Good morning! I’ve been up for two hours, since 4:30 a.m., because I’m clearly still on Chicago time, which has given me plenty of time to:
• be amused by my bed head and decide to share it with the world
• do some pleasure reading: I finally got around to the Gideon the 9th series a few days ago, which I think everyone else was obsessing about a few years ago — some things I love about it (complex character dynamics, written amusingly, the deliberate obscurity that makes reading it feel like deciphering a puzzle), some things I find hard to wade through (long descriptive passages, lots of bloody and detailed fight scenes); I can’t remember the last time I’ve had such a divided reaction to a writer’s work, actually. I’m about halfway through book 2 now.
• eat leftover Ethiopian for breakfast (yay!)
• check in with Anand, who also woke up similarly early (he’s okay, a little groggy from sleeping on my mother-in-law’s couch last night, because Kavi was taking up all of the guest bed — if any local (Los Gatos) friends have an air mattress we can borrow for a few days, that would be helpful
• give you a view out the living room window; my mother-in-law’s condo is in a very nice little senior community. Will I end up living here one day? Not impossible, but probably not for at least a decade or two. Kev and I are VERY unclear on whether we’ll end our days in the Midwest or the Bay Area. Probably one of those two. But the next decade is leaning heavily Midwest, at least.
• realize that I am finally feeling less burned out than I was at the end of the semester, more like myself. This has been true for close to a week, I think, but I was in a busy logistical period, so didn’t have time to tell you about it. 🙂 But yesterday on the plane, I actually opened up a writing file and did a little writing for the first time in months, so that’s a very good sign.
Plans for the morning:
• do a little catching up posting photos and such
• send Eliana some notes on things she can work on while I’m out of town, if she wants to — she’s house-sitting for us, but there are a few Serendib House tasks she can put her hand to if she wants to pick up the hours
• do some more writing on the file I started yesterday — it’s a little Sri Lankan tea party cookbook, of which more very shortly, stay tuned. (I know I said yesterday that I’m on vacation this week, and I AM, but that mostly means I’m not feeling as obliged to try to do a lot of e-mail catch-up. If I feel up to writing, and have time, I will definitely write.)
• hopefully post something about writing / book publicity in the current day — I have some musings that I’d love your collective opinions on, so look for that if you’re interested. (And a general reminder to ‘like’ my posts if you want FB to actually show them to you. This is what our social media overlords require of us these days….)
I’m underslept, so best if today isn’t too ambitious work-wise. I promised Kavi I’d take a break around 11 and spend a little time at the pool with her, then around 12:30, I’ll drop Kev and the kids off to go visit with his mom, and then I have a lunch date + a bit of gaming with Alex, so that will be nice.
I haven’t had time or energy to see friends much the last few months, and I miss it badly. I’ve been actually lonely, which is an unusual state for me. It’s a sad contradiction that when you’re deep in the hole, and your friends would be of the most help to you, sometimes you don’t have the energy to engage with them.
With all the grief of the past year (Kevin’s dad’s death, our dog (of 18 years) Ellie’s death, the break-up with Jed (of a 26-year relationship), multiple other serious family stressors that aren’t my stories to tell — Kev and I have mostly just been in coping mode, trying to get through the days. There’s still some of that going on, but it’s better. Summer helps — the pause in the academic calendar is good for resetting, even if it’s just switching from one kind of work to another.
Okay, I guess I’m going to be really prolix today, apologies, thank you for your patience with my rambling musings. I will try to be more amusing with them, at least some of the time.
(Musings should be amusing? Hmm…)
