Vicissitude and Season

(Earworm mondegreens are the worst. Although sometimes of narrative interest.)

Things that have happened:

1) Got to have lunch yesterday (as in, fairly hurried consumption of packaged hummus platters, with conversation, with only four other people) with a famous-in-my-world person I've admired for a long time. Who turns out to be simultaneously just as cool as I thought and a bit of a self-centered obsessive, but this is the way things go (perhaps someone will say that about me someday) and I will be floating on the experience for several days, I'm sure.

2) My sister has been posting online a scanned, translated-to-digital-text version of what's known in our family as the Bulletin, WWII letters that were compiled, edited, and sent out as a collection to the far-flung family by my great-grandmother. I read it all as a teenager, but it's much more interesting to revisit now, with a better sense of what it must have been like. The parents back on the farm in central Massachusetts, my great-grandfather commuting to Washington (wartime job as Executive Secretary of the National Apple Institute!), the three sons and son-in-law going off into the Navy (they all survived, despite my grandfather's ship being sunk), the daughter and daughters-in-law having babies and growing vegetables and generally coping. It's all very ordinary and yet has that "can't believe this shit is happening to us" aura fighting with relentless chin-up positivity. It's also fascinating to read with the writer brain in full gear, because it has that epistolary narrative feel and yet it is so very much not a novel: the arcs are not constructed, the foreshadowing is not intentional, the little cultural and historical notes are not placed for illumination, the characters aren't introduced, even the letter snippets are not arranged within the larger newsletter for any kind of effect, and of course often the news arrives out of sync. I could do so much better, you know? And yet it's real, and it has great resonance for me because I remember the players, but also because I get to know them better as their individual voices sing out from their letters. (I have to admit, too, that fanfic-brain occasionally steps in to comment on what offstage action someone might invent for these characters. Not that I think it would be likely to become a favorite source (did I mention the lack of narrative arc?) but I did laugh when one of the great-uncles mentioned a visit from a friend called "Bucky.") It's also fun to have it emerge a bit at a time as my sister gets around to the editing - very much the serial WIP! And of course a work-in-progress was exactly what it was, since none of them knew what the ending would be. Stiff-upper-lip New Englanders, but the tension must have been incredible.

3) It has been chilly and rainy all week, which has slowed our deck construction significantly, along with any other outdoor activities (I shivered for three and a half hours out in the demo garden on Tuesday). I've been busy in other ways and haven't made as much writing progress as I should, but at least I feel like I'm getting in gear again, even if I stop to research things much more than I actually put words down. (Next fact to ascertain: would escaped South Carolina slaves joining the British Navy during the Revolution have been given surnames, chosen their own, or left with a single name? Stuff like that there.) I can't work at home with the banging and sawing going on, so I may end up a lonely Starbucks lover myself. When it's sunny and dry I can work in parks (no wifi, but fewer calories).

4) I've been called for federal grand jury service starting mid-July. If I'm empaneled, this could mean driving to the courthouse an hour away every Wednesday for eighteen months. In practice, probably somewhat less, and I have a high enough number that I may escape. If not, at least it will be interesting, I hope (please no police shootings). It does seem rather unfair considering that long day of trial jury service last July, but it's a different random selection, and I guess my number was up. Still: argh.

5) I should probably just do a massive media consumption catch-up post (I think I have been saying that for months now, though, so perhaps I'm less than truly interested). Of note in the TV world, aside from various season finales, we've watched (unusually for us) a couple of comedies: season one of "Silicon Valley," which I found more interesting than I thought I would, because it has a real business-oriented story to ground it, but I do feel the significant lack of female characters (I know this is a self-aware comment on the industry, but surely they could have remedied the problem somehow); and "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," which is delightful on many levels, as long as I keep saying "comedy, comedy" to myself and don't expect deep psychological analysis. Speaking of earworms, though, OMG. They alive, dammit. (Also in cultural penetration news: the "fascinatin' transition" bit quoted in two speeches at the college graduation of son's girlfriend a couple of weeks ago.)

