Letting Go

Lightening up, letting go, giving up, quitting, these are not such popular cliches in my world. Not big on the quitting of anything. However, the neck spoke louder than my usual discipline and I have officially fallen off the National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) bandwagon. Too much time on less-than-ergonomically perfect laptops and busted chairs made for interesting spasms down the right arm and perpetually buggered neck. So.

Now I'm just doing the VanMag job and some freelance stuff and it's feeling better. I did no computer stuff except for a few emails on the weekend, which is the first weekend that I really let myself not write something intensely.

I have to say, I could get used to giving things up. It's quite a load off. Went to see the movie Happy Go Lucky last night at Tinseltown. Poppy was a tad annoying with her endless optimism but I really liked the movie and can relate. Make your own happiness. It's hard work choosing to be happy. Anyone can rant and rave and me perpetually pissed off. That's the easy default position. It takes work to focus on what's good.  I liked that message. Two thumbs up on that one. 

Today I'm meeting Wendy Weir with her new LibreTea drinking glass. I will upload a photo later but the prototype I saw earlier was really cool. She's starting with selling it at Murchies in Vancouver & Victoria. I'm hoping we'll position it in the Jan/Feb 09 issue.

Bunching NaNoWriMo

I'm perilously close to letting the whole NaNoWriMo thing go. It kills me to think I'd quit something. Not very good at the quitting or giving up schtick. However, the neck is screaming louder and louder that it wants relief dammit. I finished up the two newspaper stories for Travel Writers' Tales syndication, so maybe I'll have more free time, but then I think I really want to do my "real" writing which does not include this very cheesy novel I'm creating.

Quite honestly, this whole working all day thing is getting in the way of my writing life. HA. But I really am enjoying the opportunity to work with other writerly types and it was fun to get to know of them a little better last night. The Vanmag website launch party was at Nu. Great snacks, probably too much wine and fun conversations.

I'm going to go meet my husband at Lolita's now. Perhaps a margarita and some fish tacos will switch things up a little. This much I know. When I go to sleep. I really go to sleep. Not quite sure I can keep this social thing up too much longer. I'm used to sleepy old Stalashen Drive, where the biggest action is the waves.

Dad's Summer Visit

This was in late August or early September. Sean came to visit his Grandpa for a bit. This picture makes me smile, thinking about how much healthier dad is and that Sean has finally had a chance in the last few years to get to know his Grandpa. I get downright sappy looking at this picture in fact, because of course it seems like everything has that bittesrsweet tinge to it. That whole mortality thing for a start...

Sunday night

It's 9:45 pm. I am semi-caught up on the NaNoWriMo world. 22,000 plus words. Sadly, I can't remember the exact number and I'm too whipped to go look it up again. Actually, I think it's 23,000 yeh, yeh, that's it. I want to get to 30,000 words by Wednesday. That was the suggested number by the little pep talk email sent 'round by Chris Bay, the organizer of NaNoWriMo.

Since I'm too lazy to do the actual math, I'm just accepting that 30,000 is key. The good news is that I have at least got my main character out of the Santa Fe hospital. She has no choice now but to be laid up and write her book. She has a broken leg that she can't put any weight on and a wonderful benefactor who has provided a nurse and her own New Mexican casita. Talk about projecting one's own fantasies...well, except for the nurse and the broken leg part. But I do love New Mexico....

I seem to have slid into quite a lot of deadlines and writing projects over this next week. The trick will be if I can move my neck at all by the time this is all over. I do have the name of a great physiotherapist that can do miracles in 30 minutes. I'm sure this neck and shoulders can provide a great challenge for her. Laptops, crappy seating arrangements and ridiculous word count goals are starting to add up. Saturday morning yoga is not enough to undo the week of abuse it seems.

I think ibuprofen is one of the world's wonders. I plan on getting a couple of those mommy's little helpers and propping myself into bed with the wonderful Tell It Slant book. I'm slowly working my way through it, between my other books.

The veal shanks are thawing while I sit here and by tomorrow morning Kevin will be prepping them for our dinner of shanks and lentils tomorrow night. I'm guessing Mr. Wine Geek has already figured out the appropriate red for the occasion.

It's a calm and crisp night outside the deck. The Molson brewery digital sign scrolling across on its forever spin. Can't quite read it, though I probably could if I got off the sofa and stood on the deck. But why?

Instead, I will sign off. Give my fingers a break. I'm looking forward to the week. I was asked on Friday to do the Shop with a Chef column and will be checking out the chef of Lolita's and their other Mexican eatery on Commercial Drive called Julio and me...or something like that. Since Mexico is one of my favourite places on the planet, I'm quite looking forward to the assignment.

Adios, Muchachos.

Good Movies

Well, I'm a little short on the NaNoWriMo goal tonight but my excuse is that I was at the TMAC event at L'Hermitage. It was all about the importance of an on-line presence. And there was great snacks and fun conversations and wine. Yes. Lovely Syrah.

