Shiny Things

This has nothing to do with my pasta. Winter break ends today. Remember when it was far away in the future? I went in to work for a few hours this afternoon, to play catch up and get ready for my new "associate," who starts tomorrow. But mostly the day was spent getting organized for kids back in school and David commuting to Elyria for the week, which included planning menus, writing, and watching O's last soccer game of the season. Reading: A bit Madeleine's Ghost  before bed. Cookbooks, of which we got 4 for Christmas - more on this later. Writing: I have finished 13 heavily revised or brand new "dragon pages" since Wednesday. I had wanted to have 30. That was, perhaps, overly ambitious. 13 dragons are better than none -- that's what my rational mind is telling me to say. The goblins are really rattling the box right now, though. [reference this previous post for more on goblins] Dinner: I made my veggie-might sauce (not to be confused with "veg...

The funk holds on, terrible insomnia, but I try to make the best of the day. O had three sporting events. Z in a whirlwind of seeing non-school friends before school begins. David and trying to forge order out of chaos. Me trying to maintain momentum on the ToT. Where be dragons? For an interesting discussion of the myth of  Hic sunt dracones , you can check out this cool blog about "block prints and juvenile fantasy"  or this discussion on the MapHist forum . Reading: The "Writer's Block" chapter from Bird by Bird , and the essay on "learn from the masters" in this great set of cards and book I have. find out more It's called The Observation Deck  by Naomi Epel. There's a small book, kind of the size and feel of hand-sized moleskine, and deck of oversized cards that have a pleasing matte surface and feature phrases like "open a drawer," "write a letter," or " ribe tuchus (sit still)." You can use the cards on the...

I am tired and a little bit depressed. Lack of routine is wearing on me. Post holiday doldrums and diminished writing time are making me cranky. I haven't been feeding myself well - skipping breakfast, neglecting to pack lunch, not cooking. My house is a mess, and I am behind at work. Mostly, I think I need a nap. I am trying to just ride with it and not fight the funk. Fighting the funk makes the funk more powerful, I have found. Bootsy says, "Don't fight the funk." And consider this: Everything that explains the world has in fact explained a world that does not exist, a world in which men are at the center of the human enterprise and women are at the margin "helping" them. Such a world does not exist -- never has . - Gerda Lerner, 1920-2013 RI P. She earned her PhD in 1966, at the age of 46, in an era when women were not particularly welcomed in history, and she went on to found an entire academic discipline.   So, whatever it is you are thinking of doing....

Kids at other grandparents in Lakewood, David and I took advantage of the opportunity to see a movie.  Lincoln  and Tony Kushner get the Oscar for best use of the word "ossified" in an American motion picture. Seriously, the screenplay has a pleasingly large vocabulary and elegant rhetoric. And the acting ain't bad either. Best role of James Spader's career I will leave the deeper critique and historical debate to another time and place. Reading: No. Writing: Briefly, with plans for a big push this weekend. Dinner: Sushi with my special someone. (And a great ginger-honey-Hendrick's cocktail) Soundtrack: This surprised me on the radio. Not a song I think about a lot, but I liked it back then and I like it now. Random thing: I got this card in the mail from my friend Harriett. She said it reminded her of me, and I am pleased and flattered. Woman with Hatboxes in the Snow by M. Broman

It is that part of winter break when the kids are still on vacation but the parents have to return to work. This is OK. Work is good too. ZandO spent the day playing with friends. They played so hard they almost refused to eat lunch, I am told. Because this is a repository for shiny things, I won't mention my deep antipathy for the "conservative" wing of the US House of Representatives. (See what I did there?) Reading: Back to reading Borrower's Afloat  as kids' bedtime book. Finished Ch 12, in which the borrowers are nearly washed down the drain by a rush of sandalwood soapy water. If you have any interest in children's literature and you've never read the Borrowers books by Mary Norton, you should correct that as soon as possible. The frame story is forced, but once you get into the lives of the borrowers themselves, the writing is just so good. I mean sentence level writing as much or more so than the story itself. Also, continuing Madeleine's Ghost...

Inner critic got you down? Artistic demons chewing on your soul? I know how you feel, and I have a solution! First off - inner critic is really too polite a title for what I've got. And  "demon"? Maybe that word gives them too much power. How about GOBLINS? Disgusting, vile, violent, and dangerous as they might be, goblins are also incredibly easy to defeat (at least they were in the Hobbit movie).  I have turned my demons to goblins and banished them from my writing desk, and maybe someday my soul. Follow my 7 easy steps and you too can be goblin free and happily creative: 1. Get a powerful vessel. My grandmother used to keep tictacs in this by the side of her blue rocking chair. It's a special memory of comfort and care. Good juju 2. Assemble a collection of goblin (and the odd troll) fetishes. I cut these out of a Lego catalog. 3. Put goblins in box 4. Make a talisman of victory. This is the best line of the whole 169 minutes of the Hobbit. 5. Place talisman in box...

I was so much older then. I met David 24 years ago tonight. We have spent every New Year's Eve since in each other's company, even when we lived in different cities and were in relationships with other people (which was all a long, long time ago, as I have lived here in this very same house in Cleveland Heights for almost 18 years). Funny. All of this still amazes me. Tonight we spent our evening with friends we have found through kids and school - a sentence that would not have made sense to me the night we met. Second time in a month I have played Apples to Apples with a room full of tipsy adults. Reading: no Writing: no Dinner: Lasagne three ways, by Beth Soundtrack: Pop, new and old Random thing: The night David and I met, my hair was blue and so were my Dunhills.