All day I’ve felt spacey and spinny, as if I’m sitting on Roller Coaster Furniture – the kind that feels like it’s undulating beneath you until you realize that no, the furniture is stable and it’s just a trick of your brain making you feel as though you’re cresting hills and rocketing into valleys, and then skating along a smooth surface.

I ate lunch, and I just had a snack, so I don’t think this is being caused by anything caloric or nutritional. I don’t even feel bad, exactly, as much as I feel odd. Disoriented. Disconnected. If my ears hurt I’d suspect that I had an inner ear infection, but they don’t, and I don’t have any discernible pressure anywhere in my head.

My eyes are heavy as though I needed sleep, however, and even though it’s 90 degrees outside, I’ve been freezing all day.

If I didn’t have things to do, I wouldn’t mind the spinning feeling, but since I do, it’s a bit frustrating.

It’s mid-afternoon…

Rana shared this link in her blog.

http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/, and I’ve quickly become addicted to it.

It’s a live feed from the webcam at a watering hole in an African game preserve.

Check it out.

Appetizer
Who is the easiest person for you to talk to?

It depends on the subject. Fuzzy, sometimes, my mother, others, specific friends for specific things.

Soup
If you could live in any ancient city during the height of the quality of its society and culture, which one would you choose?
Venice. Or Rome. I like the architecture, and Italy speaks to me almost as much as France does, but in different ways.

Salad
What is the most exciting event you’ve ever witnessed?
It really depends on the definition of “exciting.” I was less then fifteen feet away from a student who was gunned down on my high school campus when it happened, which was exciting in a bad way. I ran into Richard Lewis in a cafe in Greenwich Village once, and he invited me and the friend I was with to share his table (largely because we all got there at the same time, and there was no other space). I’ve stood in a doorway and watched plate-glass windows gently crumble one after another during an earthquake, and I’ve had a couple of people (authors, composers) comment on my blog.

Main Course
If you were a celebrity, what would you do for a publicity stunt?
Pink Creative Zen Stones with my website listed on them for everyone. Or I’d convince a busy Starbucks to let me pull shots for them for a few hours.

Dessert
What do you consider the ideal age to have a first child?
I’m 37 and have yet to have a child, so I’m not the best person to answer this. I think it’s not so much a matter of age as stability though. I think the ideal time to have a child is when you and your partner have had enough years in your relationship that you’ve worked through really grim times, and come out stronger, and are financially stable enough for one of you to take a significant amount of time from work, and when you’ve both decided you’re ready. And if you’re a single person wanting a child, you need to have worked out the grim times within yourself, and have some kind of support system, because you will need one.

When I’m writing, even if it’s just a piece of flash-fiction, I have to know where a character lives. Or at least where she spends her time. I know that my barista character lives above her cafe, in an apartment with exposed brick walls, a Franklin stove and 19th Century furniture, all of which was rescued from estate sales, garage sales, and old lady aunties.

I know that Kat, the OFC in the ST:TNG fanfic I’m writing has a desk a lot like my actual desk – glass and brushed steel, very clean lines, and that her kitchen is all shiny black and cobalt blue, and that she likes to be barefoot on plush carpeting.

I know that Zoe (named after a character in a movie I saw in college), the lead in my first NaNo novel, Illusions of Motion that I really should edit, lives in a bungalow with hardwood floors, and lots of cabana stripes and teakwood, and that her favorite mug is purple with stylized daisies and fits the curve of her hand in just the right way, and that her lover, Joren the jazz musician (named after a guy I knew in junior high school) has a ratan rug in his studio, because the texture of the fibers under his feet inspires him to always move with the music.

Having this mental set dressing, knowing the space they inhabit, is as important when I’m getting a feel for a character, as when I’m describing their clothes or their facial expression, or figuring out their tone of voice.

It’s also kind of fun.