I'm baaaaaack!

Well, I went to the AAFA exam on Friday. It was a very long day-- I got up at 3 AM and was going, including exercising a bit, till about 11 pm. I think I passed the written portion of the exam with flying colors (pink & black, if you must know) but some of the things on the "practical" where you have to demonstrate a class & several types of exercise, well, I dunno. We'll see. It depends on how strict the judges were. What was hard is that you had to have good form on the exercises but there were no mirrors to check yourself with. So it beats the heck outa me.

In the meantime, the weekend was swell-- visited Andrew in Shreveport and had several nice meals with him & his parents. Discovered again that I don't care at all for Casinos. The cat was fine when I got home, and she's spent a while meowing earnestly at me-- she had a lot to tell me, apparently.

In further news-- I read a really good book on the plane. It's called Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge. I have read work by Eskridge's partner, Nicola Griffith, and really loved it-- I recommend her too. They both deal with lesbian relationships really well; I know Griffith has won at least one Lambda award. Basically, it's not "extra" that often the protagonists are women who love women-- it's treated as a normal part of the narrative, as it should be, as it would be if it was a hetero relationship. But it's not really the focus of the text-- it's just a part of the person's life in the story. They're both sort of sci-fi. I say sort of because it's the type of sci fi that's thoughtful (a lot of it is!) but not really about deep space exploration or robots or something. It's basically speculative reality. So, if you're into books that explore the nature of social relationships at the same time as they sort of make you think about people, but also have an edge, try both writers. Solitiare put me in a very contemplative, sort of sad mood for a while, in a good way, but it's strong, vibrant prose and I really cannot praise her work (or Griffith's to that matter) enough. I just noticed when I looked up the amazon link that Griffith has a book I haven't read-- so I'm going to have to get that one. With my limited time for "fun reading" it's really great to find writers who I know I'll like, who I know will make me think.

If you go to the link on the Lambdas, I've also read The Gumshoe, The Witch and the Virtual Corpse by Keith Hartman. That one's fabulous too-- it's got this really cool bit on witches. :)