This is why we can't remember if we have nice things.

In a move critics are hailing as "the single most intelligent act of the 21st century to date", I switched my phone off last night so it wouldn't wake me up in the morning. I did this not after I put it back on the charger by my bed, but right as I was saying goodnight to Jack on my computer.

You can probably guess where this story is going.

I don't actually use my phone as a phone... I think I have had all of one conversation using it in the conventional telephonic fashion. It's my PDA, my notepad, and my auxiliary brain. The good news is that all the alerts I have set in it are automatically backed up to Google Calendar, so I'm not going to be completely lost until it turns up.

I know it's in the apartment. I know I must have set it somewhere in between signing off the computer at midnight and when I headed into my bedroom not long after, when I realized it wasn't in my hand. I've checked all the obvious places... there are only two places I let myself set the phone down if I'm paying attention, so it will always be in the same places. I checked both of those places and everywhere I remember going before bed. No luck.

In other "magic of being me" news, I missed the touring production of White Christmas on Sunday because the reminder never made it from my old dead Treo to my Pre. Usually I deal with events like that by reminding obsessively fearing that I'm going to forget them and checking the dates on the tickets several times a day. This hasn't stopped me from doing things like commiting to family gatherings at the same time as a concert or other event, though I usually catch those conflicts before they actually come up. The obsessive worrying didn't happen this time, though, and I missed it. I feel terrible because the tickets were a gift, and part of me is thinking "This is what happens when you let yourself relax." Between the handiness of the Pre's calendar and having good things going on in my life, I stopped worrying that I was going to forget something important all the time and I forgot about it.

I am feeling pretty emotastic shitty. I felt that I'd come to terms with the idea that I needed an electronic organizer to make it through the day/week. Now I've misplaced it within 24 hours of blowing an important engagement.

Consider this post a vent. If you're wondering what you can do to help, the answer is you don't have to. I'm writing this down to get it out and then move on. That's all I need.

Oooh, I just had a flash of insight. I put the phone in my pocket last night... no, that's not where it was, but it let me figure out where I lost it. Phone has been retrieved, and there are my flash fiction prompts.

Time to go to work.

Fairyland: Almost circumnavigated!

The second to last chapter of Catherynne M. Valente's The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making is now up... I've been holding in squee about this book for the past few months so as not to become repetitive. When it's finished, I'm going to re-read the whole thing in its entirety and then present a single, possibly somewhat coherent review of ...Fairyland... from top to bottom.

In related news: Cat and her partner recently celebrated their marriage. It seems to have been a lovely wedding, but their honeymoon has not gone swimmingly. She's being given advice, offers of lodging, and support from all over. If you've been reading The... Making all along, it might be a nice time to make the tip jar go clink-clink.

And if you haven't... it's good time to start. You won't be waiting very long to find out how it ends. Just listen to the theme that s00j wrote for the protagonist and see if your appetites and curiosities are not piqued and whetted: