Events trample brain; brain in recovery.
Oct. 16th, 2006 11:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
squeequegSee that? That's the face of the earth. Here I am, down here, having fallen off it.
It's been a very busy month so far, and I'm only now starting to take a breath. I had three weekends in a row that were packed to the gills with Stuff, I've been trying to get the Awful First Draft of Provisionally Titled Gate Novel complete so I can stop disliking it, and the busy season has started at work. To top it off, I somehow came up in the rotation for my writers' group again, so I had to cobble together the vague short story idea I'd had into something readable. Still don't know whether I've succeeded in that.
Way back at the end of September,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thomascantor and I went off to San Francisco and environs for a week. I love San Francisco, and I loved getting to see many wonderful people in Oakland. I miss you guys. Thank you for having us over.
The weekend itself was a little iffy, as I'm not so good on family vacations with young children, nor am I fond of six-hour minivan rides. I'll leave it at that. However, I did spend time (and too much money) at Borderlands Books, and I discovered the city's only independent pirate supply shop. Any store that has drawers marked "Bilge" and "Song" and "From the Deep" as well as trapdoors in the floor has to be cool. Arr!
We'd only been back for a few days (and reasonably free of jet lag) when a wedding for whichthomascantor was choir director took place on the Cape. I'm afraid I went from nervous to clamming up selfconsciously to occasionally stepping out of my shell, but even just being a spectator was wonderful. The bride looked absolutely stunning, the groom handsome (and we all covet his coat), and the bridesmaids beautiful -- partly due to sigerson The Wonder Seamstress doing her last-minute alteration magic. Also, the choir sounded fabulous. I love my baritone gentleman.
I think I enjoyed the wedding more having helped out beforehand (as only a gofer; I lack the necessary organizational skills to event-wrangle). We also claimed to be the "problem table" at the reception: this is what happens when you stick a lot of musicians together and give them little shiny things that can be flung or flipped across the table. I ended up with a glitter leaf or three in my water glass.
Also, this is the only wedding I've been to where there were fire dancers and silks at the reception. Wow.sigerson and sen_no_ongaku, can we imitate this? You pick out the guests and I'll set them on fire? Or maybe flamethrowers instead of rice? (I really shouldn't be allowed to make wedding suggestions.)
I'd been looking forward to this for a while. For those of you who don't know, Viable Paradise is a one-week writer's workshop on Martha's Vineyard, specializing in fantasy and science fiction. I recommend it to any starting writer in the field. It rules. I attended in 2004, at VP8, and had a fantastic and productive time. (The novel I'm currently shopping to agents was critiqued there. By "critiqued," of course, I mean "taken apart into little bitty pieces, dross scraped over to one side, and rebuilt into a much stronger, shiner form.") My brain was fizzing for months afterward.
This reunion came at the end of VP10, and it was great to see so many people still buzzing from the experience. I did feel a twinge of envy, but more gratitude that I could come back and see this in action.thomascantor and I also took some time for ourselves over the weekend, both for watching Friday night's Battlestar Galactica episode (omg) and for walking on the beach in the bright October sun. I found sea glass, he skipped stones (ten times on one stone!) and we found what might have been either a jellyfish on the beach or the result of someone sneezing into a circle. The jellies really are more beautiful at night, when they glow and stream out of the tidal pond into the ocean.
It was great to see everyone, and I just wish I'd had more time. I admit I had one "too many people! run away!" moment, for which I apologize, but overall it was fantastic. Also, I am now, thanks to a particular editor's drink-mixing abilities, free from any danger of scurvy for the next month at least. (It also cures sobriety very well.)
Next weekend looks blessedly unbooked, which is a very, very good thing, because the weekend after that, we're hosting a dinner party. The apartment's currently a pit, and I'll be doing some serious cleaning and moving-of-furniture (shut up,wavyarms) over the next few days. I also need to learn how to make a decent mole sauce. Rendering Templars down does not seem like the best option, plus they're hard to find these days. Maybe I can substitute Freemasons; I hear they're recruiting.
It's been a very busy month so far, and I'm only now starting to take a breath. I had three weekends in a row that were packed to the gills with Stuff, I've been trying to get the Awful First Draft of Provisionally Titled Gate Novel complete so I can stop disliking it, and the busy season has started at work. To top it off, I somehow came up in the rotation for my writers' group again, so I had to cobble together the vague short story idea I'd had into something readable. Still don't know whether I've succeeded in that.
Way back at the end of September,
thomascantor and I went off to San Francisco and environs for a week. I love San Francisco, and I loved getting to see many wonderful people in Oakland. I miss you guys. Thank you for having us over.The weekend itself was a little iffy, as I'm not so good on family vacations with young children, nor am I fond of six-hour minivan rides. I'll leave it at that. However, I did spend time (and too much money) at Borderlands Books, and I discovered the city's only independent pirate supply shop. Any store that has drawers marked "Bilge" and "Song" and "From the Deep" as well as trapdoors in the floor has to be cool. Arr!
