Last weekend, 14 Mar 10, we went to a St. Patrick’s Day parade here in Baton Rouge, and like every parade I’ve been to here, it was more about beads and dancing to great or not-so-great music blaring from long trailers decorated in some tangential way that kinda reflects whatever theme there is carrying people tossing said beads. We had a blast and captured an IMMENSE amount of beads.

Part of the parade were several Celtic organizations and as one of these marching units came by us, a man in a kilt came over to me and asked if he could give me some beads. I said yes and he put some beads around my neck and kissed my cheek! Okay, so he was probably at least as old as me and not nearly as handsome as my husband, but it was fun!

I had my Epidural Steroid Injection on Wednesday. It didn’t take long but hurt more than I thought, and I wasn’t sedated as I thought. They wanted me awake to get feedback on the procedure – they didn’t want me feeling stuff I shouldn’t – so they only gave me a Valium “to relax me.” I was so nervous, I think two would have worked better.

The sciatica seems to be better. I still have some numbness and a twinge once in a while.

However, I went through a minor depression Thursday and Friday. I think it might be the result of not sleeping well and the pain and sleeping meds I’d been taking. Then, of course, I had written myself into a corner on Sword & Illusion and was pretty sure I wasn’t going to have this book done anytime in the near future. (I’m actually taking time from working on it to do this post, so things are moving along now.)

Saturday I woke up feeling a bit better. A Holy Hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament probably didn’t hurt!

I was scheduled to do a panel discussion at BabelCon 4.5 on epic vs. urban fantasy.

Babelcon was a very small con this year, and the “authors’ lounge” and “panel discussion room” was literally a hotel suite and we shared it with costuming people, artists, a geek stand-up comedy troupe, and the D&D Gamer film festival, so there wasn’t a lot of room for book signing. Not that it mattered as I didn’t sell a thing.

The most interesting thing was as I was sitting in a corner of the room, next to an end table with my books and the TV playing the films, this artist woman was talking to another woman across the room. I was located at the corner of a triangle of the three of us, so there was no way not to hear this conversation and the gist of it was this:

The artist had named her breasts.

Literally.

Apparently, she had a big problem of men staring at them when they talk to her so she would tell them they were addressing “Lauren” or whoever. I don’t remember the names of the breasts.

Maybe it’s me but I would never have that problem, and I admit I didn’t look to see if there was an abundance there. It just would never occur to me to do something like this.

However, I think she may end up in a novel one day.