A cold heart will burst
Friday, 23 May, 2008
Monday 12/5/08
Now, before you chide me for working on a Sunday, consider what Monday involved. Not only was it Briefing thinking day, it was also Briefing cuts and fills day for June. And Tony was in early.
Having spent the last couple of weeks getting in by 8 and not getting around to reading my Bible (not really), I thought the best way to amend the problem was to start bringing Carson's For the Love of God (Volume 2) and my prayer cards in with me, and read the Bible off the internet and pray while in the office eating breakfast. So I would be in by 7:30 but would not start work until 8. And that way I would still get my daily diet of Scripture instead of nothing at all.
I dealt with Briefing thinking first, then did some article assessing while I waited for Joy to email me the first draft of the layout. That came in mid-morning, so I got into doing cuts and fills. It was pretty straightforward, though I kept having to add to my list things to look for. My duties are shifting: more Briefing stuff will be falling to me so that, instead of looking after it up until it goes to layout, I'll be looking after it up until it goes to print (except the ads). I went back and forth with Joy once or twice, and then it was ready for proofreading by the end of the day.
Both Bec and Guan were in. We had afternoon tea together (Bec brought chocolate) and I read to them from Love Me by Garrison Keillor (I think they laughed more at me than at the bit I was reading them—which was, by the way, the part where the main character, Larry Wyler, who has had writers' block for two years, is on a train returning from Canada where he had gone to get inspired and then, once inspired, had written an “anti-Canadian harangue” and then accidentally left it in the urinal when the train made a stop in Portland. He gets back on the train:
“Something wrong? You look terrible,” the bartender said. So I told him. “It was the first good thing I wrote in a year and it's gone,” I said.
“Well, that's a shame,” he said, as if I'd lost an embroidered hankie instead of a literary creation. A woman with red hair was sitting at the bar. She said, “Just sit down and write the story again. That's what Fitzgerald did when Zelda left the manuscript of The Great Gatsby on a train in Zurich. He sat down in a hotel room and wrote it again—and it turned out even better! And he got the idea of Nick Carraway as the narrator instead of Gatsby's cleaning lady, Jean.”
I hate people who give you inspirational advice like that. I loathe them.
A man in a wrinkled brown corduroy suit said, “I heard that Faulkner's As I Lay Dying was pitched into the fireplace by an illiterate field hand, and Faulkner proceeded to get drunk and write the whole thing from memory in two days straight.”
“Easier said than done,” I said.
“The power of memory,” said the woman. “T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land fell into a hot bath and the ink washed off and he had to rewrite it and he made April the cruelest month, instead of the ‘coolest’, which it had been. Robert Frost once wrote a poem that was eaten by a dog who ran off into the woods, chased by the poet, and only then did he decide to change the poem to ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ instead of ‘Stopping at the Dew Drop Inn on a Wednesday Night in January,’ which is what it was when the dog ate it.”
(Garrison Keillor, Love Me, Viking, 2003, pp. 103-4.)
That book also has a great passage about editors that Tony once read to me. I thought we should frame it and hang it on the wall in the office.)
In the afternoon, Tony and I met about Briefing stuff but it wasn't really a proper meeting. I ended up leaving slightly late at 4:30 and couldn't be bothered doing grocery shopping, so I went home and tried to have a relaxing evening.
Tuesday 13/5/08
Back at work, the June Briefing was at proofreading. I was trying to do various bits and pieces but kept feeling like I was fighting foo and not getting much done. I transcribed an MTS AIM day talk (I forget whether they're actually called AIM days any more), dealt with the rest of the Briefing article assessing, went to lunch with Elsie at the Tea Inn (we pushed on with Ezekiel, and I ate crab and sweet corn soup with an almond milk tea), and Tony gave me the layout for the July/August Briefing, and I stopped panicking.
I came home and made dinner for Ben who was sick and so wasn't going to go to Bible study.
