Scottish Festival

Had writing group today. They had some advice for me regarding a day too many in a chapter (an extra day that wasn't described) and how I had Connor driving a car at fourteen (an accident, since I've changed the current age of the character). Everything is helpful.

I went to the Scottish Festival with Wren, Robin, and Elijah last weekend. I had never been. It was full of music and kilts and men throwing tree trunks. The day was hot, needless to say, and we spent a lot of time sweating. I ate four frozen strawberries dipped in chocolate to cool down. So what if I got strawberry juice on my white shirt. We saw a great singer and storyteller, Ed Miller, a Scot who lives in the US. His fiddler was excellent--I think his name was John Taylor--another Scot with poufy white hair that stood up in a mane. At the end of the day, around 9:30, they had an event called Fiddle Faddle in which all the fiddlers got together and jammed. It was quite amazing. I don't know if they all know the same songs or they just hear what is going and join in somehow. I don't think I ever jammed on the string bass.

I continue to sleep well. I've had one restless night but in all things have been very good. I don't know if under the sleep med I was sleeping well only at the beginning of the night and then waking when it wore off or what. I also wonder if the sleep med made me sleepy during the day. I still want to take a nap on many days but I don't think so much as formerly.

I'm reading Their Hearts Were Young and Gay, the true story of two American girls who go abroad in the '20's. It's wonderfully funny.

Manuscript

I've had a sore throat for a long time and I've decided to go to an ENT for it finally. I'm going back to the same one I saw for the septoplasty. Dr. Slaughter. Ha.

I'm almost finished with Wives and Daughters. It's been great to read it again. It's very much a tale of two sisters, or two step-sisters, and their lives and woes. Molly is a delightful character. It's nearly as good as reading Jane Austen.

I've been moving along with the manuscript. Sometimes it's almost painful to read it, I don't know why. There are parts I want to skip to just move on to the next section. But I can't because I have to review it all. It's going along fairly well. I have twice as many chapters now that I've added all the journal entries. I don't know if that's a good thing. I may have too many short chapters. Not that the length of a chapter matters that much in the abstract, but I think too many short ones will seem almost nonsensical. So I'll have to combine some.

I slept fantastically well last night. I slept through the night and woke kind of late this morning. It was wonderful. I hope this is the beginning of a new era! William and I played Scrabble last night and I actually won. He always wins. We had fun using my grandparents' old Scrabble set, which has a fancy plastic board with individual spaces for all the tiles, and turns on a big wheel to face you. We've decided not to go on the Society for Creative Anachronism camping trip with Blue and Shannon. It's coming too soon on the heels of our Ren Faire camping trip.

I'm so excited about the Sex and the City movie. I'm planning on going by myself as I don't know any big Sex and the City fans and I want to see it only with someone who would love it as much as I do! I've seen every episode: rented all the seasons from Blockbuster. Never thought this day would come, when the movie would really happen. It seems unlikely considering all the cast members from the series they had to secure. Not just the main four, but all the supporting players as well. It should be so much fun.

I just finished rereading Now, Voyager by Olive Higgins Prouty. The movie of the book is great, with Bette Davis and Paul Henreid (of Casablanca fame). The book and the movie are very similar. I own the movie, a part of the Bette Davis collection I bought at Barnes and Noble. Now I'm starting Wives and Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell. I've read it once before a while ago. I love to reread books I love. It's like rediscovering a treasure. When I can find Cranford by E. Gaskell I'll read that--the book the Masterpiece series was based on. Now it's just Masterpiece, not Masterpiece Theater anymore. What, they're too good to be Masterpiece Theater? It was always good enough in the twentieth century.

Writing Group

I just got back from Writing Group. I brought two chapters, the next part of the saga. They really liked the first chapter and thought I should tighten the second. Too much back story in the dialogue. I had twenty new pages to show them but somehow I felt like I didn't do enough in the last two weeks. They thought that was ridiculous, that my admonition to myself to "try harder" was unnecessary. The thing is, I know I'm capable of more. They thought I was over the sticky part because I brought these pages. I feel like I'm still in the middle of it. Maybe it's getting better. I think I can make the changes to the second bit I brought and it will improve it. The idea is to let more information be implicit instead of explicit, so more is left to the imagination of the reader. I thing it's a good idea.

Tonight is World of Warcraft game night. I have to decide if I'm going to go. I wouldn't be playing, since my account is deactivated, but I could hang out with Kim and watch a movie or work on my manuscript. Otherwise I won't see William until late tonight. I'm eager to get a copy of Kim's manuscript, which Carolyn just read. Kim and Alan had fun fishing on the camping trip. They caught a bunch of fish, all of which they threw back. Our campsite was right on the lake. It was a little buggy but otherwise very nice.

Waxahachie Creek Park

We're back from the camping trip. I had forgotten how big our tent is. Mom and Dad and Alan and Kim's tents looked tiny by comparison. We had a jolly time. The faire was nice...the weather a bit hot but a lovely day. We didn't get rained on! At the faire we saw the Insulter, a man who gets paid by audience members to insult their friends. He warned us his show was going to be very dirty, dirty, not bawdy. He said, "It's wrong but it's funny." William and I were going to stay until Monday, today, but yesterday we decided to pack it in a bit early and left around 6:30 pm. Mom was going to go swimming, until she saw a large snake in the water. That kind of killed her desire. All kinds of kids and families went in the water over the weekend. Watch out for the snake.

Birthday

For my birthday William sent Mom and I to see a movie at Gateway. We saw Baby Mama, which we both enjoyed. It was a roll call of past and present SNL cast members, including Steve Martin. He played a wacky head of a company called Round Earth, a play on Whole Foods. He said things like, "I was running barefoot when I stumbled over this shell in the Toronto airport. I want the new store to look like this shell." Meaning its essence, of course, not literally like the shell. :)

When we got home there was a surprise birthday party waiting for us. William was grilling on the new grill in the backyard. Kids were running around. The table had its extension in and a fresh tablecloth on it. The rosy one, my favorite. We ate dinner and had cake and I got some presents. Destiny sang me a song at the piano.

I'm completely off the sleep medicine now. My sleep has not been great: I usually fall asleep around twelve and then wake again between three and five. Then I fall asleep again around seven or eight. It's not ideal. It makes me question my eagerness to get off the med. I didn't think about what it would really be like to be back without a sleep aid. I guess I have to remember why I'm doing it and just deal with the sleep issues. Not sleeping in the morning might help me sleep better at night, maybe, but right now I don't have the willpower to keep awake when my body will finally let me sleep.

We're heading to the Waxahachie Creek Park tomorrow. Time for camping and the Ren Faire. The weekend after that is another Rennie-like affair: a Society for Creative Anachronism camping trip on Lord Britain's land (the former owner of Origin). I have to clean the new grill and do some laundry and pack. And remember to buy a fan.

Renaissance Results

Well, we finally heard what place we got in the Renaissance Magazine wedding photo contest. Honorable Mention! We're not sure if this means third place or fourth place. The prize we got was what they mentioned for third place, so maybe they just call that honorable mention. The prize is $150 from a place called Karneval, which sells Carnival-style masks. Their website shows the masks available, and I have to say they are beautiful. They would look lovely displayed on a wall or a table. And then of course you can wear them if you have an occasion! Such as Ren Faire. Unfortunately we won't have time to get masks before the first Ren Faire this coming weekend, but we can order them soon. The magazine isn't in stores yet so we don't know what picture they chose from our selection of six.

I spoke to Michelle Vitale today and got an update on what's going on with her. Her baby Leo has red hair and blue eyes! And both of his parents have brown hair and brown eyes. At least, Michelle thought she had brown eyes until her Mom told her recently they are hazel. Michelle's brother has red hair. I'd love to meet little Leo. I'm sure he's as cute as Lola, if that's possible. Michelle is continuing her work on the film she is making. She had about a six week break after Leo was born. Now she's starting to edit again. It sounds like she has about 27 minutes edited so far so that is great. She calls it a rough cut but I'm sure it's awesome. The film is about granting legal rights to apes such as chimpanzees and gorillas, so there would be some kind of voice for them in the matter of research and other uses people put these animals to. In her film she talks to people on both sides of the matter. I can't wait to see it as we've been dreaming about our big projects together for years and have cheered each other on during the hard times. It's hard to find people who understand what it's like when you put so many years and so much of yourself into it.