On muscle cramps and Lost Souls—just a rambling general update.

Woke up with a muscle in my shoulder/neck so tight as to make me dizzy on and off throughout the day. For two days now my left calf muscle has been cramped such that it hurts to stand. What the fuck, body. Seriously. The boy posits nightmares, which is possible because (although I don't remember any, recently) I am quite prone to them. If that's the case, though, I feel doubly betrayed—I finally got a handle on sleep (looks like it goes better if I try around 8a—this happens sometimes: I can only sleep to sunlight) and have been getting my 6-12 hours a day again ... and so now my body uses it as time to become twisted and cramped to painful dysfunction. Wonderful.

I'm halfway through Lost Souls already, which while not surprising (except that I've managed to watch some of Mononoke and play some of Persona 3 in the meantime) does make me a little sad. I knew the book would consume me utterly, and it has, and I love it—but that means it will end all the sooner. It is great to reread, though. I'd almost forgotten just how gratuitous the book is. That's part of what I love about it and as such it's difficult to forget, but my memories underestimated just how extreme, how bloody and sexy it is; just how far it flings its morals and expectations, just how deep it indulges all the rest. It's addicting, it's at once delicious and revolting, and it was definitely the book that I wanted to read right now.

I am deeply, sweetly in love. Today I smell of Haunted (soft golden amber darkened with a touch of murky black musk) which—not for want to competition!—is my current BPAL favorite. 4chan now has a literature board, an idea destined for failure. I watched Beauty and the Beast yesterday and it made me tear up (although I don't know what they were thinking when they added in "Human Again"). And so it goes.