Busy week, turning into a busy weekend. Yesterday I went to Gethsemane with Andy and picked up what I hope will be the last of the big pots for my roof. I'm tired of carting big pots around. My garden budget is also pretty broken, so I'm stealing money from other parts of the budget (who needs to eat?). But it is looking prettier and prettier up there, so that's good.
In the afternoon, I had a Roosevelt alumni weekend event, where I got to sit at a table and startle seventy-year-old strangers (back for their fiftieth reunion, so cute) with how many books I had in front of me. "You wrote all those books?" "Yes, but not exactly, because two of them I just edited, and two of them are foreign editions of a third one, but they sure do look purty all lined up together don't they?" And they smile and nod.
Then came home, gardened a tiny bit, then went to Nilofer's for her birthday celebration. I brought her a dwarf apple tree, which is small enough to fit on her porch, I think, and is just opening its buds now. Should be covered in pretty blossoms soon. :-) She ordered Indian food, and we all had a great time, especially the bit when we tried to decide whether it would be worth giving up all of our other interests if in exchange for focusing on one thing, we could be really brilliant at that one thing. Sort of the Kevin model. (He has other interests, of course, but all of his work time is essentially focused on math.) We all decided that we would go crazy only working on one thing, and thus, we would choose to just accept the likelihood of never being as brilliant as we thought we'd be when we were younger. That approach has its consolations -- you get to be bitter about it this way. :-)
Today, try to write in the morning; hang out in the afternoon with Lisette, for her birthday. In the evening, big birthday party for Lisette. Tomorrow morning, rehearsal with Satya. And then, coming up this Sunday afternoon, a DesiLit event:
Sunday, April 30, 2:00 p.m.I have about ten people rsvp'd, which is pretty good for a spur-of-the-moment event. If it goes well, maybe we'll do it more often...
Exploring Your Inner Writer (A DesiLit event)An informal discussion among writers and those interested in creative writing (fiction, poetry, drama, creative nonfiction). This will be relatively unstructured, but some topics covered may include: stimulating creativity, writing exercises, good books to help you get started, local writing workshops, discipline, your inner editor, how you start publishing, etc. and so on. E-mail info@desilit.org to rsvp and for address (in Bucktown, Chicago). Free.