Last week was full of lovely distractions, mostly Halloween and birthday-related. And I conveniently had a day of rest between each one to recover before the next! On Thursday there was a fairly large costume party for the sex worker community; my costume consisted of a steampunk leather corset that Jae found for me at Goodwill (she has rather a knack for that) and a faux-suede skirt, with my snakeskin boots. I declared that I was a time traveler; what I was thinking of is the way that Time Lords and Ladies in Doctor Who always seem to dress a bit out of synch, with clothes that don’t quite fit any particular time period. On Saturday, the party came to me; I don’t think I ventured out of my door the whole day, but several friends dropped by to celebrate my birthday with me, bearing cake, candy and intoxicants. It was just so lovely; the love and acceptance in the room was like a living force, and you may get some idea of what it was like by looking at this tweet thread. And my hangover the next day wasn’t even that bad! On my birthday, a portable DVD player arrived via post for me, courtesy of regular reader Ivan Dragomiloff; that’s going to come in handy considering I didn’t have any way to play the DVDs other readers and clients have given me lately! I then spent the evening with the lovely Lorelei Rivers, who cooked dinner for me and indulged me by watching a couple of my favorite horror movies, The Black Cat and The Haunting. Tomorrow I’ll be flying to Oklahoma City to speak at a one-day event on anarchism; if you would like to see me there, you need to let me know today (the only times I’ll have available are Friday and Sunday afternoons). Since I’ll be so close to home, I’m having Grace pick me up for a one-day visit Sunday, then I’ll be flying back to Seattle on Monday. Oh, and while we’re on the topic of my work: remember, my readers-only special expires three weeks from today, so if you want to take advantage of that you need to act soon!