serious Bad Hair Day, due to way too much exposure to wind, sweat, and a 12-hour shift. I'm making the feeble attempt to grow the stuff out a bit, to get away from the stereotypical Butch Cop look, and to try to look like a Girl again. I can't see me letting it get really long again, (too dangerous, for starters, in my opinion.) But I'd like to at least get it to shoulder-ish length maybe. Right now though it has just enough wave in it to be annoying, and not enough body to make it worthwhile. So on days like today when the humidity is 90+% and I'm 10 hours into my shift and I've sweated a few buckets, the hair has a tendency to stick straight out on the sides. I know it's really bad when I get back to the office and three different deputies look at me and say, "What is up with that hair!?"

A short while ago, Linda made a comment in her journal (or maybe it was in her newsgroup, I forget which) about a desire for a first reader, who would ideally be a close personal friend who is not a writer, who is unmarried, has no children and is a slush reader for a major publishing firm. Now I'm not a slush reader for a major publishing firm, but I am unmarried with no children, and I have come to consider Linda to be a friend, and while I have in the past been known to Be A Writer, I have not really Been A Writer in so long that I think I have regained my ability to read for pleasure as opposed to analysis.

So anyway, I made the offer to Linda to be a reader for her newly finished novel and she accepted said offer. But it occurred to me today, as I was complaining to my mother about how I have a hard time finding anything to read anymore (and I have a great deal of time available for reading, thanks to the details I work) that the ideal solution is to offer my services to the NAW (and I'll throw the offer out to any Clarion grad as well) as a First Reader Who Happens to Have a Slight Clue. (I figure limiting it to NAW and Clarioners will keep the pure dreck out!) So, if anyone is interested, let me know. I am actually quite serious with this offer. The only charge would be postage for sending me a hardcopy and paying for the postage to have it sent back after I make any commentary. This would not be copy-editing (though I would certainly point out grammar/spelling errors if noticed), but it would be a fairly unbiased read of the work.

Amd it would give me something to read during my details! I'm going broke buying books, and I've already cleaned out the only used bookstore in town of anything worthwhile. I can chew through a lot of reading during a 6-hour detail!

And on a kinda writing-related topic, I've decided that I'm going to pass on going to Worldcon this year. I figured that by the time I added up the costs of the membership, the flight, the hotel, the food, kenneling my dog for the week, and the time off of work and details, it would cost me about a grand. I have been working very hard this past year at getting various bills paid off, and in fact I have paid off several, and really only have two to go (other than the house note--that one is there to stay for a while!) So, while it would be utterly delightful to go to PhilCon and see all of my Clarion pals and NAW pals and various other loved ones, I am doing the fiscally responsible thing and passing on it this year. Could I scrape together the money for it? Absolutely. But if I can scrape a grand together to go on a trip, then I should really scrape that grand together and pay off a bill.

Oh iick... I am just being way too mature. Bleh.