Onwards. Stuff.

Things:

1) Wow, Hannibal finale, way to earn your content warnings. Also… what? What?!!! (I suspect the Hamlet-like bloodbath is by way of saying "hey, network, this is what you get for not renewing us till after we'd written it" but holy shit.)

2) I am, alas, not nearly so intrigued by Castle's Downton-Abbey-esque season finish. Because come on now.

3) Hoping to catch up on other things besides obsessive weed-pulling and powerpoint-polishing after I give the Big Talk this Thursday. It seems likely I'll be defaulting on Trope Bingo, though, because despite wanting to write something (probably the POI hiatus fic that all of us must write) I don't see it happening this week.

4) I've been listening to lots of Vienna Teng and picking out Waters of Time-related songs; have decided that "Antebellum" is totally Sam and Olivia's song, and "Nothing Without You" is Wilfrid and Beatrice's (despite their fervent arguments against the title). Or alternatively "Augustine." (And "Harbor" is - ideally at least - George and Olivia's, and I could go on, but I'll spare you. Funny that on the whole I tend to find the non-romantic-pairing songs first, though.)

5) Oh, and the POI hiatus fic may borrow a title from "Goodnight, New York."

6) The trip to Texas went well, and we got Younger Son packed off to Ghana via Albuquerque, and he's sending happy-sounding texts about fufu and power cuts. I pick him up in Philadelphia a week from Thursday.

I suppose I should do more weeding now. Or organize my resource list.

I went for a walk first thing this morning (about 7 am) and saved shower, coffee, breakfast, and computer for afterwards, and will try to make that the pattern for the spring and summer. Walking or gardening, because oh my god I have so much outdoor work to do, and who knows how long spring will last.

On the book front, I need to waste some of this week's lovely weather forcing myself to get the TAF cover done, so I can order a proof. I did get the last formatting bits done while it was raining (and really I need to write down the steps to make the page numbers start at Chapter One in Word for Mac, because the help file is unnecessarily confusing and I always spend way too much time trying to follow instructions that don't make sense). Note for today: fix the paragraph I discovered where "apparently" occurs twice, and then stop worrying that there are more of those.

One lovely day this weekend disappeared to a drive to Allentown, to watch our son performing in drag (he was the Bearded Lady in a play about a circus, and he was fabulous. Little red number I could never have carried off, and four-inch heels. It's hard to learn to walk from the hips, though).

I finished Checkmate, and so have gotten through all the Lymond books twice, and of course I have Thoughts, but they are too scattered to cohere just now. The gist, though:

1) Most of the plot elements really are quite compelling if you pay sufficient sustained attention, but there are still places I don't know WTF is going on, and I think that's okay, because surface understanding still provides a thematic through-line. If I read them again I'll get the Companion(s).

2) It would be worth making detailed notes on POV choices, but naturally I didn't do that. But there are implications to hardly ever letting your hero dictate the narrative. Which quite possibly relate to the chess metaphor: another aspect it would be worth making notes on. But also to the way not talking about things directs the plot.

3) Archie is my favorite. Because obviously, second to gardeners I like elephant-keepers.

4) Wow, Marthe's advice to Philippa is incredibly problematic.

5) I think Austin Grey is unfairly twisted by plot purposes, but I'm not sure.

But on to other things, and I'll let all this mull itself over in the back of my head.

