FYI: the time stamp on yesterday's post was correct, but I didn't actually write it at 3:18 in the morning. I'm trying to take a page from Cynthia Leitich Smith's book (not her actual books, but the metaphorical one) and get ahead on my blog posts, so that I don't spend my new, regimented weekday writing hours trying to think up things to put on my blog, and instead use the time to get cracking into this book I've been itching to write for several years. Anyway, this post, which I probably won't put up until Tuesday, is actually being written at 3:20 a.m., because I still haven't gotten off that vampiric schedule we cultivated during Joe's vacation. So while he's tucked snuggly in bed, cuddling an utterly contented Scout, I've been wandering around a dark house reorganizing my books.

Yes, you read that correctly. I've been rearranging my books in the middle of the night, even though our alarm is set to go off in a few short hours and I promised Joe that I'd make sure he got up on time so he can start running his reports remotely from home while he's brewing coffee and taking a shower. This is not something that I regularly do - if anything, Joe's usually the clock-watcher trying to make sure I get to places on time.

But I digress.

Normally my middle-of-the-night organizing projects consist of things like going through magazine stacks that have spread from room to room, tearing out articles, recipes, and other things I want to keep. The goal is always to put them into clear plastic page protectors, organized by topic: cooking, cleaning tips, craft projects, etc. But usually the torn pages end up in white storage bins waiting to be catalogued.

Instead, my night took an unusual turn in that I climbed into bed, figuring I'd read a chapter or two before starting to do a face plant onto my current book's pages. Instead, I got sucked into this three-hundred-page novel that I wasn't even sure I would ever finish. The first fifty pages or so were tedious and hard to get into; too many bread crumbs dropped into too many directions. But then, out of nowhere, I couldn't put the sucker down. I finished it at 2:09 a.m., wider awake than I was before I got into bed in the first place.

So, I did what I usually do when I finish a book, and that is go try to pick out my next read. Only, nothing grabbed my attention right away. This is due to poor organization; all of my most recent reads were stacked in front of piles of books that I hadn't yet read, thus obscuring them from my view. Which meant I needed to sort. My sorting process, though, is kind of complicated in that I'm currently trying to streamline my personal library. One, because the books are overtaking the house, and two, because I need to refinish the two super-tall bookshelves in my old office so that I can move them into my new one (the still-unfinished craft room I've been complaining talking about since August 2007). I started with the ones read in the past year, separating them into piles of books that will become a permanent part of my collection, books I'm not sure will be permanent additions but am not quite ready to let go of just yet, and ones that I have no problem passing onto someone else. Then I had to reorganize the to-be-read piles. My system for that involves separating titles into categories: books that I'm dying to read, books I know I should read but haven't had the desire to just yet, and books that I want to read but don't feel any pressure to read right this second. So there's a "short list" stack, meaning these are titles that I'll get to sooner rather than later. This is the pile I usually draw from after I've just finished a novel.

Only, this time, I still couldn't find any tome I was willing to make a commitment to. I actually broke down and ordered a few things from Amazon last week, temporarily suspending my own no-buying-new-books rule, but I was able to rationalize the purchase. One of the ones I bought was Amber Kizer's ONE BUTT CHEEK AT A TIME, because Amber's part of the ALAN panel I'll be on this November (as is her mother, an educator, and my good friend Liz Gallagher), and I've been meaning to get Amber's book since Liz raved about it months and months ago. Another was IF I STAY, which is one of those buzzy books I should've read ages ago (even my agent mentioned it as a must-read). I also felt the intense need to order THE HUNGER GAMES, which I've wanted to read forever, but was recently reminded of because of everyone who went to BEA squeeing about its eagerly anticipated sequel. Lastly, Sarah Dessen's ALONG FOR THE RIDE is just about to hit the shelves, and I never make myself wait to read one of her books. NEVER.

[A bit of an aside: did anyone catch the HOLY WOW, full-page ad in this week's EW touting ALONG FOR THE RIDE, as well as the entire Sarah Dessen collection? I think my eyes just about popped out of my head. Super freaking cool. Also: when scanning Amazon to hyperlink the book, I noticed an "erotic romance" that has the same title (by an author named - get this - Michelle Pillow. Think it's a pseudonym, or are women born with the last name "Pillow" naturally drawn to writing erotic romances?). I find the whole thing kind of hilarious. Two of my previous books, CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE and ANYONE BUT YOU, were also shared titles, the first to a mystery novel by Edna Buchanan (although, now scanning Amazon, I see there are like 16 other books with that title as well - at least mine comes up at the top of the list) and the second to a very popular romance by Jennifer Crusie (she bests me in the Amazon title search).

