We seem to be managing Crack of Dawn Elementary‘s early start time (7:40 AM) just fine this year. I’m not sure why. But somehow, with our 6th year at this elementary school, we have evolved into semi-early morning people. I’m no longer stubbing my toe in the pitch dark and cursing, spilling stuff on the floor, rushing to get lunch boxes into back packs. I’m now waking up twenty minutes before the kids get up, whereas I used to wake up at the same time they did and have a million things to do alongside them.

This awake-in-the-morning-thing isn’t going to last. I suspect that as it gets darker in the morning, I’ll be back to stumbling around like a zombie. But for now, I’m grateful that getting up so early doesn’t feel like getting up in the middle of the night.

Remember my post about all the cool writer-stuff going on in the Atlanta area this fall? Well this weekend is both the Decatur Book Festival AND Dragon-Con! On Friday, I’m attending the DBF-sponsored workshops at the Savannah College of Art and Design all day on Friday, and then I’ll be at DBF on Saturday (and hopefully Sunday). My head is about to explode with excitement. One of these years, I’ll fit in Dragon-Con. There’s so much I want to do, not even a three-day weekend will be enough time to get it done.

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I’m having a fight with The New Yorker, although the magazine doesn’t know it. For the past fifteen years or so, I’ve never paid more than $24.95 for an annual subscription. But this time around, it’s insisting on charging me something upwards of $50. I pitched a fit on the phone, promptly cancelled my subscription. But tomorrow I will call up again and beg The New Yorker to take me back. These last few weeks without it have been killing me. I feel like I’m walking around with only half of my brain.

I can not live without that magazine.