I'm just going to finish up the posting meme today, since it's almost the end of the month. It's been a lot of fun, made me write something here almost every day and think about it, and I've got a source for stuff to develop later into essays on writing if I feel like it, so thank you!

wendylove wanted to know whether my kids know about fanfiction, and… I guess? I mean, they're adults now, so for all I know they are writing it themselves and it wouldn't be my business. I think they both know I write it, or that I have written it, but it's not really something we share, though the fannish culture is part of the household in a broad sense - we discuss things we've read and seen, and propose alternate endings, and stuff like that - and I wouldn't cringe if they read my fic. But fandom and fanfic as I approach them are my space that I can retreat to, and I like it that way.

philomytha asks about my favo(u)rite Shakespeare play, and oh, that word again, however you spell it. I will give you several, while acknowledging that this is hardly an exclusive list of plays that could be my favorite on any given day. But one thing I like about Shakespeare is his ability to get away with odd structures and mishmashes of comedy and tragedy, so:

The Winter's Tale, because it has this perfect Greek tragedy of a first half (I could say "first act" because that's how it's performed these days, but I am a nitpicker, so no) followed by a rollicking comedy and a fairy tale romance of a finish, and it's all absurd and still somehow works.

Romeo and Juliet, which starts out with a tidy comedy structure that ends in marriage very early, as if the playwright had forgotten he needed to fill several hours, or, more relevantly, the characters didn't understand conflict and narrative and just plowed ahead with their adolescent desires, and then the whole thing tips and falls headlong into disaster. And the fault is shared among just about everybody in the cast: so many little points of decision. I saw a brilliant commedia dell'arte version where in the last scene, as Friar Laurence is telling the story again for everyone's benefit, he said "meantime I writ to Romeo" and pulled the letter out of his pocket to demonstrate, and then gave it the most delightful and awful double-take of horror, oh shit I forgot to mail it - and that's the play. (Even if the actual plot was different.)

Love's Labour's Lost has a similarly weird structure; I'm not sure it's on my favorites list because it's not Shakespeare's best writing (though it's a nice study as an early play, because you can see him trying things out that he reuses in later works), but the ending is fascinating. Comedy comedy comedy we're all getting married now except not. Because the princess has to go back to work, basically.

And of course Twelfth Night - you all expected me to say this - because the characters are so great and the language so beautiful, and because of Malvolio. I love that in the midst of all the happiness and romance at the end there's this justified threat of revenge from the sorry guy going off in a huff. And that all the romances are a bit creepy and sudden, as if the lovers are being manipulated by someone with a pen and a piece of paper who got tired of them.

In other news, I have a cold again. Bleh. That'll teach me to attend public events.

So somehow (I suppose via my usual effort to distinguish myself through eccentricity) I've been Tumblr-blogging a series of posts in what I call the Lost Clothing Database, which is not about lost clothing but about clothing on "Lost." It started with Ben Linus's striped shirts, and it's still mostly him, but other characters have been making appearances, and, well, if you are into "Lost" at all, check it out, or since it's minimally spoilery, you can look even if you just want to browse through pretty and occasionally bloody screencaps of Michael Emerson, analysis to emerge later or perhaps not.

Tomorrow is packing for back to college day, compressed into one actual twenty-four-hour period by Younger Son's work and social schedule. Well, I suppose we will make it there on Sunday without leaving too many necessary belongings behind, and there is always the mail and I'll be driving back up in October if not sooner. I'm returning on Monday, which is my birthday, and then picking up hubby who has been driving with Older Son and his possessions from Oakland to Houston so he can go back to college, or post-college, or whatever a second bachelor's degree counts as. And then we are going out to dinner somewhere and I don't suppose I'll care much where as long as someone else does the cooking.

And then I have to plant many brassicas and write another fic and start final editing of my book which I was supposed to do this month but oh well. That sort of thing always takes less time than I think it will, unlike so many other tasks in life. And then a weekend in Charlottesville for Michael Emerson's birthday for the Monticello harvest festival and maybe some wine-tasting and stuff. It will be a busy fall. So... gather ye screencaps while ye may, I suppose.

That's my new slogan as of now. Oh, Mozzie, how are you so adorable.

