After the beach interlude (water cold, still awesome, going back tomorrow), came back, had a snack and tea, and then settled down to work again. Retyped and read aloud chapter 3. Roshani called, chatted with her briefly while taking a walk through the flower garden, which is splendid as always. May need to get some Joe Pye weed � they have it all over here, and it�s rather glorious, at least six feet tall. Also, I don�t know what this little pink thing is, blooming against hydrangea and geranium, but I love it. I want to say anemone? Must have some in my garden. Their monarda is also twice as tall as mine (almost shoulder-height), and a vibrant scarlet. Hm.
Came back to room and retyped and read aloud chapter 4. Starting to feel queasy and my shoulder is twinging, so I think I need to take a computer break. Too much screen / typing time. Plan is to read until dinner, eat, and then hopefully revise a chapter or two before bed.
9:30 p.m. update. Did just as planned. Dinner included a nice surprise � sitting next to me was Marie Myung-Ok Lee, who wrote that New York Times article about gut bacteria that I posted here a while back. Fun! Like meeting a celebrity. :-) Linda (the chef here) managed to make a gluten-free meatloaf with crushed potato chips and gluten-free crackers that was delicious, Mexican-flavored with a homemade mole. Yes, it�s not surprising I don�t lose weight when I come here. If it weren�t for all the prairie walking, I might end up rolling out of Ragdale after a few weeks.
I spent most of the day working in the attached screened-in porch to my room (Sarah�s Room), a porch I share with another resident. She was working there last week, so kindly said I could try it out today. It�s good, although I think I�m equally happy working either in my room or in one of the common areas downstairs. There are so many good spaces for working here.
Got through three more chapters in the YA novel, up to 30,000 words now, through the end of chapter 6. I�ve read all of that out loud, which on the plus side means the language is as clean as I can make it, but on the minus side, means my mouth feels all furry inside. Might have to do some extra-long teeth-brushing tonight. And then tomorrow, a lot more of this. I�m still a bit waffly about chapter two, but I�m not going to think about it right now. I�m pretty sure it�s staying. Maybe. We�ll see.