We'd only been back for a few days (and reasonably free of jet lag) when a wedding for which
thomascantor was choir director took place on the Cape. I'm afraid I went from nervous to clamming up selfconsciously to occasionally stepping out of my shell, but even just being a spectator was wonderful. The bride looked absolutely stunning, the groom handsome (and we all covet his coat), and the bridesmaids beautiful -- partly due to sigerson The Wonder Seamstress doing her last-minute alteration magic. Also, the choir sounded fabulous. I love my baritone gentleman.I think I enjoyed the wedding more having helped out beforehand (as only a gofer; I lack the necessary organizational skills to event-wrangle). We also claimed to be the "problem table" at the reception: this is what happens when you stick a lot of musicians together and give them little shiny things that can be flung or flipped across the table. I ended up with a glitter leaf or three in my water glass.
Also, this is the only wedding I've been to where there were fire dancers and silks at the reception. Wow.
sigerson and sen_no_ongaku, can we imitate this? You pick out the guests and I'll set them on fire? Or maybe flamethrowers instead of rice? (I really shouldn't be allowed to make wedding suggestions.)I'd been looking forward to this for a while. For those of you who don't know, Viable Paradise is a one-week writer's workshop on Martha's Vineyard, specializing in fantasy and science fiction. I recommend it to any starting writer in the field. It rules. I attended in 2004, at VP8, and had a fantastic and productive time. (The novel I'm currently shopping to agents was critiqued there. By "critiqued," of course, I mean "taken apart into little bitty pieces, dross scraped over to one side, and rebuilt into a much stronger, shiner form.") My brain was fizzing for months afterward.
This reunion came at the end of VP10, and it was great to see so many people still buzzing from the experience. I did feel a twinge of envy, but more gratitude that I could come back and see this in action.
thomascantor and I also took some time for ourselves over the weekend, both for watching Friday night's Battlestar Galactica episode (omg) and for walking on the beach in the bright October sun. I found sea glass, he skipped stones (ten times on one stone!) and we found what might have been either a jellyfish on the beach or the result of someone sneezing into a circle. The jellies really are more beautiful at night, when they glow and stream out of the tidal pond into the ocean.It was great to see everyone, and I just wish I'd had more time. I admit I had one "too many people! run away!" moment, for which I apologize, but overall it was fantastic. Also, I am now, thanks to a particular editor's drink-mixing abilities, free from any danger of scurvy for the next month at least. (It also cures sobriety very well.)
Next weekend looks blessedly unbooked, which is a very, very good thing, because the weekend after that, we're hosting a dinner party. The apartment's currently a pit, and I'll be doing some serious cleaning and moving-of-furniture (shut up,
wavyarms) over the next few days. I also need to learn how to make a decent mole sauce. Rendering Templars down does not seem like the best option, plus they're hard to find these days. Maybe I can substitute Freemasons; I hear they're recruiting.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 03:16 pm (UTC)Man, I could use it being fully unbooked myself.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 03:23 pm (UTC)I wish I could be of use on the molé front. Sadly, all the recipes to which I had access (a) were of the 'first, render your own lard' variety and (b) are still at the ex-apartment. (Which should not be confused with the X-apartment, the fabulous pied à terre on Central Park West maintained by the Xavier school.)
no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 03:57 pm (UTC)I need to get back to SF. We have lots of friends and loved ones there.
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Date: 2006-10-16 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 08:05 pm (UTC)I think I may have tracked down a few easier molé recipes, though it will undoubtedly be lacking that extra je ne sais whut that comes from home-rendered lard. But thanks -- and let me know if there's any particular molé pitfalls I should look out for!
no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 08:08 pm (UTC)I do believe I need to make it out to Bloomington sometime next year, so you can show me around. Sometime when you're not off being all Russian and stuff, of course.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 10:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 12:14 am (UTC)Hey you!
Glad your weekends, however busy, had so many small shiny things in.
D'you suppose if you render the lard in Shakespearean hexameters that counts? ;-)
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Date: 2006-10-17 12:26 am (UTC)I am, however, very glad that the silks were far away from the fire.
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Date: 2006-10-17 12:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 12:29 am (UTC)I don't even want to think about hexametric lard.
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Date: 2006-10-17 12:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 05:48 am (UTC)And yes: fire + silk = bad(aieeeee)
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Date: 2006-10-18 12:24 am (UTC)I do have a classmate who spins fire, in case someone is actually interested. She bellydances too. Just not both at the same time.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 12:46 pm (UTC)Okay, so maybe that wasn't the inevitable conclusion if you don't have my brain. But still.