It is going to sound like a strange story; well, it is a strange story, and there’s not much I can do about that.

You will recall, perhaps, that yesterday we were to celebrate a birthday, and that I was planning to mail some review copies of the new book. I did the latter today, but the former I will be doing today despite plans to have done it yesterday. Yesterday exploded in a strange way.

Some will know that Kyler has wanted to get into a particular program for a while, and has been on a waiting list. While he has been on that waiting list, he has been waiting largely in the company of his girlfriend, who is at school with his brother, two hours away. Late yesterday afternoon he got word that there might be an unexpected opening, but that they would have to let him know when they knew, and he would have to get there as quickly as possible to claim it.

At six eighteen yesterday evening we got word that the answer was yes, and we started scrambling to get him from the school to the program. This was complicated by the fact that we had only a vague idea where the program facilities were, other than that they were down our direction somewhere. It was also complicated by the fact that we had been planning to eat at the birthday dinner, so we had not eaten. He was told that the admissions director would be leaving at ten, but it was evident before we were on the road that we could never make that deadline; however, he could be received if he got there before midnight, and they would run the admissions materials in the morning.

We made it. Shortly after eleven last night, we pulled into the parking lot and were met by someone ready to process him and get him situated. I’m not sure how long that took, but it was near midnight, maybe after, that we were headed home.

We didn’t make it. At least, we did not make it right away. Blame the fact that I was trailblazing more by direction sense than by knowledge of where I was. Blame the fact that I recognized road names or numbers that did not go where I thought they went. Blame Providence, perhaps. I probably went a few miles out of the way (which is not bad for what is actually a fifty minute drive by the most direct country road route) and hit a familiar spot which took me home through an intersection I had expected to avoid, a traffic light in the middle of nowhere between an elementary school and a convenience store, when some complete stranger in the parking lot of the closed store at one in the morning flags us down to beg telephone money. It seems she had been partying with friends, had a fight with one when they stopped here, went inside to buy something, and came out to find everyone had left her there. Not the sort of people to leave someone somewhere, we helped her attempt to reach someone by phone, and then drove her home–back where we’d just been half an hour or so before when we were trying to find our way home. She had trouble staying awake to tell us where we were going, and there was a traffic light with a broken sensor that kept changing but never greenlighting us, but we got her home and returned here shortly after two, I think.

That’s when I finished my forum work. I had trouble getting up with the boy this morning, but he managed to catch the bus; I got the books mailed this afternoon, as mentioned.

That’s not the end of the story, though. Kyler had packed clothes, toiletries, the usual thneeds (a thneed is something that everyone needs), but no pens, papers, envelopes–he needed stationary supplies. I was notified around five thirty that I had to get these and take them to him, which I did (I included a box of paper clips, which those in the know will know is going to make him laugh when he gets them). I was late to church, but not too badly.

I will be going out to dinner in about an hour. Hopefully I can get most of the rest of the work done before then, but if not (as seems likely), family has been informed that I will have to finish when I return. I’m the one who suffers for that, of course, because I’m the one who will be rising early for church in the morning, but hopefully I can catch up with my sleep at some point.

–M. J. Young

Last night I took my Romans editing with me when I ran my last errand of the evening, and got a bit of that done. I also brought the addresses of two of those people who reviewed the last book, and a couple of envelopes, and filled out the envelopes (although I’ve not yet autographed the books and stuffed them inside, and I’ll never make it to the post office today). Thus that time was not wasted, although I did fall asleep after a while.

I also approved About the Fruit for general distribution. They made a big deal about not making any changes after approving it, but I hope that doesn’t include raising the price, as I still have it at my introductory discounted price.

Somehow, though, I forgot to post to the Romans list. I realized it this morning–and I am not even certain why I realized it this morning, but that’s when it came to me. I’ve attended to that matter, and also contacted a couple of people I needed to contact, or at least attempted to do so in some cases, and now I’m here.

I don’t know for how long I will be here. There is a family birthday tomorrow, and I believe we will be celebrating tonight, but I have not yet touched base with anyone on that count so I can’t be certain what we are doing. Until then, I’m plowing through my work as quickly as I can effectively manage, so that I won’t have much left when the interruption hits.

–M. J. Young

I’ve got a list of things to do, but I can’t recall that I’ve done any worth reporting here.

I’ve got a few people who did reviews of What Does God Expect? to whom I promised to send free copies of the new book About the Fruit, but I’m still trying to get their addresses together in one place, pack up the books, and get them mailed. It doesn’t help that I sort of don’t have enough copies. I have six copies, and I’ve promised them to three reviewers. However, my wife has one of the copies, and two of them have been handed to people at church. One of those has been thoroughly thumbed, and I promised to swap it for one in like-new condition and pass the thumbed one to one of the reviewers (who get theirs free) before I accept any money for it. Thus I have to hold onto one of the like-new copies until I can swap it for the slightly thumbed one, and that means I’ve only really got two copies I can ship unless I snatch the one my wife borrowed. (The other that is on loan will probably be gifted to the church library when it returns to me, so I’m not worried about it being a bit thumbed.) Meanwhile, I can’t find one of the three addresses I need, so maybe I’ll ship the two good ones and the third reviewer will get the slightly used one (which I think he won’t mind, particularly when he learns that he got one of the few copies that won’t have the ISBN bar code on it–he likes the rare collectible ones).

I also have to do my laundry and make dinner, but one of my houseguests was cooking a few minutes ago, so I figured I’d get this written and then do that.

–M. J. Young