Thinking about Sarah's new release got me thinking about PERFECT FIFTHS, Megan McCafferty's supposedly final installment in the Jessica Darling series. I was almost positive I had FOURTH COMINGS buried in my office, but I can't find it. Which means I either lost it somewhere in the house OR somehow managed to miss buying it in the first place. Which isn't like me, because I'm a huge Megan McCafferty fan. Then again, I didn't read FOREVER IN BLUE: THE FOURTH SUMMER OF THE SISTERHOOD until the first movie's sequel was released on DVD, because I knew I couldn't see the movie without reading the book first. Even so, I think I'd had FOREVER IN BLUE for like two years before actually reading it. Which isn't totally unlike me, because as I've said, I often lose things in my own house for ages and ages.

While trying to dig up FOURTH COMINGS, I found books missing dust jackets; dust jackets missing books; books that I'd borrowed, read, and never returned; books that I'd borrowed, never read, probably never will read, and should return ASAP; books that I want to loan to other people who may or may not read them, and who may or may not return them. I almost never loan out something that's part of the permanent collection, even to trusted friends, because you never know what will happen to those precious babies in someone else's hands. I learned this lesson the hard way, when my mom managed to seriously mangle one of my very first galleys; to this day, I always tuck one pristine galley of each book onto my special "I Wrote These" shelf. So in those cases - when there's a book I know someone should read but I can't loan out, I usually just tell them it's a must-read in an e-mail or something. My friend Carolee, who's great at using her local library, has no problem tracking down these titles on her own, and I love her for it. I myself am eagerly awaiting the grand re-opening of my local library, which was literally demolished a couple of years ago and had to be rebuilt from the ground up. It's supposed to be open for business by August, and just the other day we saw that they'd finally put in a parking lot where there used to be a pit, so I'm so super psyched.

I just looked at the clock on my laptop and realized it's almost 4 a.m. WHY AM I SO FREAKING WIDE AWAKE? This is probablematic not only because I have to make sure Joe is fresh as a daisy and out the door by 8:15 a.m., but also because my Monday to-do list is something like 17 items long. As many women will attest, when the spouse or spousal equivalent is on vacation, it's difficult to get your own stuff done. Why should we work when they get to play? This is why Joe and I have subsisted mainly on Lean Pockets or Annie's Naturals Shells and Cheese, both bought in bulk at BJs, for the past week. I've got a freezer full of things like beef tenderloin and boneless pork tenderloin and bone-in chicken thighs that need to be turned into minor culinary masterpieces, but even though I've had recipes pulled for a few weeks, I haven't had the energy/determination to make a shopping list for the missing ingredients. It doesn't help that obtaining said ingredients will most likely require trips to three different stores - Shoprite, which is just down the street, the Newark Farmer's Market, which is a little bit further down, and Trader Joe's, which is all the way up by my mother's house. That last stop is particularly pressing, as I'm down to the last few squeezes of their store-brand version of Tom's of Maine toothpaste that tastes like licorice (I have this weird mouth issue where I can't tolerate fake mint or cinnamon or even orange in my toothpaste - they make my tongue break out in tiny sores. Even at the dentist, when I get my twice-yearly cleanings, I have to ask for the strawberry or bubble gum flavored kid's polish, because everything else gives me those same sores).

So, yeah. Four in the morning and I'm only slightly sleepier than when I started reorganizing my book collection some two hours ago. This is so not good. I wonder if diving into Amy Koss's THE GIRLS (which is what I ultimately decided I will read next) might help. Then again, it might keep me just as awake as Joshilyn Jackson's THE GIRL WHO STOPPED SWIMMING did.

[MONDAY UPDATE: Didn't start THE GIRLS yet; opted instead for writing some silly Facebook quiz about "How Well Do You Know Lara?" Finally got sleepy at 6 a.m. and crashed so hard that I didn't hear the alarm go off in the morning. Joe, did, though, and was confused as to why I wasn't hitting the snooze button. He got me up at 8:15 so I could see him off, and I was determined to stay awake all day so that I could go to bed early and get back on a normal schedule. This resolve lasted until 2 p.m., when even HARVEST MOON couldn't hold my attention any longer. Took a three-hour "nap" in the living room before waking up and deciding to chuck all and climb into bed. Was woken up at 7-ish, when Joe, now home from work, slipped in behind me and pulled me close. I explained to him about the not sleeping thing, and then, because all I'd eaten the whole day was a peanut butter on whole wheat sandwich, I was starving. I grabbed the only quicky thing we had - a partial pint of ice cream - and after six spoonfulls felt so sick I ended up puking. AND I was still tired. So we climbed back into bed and took another three-hour "nap," waking around 10:45. Joe went into caretaker mode and heated up some soup and made me a toasted cheese sandwich. We watched the last 40 minutes of a PUSHING DAISIES episode we started two weeks ago before hitting our respective laptops. Well, I actually watched a hilarious MIGHTY B episode I'd DVR'd before coming to edit this post. Now it is 1:12 a.m. (so much for complying with our new house rule of turning all electronic devices off at midnight) and we both should be in bed, but of course the "napping" made things worse. Oy. So now I think I will go start THE GIRLS and try to get myself sleepy. This is all probably far too much information than anyone needed, but I seem to have diarrhea of the mouth lately, so ... it is what it is. Until tomorrow ....]