Friday, July 14, 2006
Vroom!
This morning I woke up early again. (Why oh why does this happen when I really feel like I need more sleep?)
Read a chapter of Moby Dick that really got me excited. Chapter 49, in which Ishmael experiences a transformation. It’s just such a perfect chapter. I read and reread it, and wrote four pages in my notebook about it. I’m amazed at Melville’s wit. No one ever told me he was witty. And I want to write that kind of transformation for one of my characters.
So I enthused about the chapter to my DH, and then called my mom and told her all about it during my drive to work. (Stop throwing stones, I use a headset, okay?)
Amazing how literature can get your blood moving sometimes!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
#21 Something's going on around here
Wow, huh? We found this sign hanging on a telephone pole about a block from one of the houses we used to live in, in Fort Wayne. Guess she messed up, eh?
See more progress on: Take 43 photos of signs
#20 Indiana Textile Co and Club Soda
I love this old building in downtown Fort Wayne. It became a bar after we moved away, and I haven’t ever been inside.
See more progress on: Take 43 photos of signs
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Holding onto Vacation - Tuesday 7/11/2006
I just can’t let it go. I don’t want to get into this routine where I feel like I have to rush home every night.
So I stopped by the coffee house in Acton on my way home and wrote for about an hour. When I got up to leave, I noticed these flowers on the next table.
I’m so glad I’m taking a photo every day. It reminds me to notice. And isn’t that basically what writers are doing? Noticing?
Last night I had an idea for a short story. It's been a long time since something came to me like this. I stopped everything and wrote it down. There were even bits of dialogue!
When I was on vacation and friends asked about my writing, I told them that I have been thinking a lot about conflict, and how it works in fiction.
Then I threatened to rough them up.
When I was on vacation and friends asked about my writing, I told them that I have been thinking a lot about conflict, and how it works in fiction.
Then I threatened to rough them up.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Sunset on Big Lake, Indiana
We used to go swimming here.
I should probably also mention that this is the view from the first house my mother and father lived in after they were married. Can you imagine?
See more progress on: Photograph 43 Sunsets
Sooo brown. Monday 7/10/2006
Wow. It was green and soft in the Midwest. It’s prickly and brown out here at this time of year.
Took Soledad Canyon Road home yesterday. It’s a little longer, but more scenic than the freeway. I had the road pretty much to myself.
I tell myself that, yes, it will be green and balmy here again, right about the time everything is dormant in Indiana.
One lousey photo - Saturday 7/8/2006
Yeah, that’s right. One truly lousey photo the whole day of the wedding! There were SO many cameras, it just seemed a little silly for me to try and get any shots myself. I took this on the way to the reception.
It was a very nice ceremony. The fanciest wedding I’ve ever been to. The reception was fun, with lots of dancing.
Rehearsal Dinner - Friday
We weren’t in the wedding, but we were invited to the rehearsal dinner since we came from so far away. It was a lot of fun, and I was honored to sit next to my friends, the mother and father of the bride. We have been good friends since before either of their kids were born, even though we moved away a long time ago.
This photo, taken around midnight I’d guess, sort of says it all. It was a great Italian meal, and there were many types of wine to sample. We stayed until the wee hours of Saturday and then all we had to do was climb the stairs to our hotel room.
Unfortunately, none of us thought to blow out the candles, so the fire alarm went off at 6:15 the next morning and we got to see what people wear to bed. Ahem.
Red Hat Scarecrow - Thursday 7/6/2006 bonus
In my mom’s yard.
We drove up and had lunch with my brother, B, and went to Shipshewana on this day, but I hardly took any pictures up that way. Huh.
Home Cooking! - Thursday 7/6/2006
Breakfast by Mom! No one makes fried potatoes and eggs like she does. Not even me. My sister and her husband joined us for breakfast. She brought freshly picked raspberries. Mmmm.
Another former dwelling - Wednesday 7/5/2006 bonus
The other place we shared in Fort Wayne. We knew almost everyone in the 7-8 apartments in this old house. Our place was around the side with a window facing the house next door, but it was a good place to live anyway. Walked to work.
We drove the few blocks to this corner from where we met with friends for lunch at Halls Gas House. Great prime rib sandwich for lunch, and the prices are fabulous compared to L.A. area.
Our former home - 7/5/2006
This is the last place D and I lived in Fort Wayne. The Jackson Street house. We had most of the upstairs, with a screened in porch and our own private entrance. It was a great apartment in the wonderful West Central neighborhood. I loved living in that area. A lot of artsy people lived there… People we knew from hanging out at the Blue Mountain Coffee Company (coffee house) and Henry’s bar, who were artists and artisans, and friends from our life in local theater. A good place to walk a few blocks through on a Sunday morning to fetch a newspaper.
It wasn’t purple then, but isn’t it grand? It was green when we lived there.
K decorating a balloon - July 4th bonus
Mom bought dozens of balloons for a water balloon toss, but they turned out to be miserly little unbreakable creatues. For some reason a few of us got a little fixated on blowing them up, even though they were really hard to get air into it.
I don’t think my niece, K, will mind me posting this photo too much. Beautiful concentration.
Noble County Courthouse - Monday 7/3/2006
Just a few miles from home, now! This is the courthouse in Albion, the town where I went to middle school and high school. Indiana has wonderful county courthouses.
In the evening, we went to Columbia City to see my cousin DF and his friend play at an open mike night. D & I and my sister ended up getting up and doing a short set. Sis and I sang Sentimental Journey accapella, in harmony. Then D accompanied us on Teenager In Love. Then sis and I sat down and D did Those Were the Days and I Won’t Sing Bob Dylan while wandering through the cafe with his guitar. Fun!
Party in Waiting - Saturday 7/1/2006
The chairs are ready, at TT’s place outside of East Lansing. Beautiful spot for a party that lasted from early afternoon till late at night. What time did we go home?
This innocent looking setting, though, was the scene of the attack of the mosquitoes. I counted 53 bites on my ankles and legs, in spite of spraying myself with Cutter. Torment!
Old Faceful - Friday 7/30/2006
The waterfountain inside Elderly Instruments. No visit to East Lansing is complete without a pilgrimmage to this house of music.
D & I went there with the G sisters around midday. I got tired and went to lie in the shade under a tree outside. We spent the evening in the family home of the G sisters, talking and singing with the others. We now hail from Acton, Berkeley, New York City, and North Carolina.
What tha'?? - Thursday, 6/29/2006
Okay, I’m probably dating myself here, but… does anyone else remember when the planes seemed shiney and new? When they fed you and gave you pillows, and replaced broken parts so you wouldn’t start wondering what the heck else is cracked and shaking apart in the important parts of the plane?
Actually, maybe this is just a ploy to sell more nerve-numbing hard liquor.
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