delivery day

i'm sitting at my dining table, surrounded by all manner of crap (unopened letters from the bank, a copy of sleepers almanac, my uni stuff, a teacup full of fererro rocher wrappers, lip balm, handbags, assorted notebooks, miscellaneous comedy festival brochures, a nearly-finished triple power push pop - you know, the usual for a dining table that's never actually used for dining), and staring at my front door. every car that i hear slowing down might be it, every person i hear walk near my front door (crunchy brown autumn leaves everywhere, so i'm not being poetic or anything) could be him - the courier. why am i so jumpy? because this morning i have been informed that my first proof pages are ready. they will be in my hands before the sun is set. i am so excited i can barely function. i wasn't even this excited when i was going to see the cover. i will soon know exactly how many pages the book has and what font* it will be in...
*hey, they don't call me 'words nerd' for nothing.
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update - it's here. it's here, and it's 320 pages long. it's pretty, and like most pretty things, it's also a little scary. i didn't even give the courier time to ring the doorbell - he stopped in front of my door and i opened it. it's massive. it's marked out like book pages. it's my book.
i tried to read it, but i couldn't. i made it through the first chapter, but it read like one long sentence. i think my brain was too excited to process the punctuation. i rang my editor and asked her, 'are the sentences too long?'. she said 'i don't think so...'. i told her that she'd have to help me because i just can't tell. i got mark to get me two books off our bookshelf and i compared the text and the length. then i sat there holding someone else'd book, wondering if they felt the same way when they got their first proof pages back.
i think i'll read it tomorrow.