Margaret Deefholts thanked me for recommending the amazing movie, Edge of Heaven. It is a Turkish/German film that Kevin and I watched at Tinseltown. It's out on DVD and I still think it's one of the best films I saw in 2008. I want to rent it and watch it again. Amazing scenes, tight script with strange twists and turns in time and overlapping motives between mothers and daughters, and a son and his father.

On the subject of movies, the other really great show I saw a few months ago was The Visitor. It was so rife with social commentary without being overt and obnoxious with it. And it was hopeful in a very poignant way.

Alas, the same can not be said for the rather trite piece we watched on this very laptop last night. Can't even recall the name, it was so forgettable. A shame as it had Helen Hunt which is usually a good thing. But Bette Midler who was supposed to be her long-lost mother ended up looking weirdly younger than Helen because Bette's face is so bee-stung with Botox that she has absolutely no expressions and tight doll-like skin. I spent more time, trying to see if her face had any elastic in at all, than listening to what she had to say. Rather surreal...

Mid-Week Shift

Wednesday. Kind of a strange week with yesterday's holiday. I worked on NaNoWriMo and hit the 18,200 word count at 3:05 pm after a morning and afternoon spent writing, emailing, cleaning and, avoiding as much as possible, the 3200 words I needed to paste down before I would allow myself out of the apartment. Felt good to step out into the air. Had a much needed cappuccino treat at the Starbucks on Denman and Davie. Actually scored a chair! 

Good news? The word count was reached and the little space is rather spotless as a result. 

And last night was  our second dinner together in our new world - not bad for 3 1/2 weeks of living there...

NaNoWriMo

Oh my. I'm feeling rather daunted by this NaNoWriMo thing. I'm at 11,472 words and I need to hit 15,003 tonight to be on goal for the 50,000 word finish at the end of the month.

I have lots of reasons why I really don't have time for this. And truly? I don't have time for this. I should be doing the two assignments that are do by November 20th. I should read my book, Three Cups of Tea, for our November 15th book club and I should be working on my memoir.

And what do I chose to do? Write a totally crap novel where the damned characters can't seem to get themselves out of a Santa Fe coffeshop, called...wait for it.
Espressorito.

Uh Huh. It seems a gay couple got together, one a swarthy, thickset Mexican named Juan (who also happens to make kickass Mexican food) and his lover Gianni who is a barista extraordinare and a pastry chef. Naturally, they open an espresso bar, Mexican eatery and saddlery. Forgot to mention that Juan is a true cowboy and leather worker. Of course. And they aren't even the main characters.

I must say that one of the reasons the woman Colette and her new friend David can't leave the place is because it's the perfect coffee shop/cafe that I would never leave either. Juan and Gianni post questions on the bulletin board and in the Santa Fe Herald asking people to come discuss them every Saturday afternoon. People of every background come out of the woodwork so that you have blue-haired pierced-up punks with purple hair discussing this stuff with soccer moms. What's not to love? So, it is a salon pondering existential questions. You can see why I can't get them to leave.

Apparently, this blog is also a way to avoid getting to my goal. Onward. Etc.

Obama is President

I knew I was anxious about this election but I can't believe how emotional it has been. I look at pictures of so many black, white, young and old voters lined up for hours and hours to vote and I am just overwhelmed.
Thank you American voters.
Thank you for making democracy real again.
I will not dilute this with thinking about all that this new 47-year old president must deal with. For now, it is time to congratulate him and his incredible abilities.
And now, I'm listening to McCain's speech and I am grateful for his class and grace in this speech. These are the best words he's said, well, except for this end acknowledgement about Sarah Palin.
Whatever, it sort of cures my romanticism about the whole affair. Onward. McCain should have shut up while he was ahead.

Sunday at the Seaside

Ahh...I haven't been home in ages and the sea and the wind were here waiting. Doing that timeless thing they do, of rush and retreat, rush and retreat. Does everything have to be metaphorical? It feels like that is life.
Last week was so full, with events, and dinners, and theatre right after work so there was no point in going home to the apartment and it was busy, busy, busy, but in a good way and then I got on the last ferry on Friday night and fell asleep in the car until another car's alarm blasted me awake and I was cursing even bothering to come here and then I pulled in to our dark gravel drive, opened my car door with my arms full of all I needed to schlep and there it was - Timelessness.
Calm. Sea. Breeze. Salt. Trees.
Breathe.
Breathe.
Breathe.
And this week I plan on being smarter. Less after work stuff. More hang out and read and regroup stuff. Dare I suggest a more balanced approach?
And then on Tuesday, like the rest of Canada, I will await the results of the U.S. election. I am usually so optimistic, but I feel like I don't dare believe Obama will really win because I think my heart will break if it doesn't come true. Not that it won't anyway.
Dear U.S. Citizens,
Please vote. Please don't vote for the scary old pretend maverick or Tina Fey's clone.
The rest of us are depending on you to help shift the direction of your world, and consequently, ours.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Canadian