I listen to Happy Hardcore, a genre of Techno that my friends cheerfully refer to as crack music. I finally ripped a couple old CDs of the stuff from high school onto my iPod this week, so I had absolutely no problem staying awake all night at work. My coworkers think I'm crazy, since a side effect of Happy Hardcore is that I grin maniacally and occasionally make movements into dancing.

I've forgotten how exhausting it is to be a full adult. It feels like I never have a chance to catch my breath, and it looks like I'll continue to be busy all day everyday until the beginning of next month. And I only get a reprieve then because I wasn't able to enroll in a summer class that I wanted and allocated time for in my schedule. I haven't written a word in over three weeks! I hate to admit it, but being laid-off was so relaxing. I almost wish I'd known then I was going to be going right back to my old employer (and when), because then I would have been able to enjoy what amounted to a vacation properly, instead of wasting quite a bit of with worry.

This week's book is Meg Cabot's Pants on Fire. It looked cute, so I bought it, but it'll be one of the books I hand over to my nieces in a couple days, which is why I'm trying to finish it in between sleep and work. Its not a serious novel, even by my lax standards, but it's been fun nonetheless. The only thing drawing me out of the book is that she's trying a bit too hard to reach out to her homosexual fanbase. Tanya Huff can spout lines like, "he was the secret and not so secret desire of every teenage girl in town, and some of the boys too." Actually, she can do a great deal better than that. Mercedes Lackey can call someone effeminate without it being an insult. Tamora Pierce can casually mention a gay character without even pausing for breath. Cecily von Zeigesar can even say the "g" and "f" words without her characters blushing. When Meg Cabot tries to do these things, it comes off as awkward and false. She'd do a lot better to just roll with her usual tropes and let the readership pick what they relate to, I think. I've not read her entire ouvre, but from what I recall she's not done something like this before or since, so maybe she agrees on some level.