Circling...

Still working on Brendan dealing with learning Joanna's alive, but he's also unable to find where she lives now and wants to speak with Colm about it...as well as his mother, but she keeps drifting in and out of awareness.

I am closer to getting this section into a position where I'm comfortable with it. APoS-HNH has worked its way back up to 84,000 words and still more to add.

Brendan's learned where his parents were married but not really when, so he's taking a day trip to the place. He knows the name of the nun that accompanied them from the orphanage, along with his aunt. And an aside mentioned by Ma during one of her rants hints to him that it was his father who really kept him alive. Even though the man had been dead nearly seven years.

More of the ghosts aspect working it was in, without my guidance. I like that. Plus this focus to learn more about his father adds to the impression he's building in people that he's an American working on his thesis, and so far no one has acted like they know who he really is.

He's also building a slight rapport with the army lads at the checkpoints, mainly through letting them smoke his Marlboros, and he's finding out they're as unhappy to be there as the Catholics are unhappy they are there.

A good thing today -- apparently someone found my envelope from the Library of Congress and gave it to the postman, because it was in my mailbox, this afternoon. And I know damn well it wasn't there last night. I went down at 2am to check through a pile of recycling and checked the box, just to make sure. What ever happened, I've got my document and am sorely relieved.

I celebrated by making Ghirardelli chocolate brownies...and they're too damn sweet for me. I've pulled back from eating candy and cookies and such, very much, and now can't really handle something that sugar-concentrated. Damn diabetes.

Still, my blood sugar's under control so I guess that's good.