Am back. Enjoyed my time in Emeryville and Oakland IKEA-fying an apartment (which is, technically, in East Oakland, but it's in a Vietnamese neighborhood near Chinatown and quite close to the lake, so I think reasonably okay), and in Berkeley climbing steps and drinking coffee out of glasses and noting a parrot dining in a restaurant, and in San Francisco getting my hair blown the heck away, and not so much enjoying the part where we got stuck in traffic waiting for the Bay Bridge to reopen after an accident (immediately after observing a tractor-trailer car-carrier get stuck on one of those hilly city streets where it absolutely should not have been. The rear wheels were in the air and I don't know how they resolved it. It was a trafficky kind of evening). Also there was modern art and a vineyard tour. In the same place. And food, and cool plants. And much of the GPS lady.

I did not leave my heart in San Francisco, but my husband left my shoes in San Diego.

Working on the bubble fic edits. It will be far longer when I'm done, naturally.

The Kid is installed at college, in a ridiculously tiny room with a football-playing roommate and hopefully a functioning internet connection. The last thing I heard as I left was the carillon playing "Gaudeamus Igitur" (from a building that's a replica of Tom Tower at Oxford), so, just perfect. I really didn't cry at all.

When the older one went off (by plane) four years ago, I was supposed to accompany him, but we had been back just days from Peru and in the time-honored fashion I caught a nasty stomach bug and had diarrhea for a month, especially on the day of the flight, so my husband had to go instead (at great expense, since of course we couldn't just switch my nicely-priced flight over to his name, but had to cancel and rebook). I'm glad I got to be the dropping-off parent this time.

I got a college-logo-emblazoned mug and a pair of fuzzy socks for my birthday. :) We're having the neighbors over for dinner Sunday; that's about all the fuss I can take.

Tomorrow: replacing broken cell phone charger; shopping; vacuuming; hopefully some time with the Betans; not missing The Kid too much.

*I know, I know. But it is a little Grey Havensy, even if I know I'll see him in October.

My mother, who is active in politics in New Hampshire, was asked to be in a commercial for a gubernatorial candidate she supports. The result is here. She is one of the zombies in the crowd. Yes, zombies.

(The background on this is: all NH governors and candidates for governor are asked to sign a pledge saying they won't raise taxes or introduce any new taxes. Yes, American politics at its finest. And this candidate says the pledge-takers are zombies. I just say, BRRAAIIINNSSSS.)

Meanwhile, I am (oh help) working on two fics simultaneously, and enjoying the morning's cool weather (won't last, unfortunately).

ETA: I love writing characters like Hathaway, because I can just let loose with words. The trouble with warding off grief and remorse by means of industry was that he solved the case all too soon, through perseverance and logic and damnable luck: a thinking machine burrowing into the soft heart of malfeasance like a monstrous drill. Much too fun.

Yes, I am working on the Betans too. :)

Still here. It's been a month and a half, I think, which is nothing compared to some of my absences. I had a grumpy April and a... sneezy May, if we are doing Disney dwarves, though actually stuffy nose and migraines are the more common results of my allergies. A sleepy June would be nice, but I don't think it's going to happen.

So, working backwards: as of the weekend I am the mother of a college graduate, which, ack. It was a spectacularly damp commencement but they read the Houston weather right and the skies cleared in time, although it took much longer for the ground to stop being a lake. He will spend next year in San Francisco interning at SOM (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, which, wow. And no, I don't think George had anything to do with it, heh. Another branch of the family) and then back to Rice for another year.

In a few more weeks I'll be the mother of another high school graduate, who is off to Muhlenberg College in Allentown PA in the late summer. Best undergraduate theatre program in the country. Not tops academically, which is just as well considering his recent grades. Ack. I will miss him greatly.

In the April downturn I managed to reread the entire Aubrey/Maturin series (except for Treason's Harbour which we no longer possess for some reason), and I am now rereading Len Deighton's Bernard Samson books. I have had more Thoughts about series fiction as a result but now is not the moment. Whether there will ever be a moment is up in the air. I am rather scattered in focus just now.

Have seen the finales of both Castle and Once Upon a Time, each of which was satisfying in its own way. Happy to discuss if anyone wants.

Otherwise am amazingly behind at everything. And must go wash dishes.