February, and we’re…

February, and we're buried under several feet of snow. Okay, not literally buried, but seriously, it takes a lot of work to get out of our parking lot. I dinged the back porch yesterday, trying to get out through a snow maze, and the porch is fine, but our taillight is cracked, and now I need to go find a new one. Sigh. (We have a Kia, so I think this may involve driving forty-five minutes into the city, up to near Devon. Which I suppose is an excuse to go get samosas, but still. Also, I'm not supposed to be eating samosas right now, because January was very carb-y, and a few of those pounds last summer crept back on, and I am pretty determined not to climb back into the "obese" range ("obese" marked with scare-quotes because I am pretty dubious about all of these current definitions, and I particularly dislike that word and how it's used outside a medical context, but it's still a relatively handy term/line so I guess I'm using it anyway), so I'm back to keeping a close eye on my carbs for the moment.) So, snow. A big pain. Just to get the kids in the car in the morning, I have to spend ten minutes carefully pulling it out of our wedged-in spot so I can get the doors open. So annoying.

But aside from that, February is doing okay for me. I had a great time at the AWP convention in D.C., despite the flight cancellation (weather) that led to me missing the one panel I was scheduled to be on. Pfui. But I attended a few other panels (really liked the one on Bangladeshi fiction -- I think I even learned some stuff), and I saw many friends. Grad school friends, childhood friends, journal reader Sunita (who I last saw over a decade ago, which tells you how long she's been reading my work), and a whole bunch of new friends. Mostly through DesiLit -- this AWP, I set out to create an actual DesiLit presence, mostly by organizing a dinner, a lunch, and some hangout time at the bar, and it was super-successful. I met tons of interesting desi writers, and had a lot of fun with them, and I think they enjoyed meeting each other too. So, yay! And I think I might be able to talk a few of them (Rita Banerjee, I'm looking at you) into seriously helping out with getting DesiLit going again, which is even more exciting. Very productive.

Productive in a totally different way was Sunday, which I spent writing. I wrote another letter to my children, which various people have said is my best journal entry ever, so if you missed it, you might want to check it out. That was kind of wrenching to write, but I'm also happy with the result. So, good. And I wrote a mystery short story, which was super-fun, and I think it came out very clean in the initial draft. I have an Indian detective protagonist, Suresh, who I'm half in love with -- Roshani read it yesterday and liked it, so yay. My writing group will critique it tonight, so we'll see what they think. I do need help coming up with a last name for Suresh -- he's Indian Tamil. Any suggestions? I put in 'Chatterjee' as a placeholder, which is a name I'm oddly fond of, but I think that's more Bengali than Tamil. I want something distinctly Indian, with a good sound to it, but not too short or too long. Help?

And I came back from my little vacation at least briefly much more able to cope with the children and my life. A little rest (and time away) does wonders for the soul. Classes are going well; the house is progressing well. We should finish the first coat of interior painting by the end of next week, along with tilework -- and then the following week, they move into staining trims and doing the floors. That will hopefully be done by end of February -- beginning of March, my kitchen goes in! Very exciting. There's doors, and cabinetry, and countertops, and lighting to do in March. If we don't hit any more delays, we're actually looking at an April 1st move-in. And yes, I know, April Fool may sabotage that! We'll see what happens.

Now if this snow would just melt, I would be entirely happy. I have crocuses buried under there, just waiting to start poking up...