THE DAY
Productive and not productive at the same time. No, I spent virtually no time at all looking at politics or the papers but spent time working this morning before the husband announced that we should do something fun, which mainly means doing something together instead of the parallel play that passes for our weekends (i.e., working on our separate projects in the same space). I get that…but I wasn’t really keen on doing that. Still, I went, and really, I have no one to blame for this but me because I’d mentioned that a local museum was doing open hearth cooking today and I was kind of curious.
So we went. Here’s what I can say: the museum part of it is . . . sort of a waste. I wouldn’t even call this Williamsburg Ultra-Lite. I’ve seen outdoor, living museums before; there was a pretty nice one up in Green Bay in point of fact where they’ve essentially recreated an entire small settlement with period buildings, and of course, Fort William in Thunder Bay is FABULOUS.
This is not. I mean, I think they’ve done their best and I certainly learned about 19th-century cabins in the Tennessee Valley area…but there really wasn’t much to this. The great “mansion” is . . . meh.
OTOH, the open hearth cooking part was pretty interesting for someone, like me, who enjoys cooking. The folks doing the demos certainly knew their stuff, and I learned a few things, which is what I enjoy anyway. It’s the magpie in me because you just never know when an interesting tidbit or skill or fact will be important to a character or plot. So that part was fun–and what it reinforces is that, as a writer, you have to stay open to new ideas because you just never know.
The last part of the day was spent, well…being expensively bamboozled. I agreed (stupidly) to attend a local museum silent auction and benefit, and only discovered after I was bamboozled that it cost a shitload of money to go. But I also felt as if I didn’t have a choice (explaining why I felt so bamboozled).
Here’s what I got: a really expensive vodka on the rocks (after being promised a cocktail party–and I’m thinking that I ought to mix the damned cocktails), food I couldn’t eat (since more than half was pork and the rest garbage I wouldn’t foist on any guest), and worse than mediocre art that I could have seen in any art school. There was one guy–ONE GUY–out of the whole danged passel worth the trouble, only because he KNOWS he’s the only decent artist, his work was WAAAYYY overpriced. So we didn’t bid. In fact, I hung out, read a book, sipped my hideously overpriced vodka on the rocks, and then bugged the hell out of there and thought, Never again.
To be honest, I think that this is one of the things that really bothers me about being here. People overvalue what is here. If all the sources I’m reading are correct, they have ALWAYS thought of themselves as somehow different and better, and I have now read enough local histories and other sources to know that this is how people see themselves here. But the truth is…listen, there are a lot of educated people here. There are a ton of engineers. I understand that you want to think of yourselves as somehow different and better and outstanding…but that doesn’t make you exceptional. All this makes you is different from the rest of the bloody state.
WRITING OUT LOUD
Dark Side of the Moon
Day 1: 4326 Day 11: 2500 Day 21: 1800 Day 31: 745
Day 2: 2085 Day 12: 500 Day 22: 0 Day 32: 0
Day 3: 3011 Day 13: 1000 Day 23: 2700 Day 33: 4000
Day 4: 2652. Day 14: 3700 Day 24: 3500 Day 34: 2800
Day 5: 3210 Day 15: 5630 Day 25: 1500 Day 35: 4500
Day 6: 3450 Day 16: 1060 Day 26: 0 Day 36: 4800
Day 7: 0 Day 17: 130 Day 27: 0 Day 37: 0
Day 8: 2756 Day 18: 0 Day 28: 380 Day 38: 450
Day 9: 4580 Day 19: 3000 Day 29: 390 Day 39: 1000
Day 10: 2670 Day 20: 2600 Day 30: 380 Day 40: 2500
Day 41: 2600 Day 51: 1000 Day 63: 4800 Day 73: 1500 (edit)
*Day 42: 830 Day 52: 1600 Day 64: 3300 Day 74: 250 (sick)
Day 43: 3600 Day 53: 2600 Day 65: 2500 Day 75: 3000 (edit)
Day 44: 5000 Day 54: 3600 Day 66: 1200 (edit) Day 76: 2500 (edit)
Day 45: 2600 Day 55: 3200 Day 67: 1000 (edit) Day 77: 2500 (edit)
Day 46: 3000 Day 56: 4000 Day 68: 3000 (edit) Day 78: 2000 (edit)
Day 47: 2800 Day 57: 1200 Day 69: 1000 (edit) Day 79: 2000 (edit)
Day 48: 2500 Day 58-60: 0 Day 70: 1000 (edit) Day 80: 4300 (edit)
Day 49: 1000 Day 61: 3500 Day 71: 1500 (edit) Day 81: 1000 (edit)
Day 50: 4600 Day 62: 3000 Day 72: 2500 (edit) Day 82: 2000 (edit)
Day 83: 1500 (edit)
Day 84: 2700 (edit)
Day 85: 1500 (edit)
Day 86: 0 (travel)
Day 87: 0 (travel)
Day 88: 0 (travel)
Day 89: 2500 (edit)
Day 90: 2400
Day 91: 1300
Day 92: 2200
Day 93: 1300
Blog Post: 820
***
What I’m Watching:
The Newsroom: last season; great show; good dialogue. I’m sad that it will only be six episodes, because I can see where it’s going already. Nonetheless…
***
What I’m Reading:
German Rocketeers.
***
What I’m Listening to:
No one for the time being. Tomorrow, I know I’ll be doing taxes and so not really doing much of anything, and so I have zero intention of listening to breathless announcers (OMG, Cruz could mount a challenge to Trump–as if that is so very much better). But I wouldn’t mind finding a decent story out there. There must be one.
