Yesterday I won an eBay auction for an Aimee Mann CD and paid for it using PayPal. This morning I got an email from the seller: “Thanks for the purchase of the Aimee Mann CD… I took a look at the Press website… the Spinning Plates concept is so cool! I read a few excerpts and really enjoyed it. I have decided to save some $$ and get it asap (I’m a student and pretty broke most of the time) definately something that I want to explore! Just wanted to pass that on to you.”

Wow, see, I love the net.

In other news, writing on the novel is going so-so. I still have 100 pages of “The Magic Mountain” by Thomas Mann left (I started reading it around Thanksgiving and it’s been killing me) and I’ve recently realized that the novel I’m WRITING is coming out sounding like the semi-clunky English translation of what I’m READING. Ugh. Another reason to hole up today and finish the damn thing. I’m enjoying it, to a degree (it’s like the literary equivalent of Metamucil: a bit gritty going down but keeps you regular). However I don’t want the novel to be like that. I will switch to the Patricia Highsmith novel I just bought and then everything will be hunky dory.

Andy is going to a Super Bowl party that some people from the library are throwing. I said thanks but no thanks.

Work’s been sailing along. Brandon is really fitting in well. I’m more cheerful too. Meanwhile, our government is a dreadful mess and most Americans are still idiots. But you know I’ve found it to be true that mostly, personal well-being for me is the opposite of whatever’s going on in the public sphere.