I'm in training for New Year's Eve... or at least, that's my story and I'm sticking with it. The last several nights have been *very* late ones. In reality, I've been spending time having found something interesting to read on the web, which leads to something else... which in turn leads to something else... etc. Last night it was Neil Gaiman's blog... er ... Journal (http://journal.neilgaiman.com/), which led me to Amanda Palmer's ukulele song about Lady GaGa (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dxDREaCyjE&feature=player_embedded), which led me to revisit Molly Lewis' cover of Lady GaGa's Poker Face (http://www.youtube.com/user/sweetafton23#p/u/1/5mf7cQfhJSA).... which led me to send an e-mail off to a younger relative that will probable puzzle her greatly... but whatever.

I've also spent many, many hours lately on Robin McKinley's blog and related forum (http://robinmckinleysblog.com/), so adding Neil's Journal to the mix creates a nice sort of symmetry (American fantasy writer living in England wrt British fantasy writer living in the US).

But back on topic, we're got plans for Thursday night, a masquerade at a local Pizzaria. This will entail staying up late and walking home in the wee hours. I tend to wake up early (six-ish is late for me), regardless of when I get to bed. This means that the last several times I was up past midnight, I came down sick with a sore throat from not getting enough rest. This morning, after getting to bed past two, I slept in until nine... which while it is not the 8-9 hours of sleep that I need, should at least be enough to keep this cough that I've been wrestling with this past week from getting worse. Hence, the justification to staying up far too late reading... it's training for tomorrow.

As for getting back into the habit of getting up at 4:30 or 5:00, so that I can go in to teach mathematics this upcoming week.... well, I'll worrry about that on Saturday.