Wednesday 14/5/08
Day off. I slept in—I slept really badly the night before and couldn't drop off until 1. I read in bed and finished Love Me, then got up, showered, breakfasted, read Bible and prayed. I went for a walk down to Reverse Garbage because I wanted to see if they had any old bits of cloth I could use to line my bag and also to drop in our old mobile phones (Mobile Muster said you can do that there. Ever wanted to know what happens to old mobile phones? Read The New York Times.) It was a sunny day and I knew vaguely where I was headed but I still took a wrong turn. I got there in the end, and I found some fabric and some zippers for various craft projects. Then I came home, read email and my RSS feeds, and had lunch. I was all set to get down to putting together the conference booklet for C.S. Lewis Today and then learned that the conference was cancelled due to not enough registrations. I felt pretty sad about that—I had it when you work really hard and then all your efforts are just for nothing in one instance. *Sigh*. So I updated the website and Facebook and emailed people and pulled advertising off various sites. Then I had dinner, did some blogging and went to be too late.
Thursday 15/5/08
I woke up at 6:45 and was in the car by 7. I ate breakfast and did my quiet time at work, then started working at 8. Everything was all over the place for the first couple of hours: email, Sola Panel, various bits and pieces, The Briefing came back from proofreading and had to be made ready for the printers which was uncharted territory for me. We had staff lunch (pizza!) and then prayed. I sat down with Liza to look at Zoho Creator and discovered that if you had more than two users sharing an application, it was no longer free (grr). I also found a free online mind mapping site called MindMeister which looks pretty good so I thought we'd use it a bit and see how it goes. I spent the afternoon trying to shift stuff off my desk (and finding out that certain jobs that I had to do were already done and nobody told me!)
I left at 4, went home, edited two more Sola Panel entries and fiddled with the blog. I made stir fried mince with vegetables for dinner and then we watched Numb3rs. The rest of the evening was comprised of shower, blogging and sleep.
Friday 16/5/08
Unfortunately the following morning, I woke up at 6:30 with the beginnings of a sore throat. I'd only had six hours of sleep so thought I shouldn't push it: I went back to sleep. And woke up about three or four hours later and thought, “Hmm, well, I could go in today, but I think I am just about to get sick and I'll infect everyone in the office.” So even though it wasn't a full-blown sore throat/flu/cold thing, I decided to stay home—even though that was the day I was supposed to start editing the July/August Briefing (and I was hugely nervous about it, given that there was almost twice the content and yet we only had the same amount of time to edit it in).
Ben was also sick so we we stayed home together. I made eggs for breakfast with our egg rings which I've only used once before. (I don't understand why they sell egg rings in packs of three: that's just stupid. Why not packs of four or six???) I think I'm getting the hang of it, though eggs still aren't my forte. I spent the day taking it easy (though I also dealt with computer things and checked my work email from home, and tried to see how much I could annoy Emma by looking at work things because she kept telling me not to). Ben was too sick to go to counselling so I went by myself, stopping at Target in Macquarie Centre to see if I could find some more thermals (I did but they were pricey. Then again, they're 100% wool so I think they'll be good.) Counselling was okay.
Then I drove back home and had leftovers for dinner. Ben went to see Cog at the Enmore theatre with Luke and then dropped him home. I watched some TV and prepare for Word by Word which, irritatingly, took longer than expected.
Saturday 17/5/08
Word by Word: it only comes seven times a year, and yet every time I seem to be rushing and forgetting things. We got up a little later than I wanted to and left a little later than I wanted to, and made it in by 9:15. I had forgotten about the food but I had food stashed about (just no healthy stuff like grapes or dried fruit; must remember that next time). There was plenty of milk in the fridge. The dishrack was, unfortunately, stacked high and I broke a bowl because, as I went to put all the crockery away, it fell off and landed in the little sink on top of a dirty plate and cup and knife that someone had left there on Friday (ewww ...) So I was annoyed about that because it was a bowl that a Word by Word member brought in (not that she wanted it back, but still ...)
Bec did coffees for me. Haoran did the devotion, and it was interesting to see the penny drop as we thought about what he was trying to get us to look at in Ephesians 1. I got everyone to do a writing exercise on what makes you anxious as a writer (reading a bit from Mark Tredinnick's The Little Red Writing Book). And Guan ran a training seminar on writing reviews.
We had lunch at Gourmet Pizza Kitchen (sitting in an exceedingly sunny part of the restaurant). Then we had 45 minutes of writing time in which I actually worked on my graphic novel (shock horror!) Workshopping took place in the afternoon (but only Bec workshopped). So we finished early. I had a bit of a headache and was feeling rather feral, but had been looking forward to going to the Hope Street Markets all week. I asked Ben if he would take me and he, being a very lovely husband, bore with me and drove us to Paddington. We wandered around trying to find a park and then I just asked him to drop me at the Paddington Town Hall and go off and park somewhere.
