Bleah.

Ugh. I tore open a blister on my foot, it was raining today when I walked home and since Daniel and his friends are watching the NBA finals I can't use the Playstation. Also, I spent an annoying 20 minutes or so with my mother putting the special Ouidad stuff in my hair. So far my hair is drying nicely, but I dread having to put the stuff in myself, lock by lock...

Well, it's not all bad. I've made a lot of progress on my research for Judah P. Benjamin, the first Jew ever to be elected to the Senate (for Louisiana) and also the first to be appointed to a President's cabinet - although it was for Jefferson Davis's Confederate government during the Civil War, so I guess some people don't think it counts. Now, the history behind J.P. Benjamin's term of residence in Decatur House is kind of interesting. He had married a girl from a rich Creole family in New Orleans when he was young, but since he was paying more attention to his career than to her, she was unhappy with him. She was already spoiled and her husband tried all sorts of things to win her affections - with his money he bought a plantation called Bellechasse and built the finest mansion for miles around, but she was depressed being out in the country, and wanted to go to Paris. For most of their marriage she lived there while he supported her. He bought Decatur House and decorated it lavishly so that she would come live with him, which she did, for a few months. Unfortunately rumors of her libertine (and probably unfaithful) behavior in Paris made her a pariah in Washington society, and she returned to Paris after a few months. J.P. had to auction off all the luxurious items he'd bought for her. He stayed in the house until Louisiana seceeded from the Union in 1861.

Nice little history lesson, huh? On to the present and the near future. Soon we'll be going to New York to drop Daniel off at camp. I'll be able to spend a day with Rachel. We plan to see the Harry Potter movie, since she already has discount tickets. I hope I get to meet her cats. On the way back I'll stop in New Jersey for a while to see scifantasy and get a look at Edward Livingston's papers in Princeton.

In the unreal world: on the MUD I got Priscilla to learn the spell for enchanting weapons and had her enchant her bo. I usually get other people to enchant things for me, because I didn't think I'd be good at it. But I enchanted the bo to level 6 on the first try! I had to forget the spell again because I'd had to get rid of some others to remember it, but I'm quite proud of myself, and I'll have to increase my spell memory capacity so I can keep that spell. As for my fanfic, I revised my idea for Emma's backstory again and went on a bit of a revision frenzy. Now, I hope, I can actually progress from the latest scene I have written, instead of going back to Chapter 3 and fooling around with it. Still, I'm glad for the opportunity to revise my stupid mistakes before anyone other than Rachel and a few other select friends sees them.

Since only my good friends read my journal (presumably) and only a few of them know Ruse and would be interested in my work (well, two of them: alryssa and scifantasy), I am going to take the plunge and post a link to my fanfic.

Don't let it about.

I'll have to tell Rachel about it too, so she can read it and give me her opinion.