I wandered around the markets for all of half an hour to 45 minutes. It was bigger than the summer markets—more stalls, more people, more interesting stuff to look at. The people who ran the Tamptation stall remembered me and told me they had more bags in. Unfortunately I wasn't really looking for bags. A lot of what was being sold was very beautiful (but, of course, incredibly expensive). Nevertheless, I did pick up a present for someone, as well as some hair elastics and a journal for myself (I finished the one I'd been writing in since January 2007 that afternoon). When I was done, I called Ben who came to pick me up and take us home.
We had a short rest for an hour or so and then drove out west to Elwin and Felicity's. Ben is being the Best Man at their wedding. We thought it was some sort of wedding party/people involved sort of get-together but no, it was just dinner with us and them, and it was really quite nice. They made us a lovely meal and we hung out and talked and watched Sleepy Hollow (my choice because it was Tim Burton and I'd never seen it, and Ben acquiesced, even though he dislikes Johnny Depp). That finished around 10:30/11:00 pm, upon which we said our goodbyes and headed home.
Sunday 18/5/08
Andrew Cameron had invited us along to his church but we weren't sure where it was, exactly, and which service he would be at. I managed to figure it out, though, and I set the alarm so we'd be up in time to go. Ben wasn't heaps keen—especially as he wasn't feeling that well—but then he got some text messages from Andrew saying sorry and here was the details, and there was a bit of to and fro-ing where we thought we might be able to give them a lift, but it didn't work out so we just went by ourselves and got there a little late (parking in Rozelle is crazy).
We slipped in behind some other latecomers. The minister was just giving his introduction so I don't think we missed much. It was an old church but it had been carpeted on the inside, and the front pews had been ripped out and chairs put in their place (though there were still pews up the back part of the church). The minister—Barry—used to be an actor, I think, and it showed in his delivery. I quite enjoyed his sermon. It was structured very differently and he approached the material a bit unconventionally, but he still preached the word of God and helped us think about how to apply it to our lives.
Afterwards we hung around for morning tea and I met some of the people in the congregation. Our time was nearly up on the parking meter so we had to go, and the Camerons came with us because they were getting a lift. In the car, Mary-Anne asked me what my hobbies and interests were. I said, “Reading, knitting, music, writing ...” and somehow I ended up telling her, Andrew and Thomas about my graphic novel, and felt really flattered when they said, “I want to read it.”
We dropped them home and then continued on to our home. I had to do the laundry but I procrastinated by playing the piano for an hour or two. Then I got the laundry started as well as lunch (grilled ling on bok choy) but it was late by this stage—about 3 pm. I was so sick of housework by the afernoon but I think I was also just tired of going and going and going without stopping. I did some computer things for an hour or so and then we went to band practice and had church.
And I made a decision about church.
Monday 19/5/08
I was up at 6:15 and even did my quiet time at home. At work, it was all systems go for Briefing editing, and I dealt with my dread by making a To Do list and working through it. I went to the dentist at 11:15 and returned half an hour later. I had leftovers for lunch, then kept working on Briefing editing (I managed to finish two pieces and send them off to their respective authors).
I left at four and was on the computer doing various things—email, RSS feeds, etc. We had leftovers for dinner and watched an episode of The Sopranos. Blogging followed dinner, then bed.
Tuesday 20/5/08
Up at 6:15 and quiet time at home. At work, I worked on more Briefing stuff (*sigh*). Em and I had lunch together at the dumpling house, then I visited the pharmacy and the post office. I left at 4, came home, put away the laundry, did computer things for a while, then made risoni for dinner and tackled the sewing I always procrastinate about doing: putting that button back on the doona cover (it fell off in the washing machine), fixing up the hem of that pair of pants, sewing that new button and the old button back onto my duffle coat (and then discovered to my horror that mould was growing on it, so I then had to pull out all my coats and check them all), sewing those new shiny brassy buttons on the red velvet coat I bought from Vinnie's at Jess G's recommendation (this is after I lost that button on the bus. I think the new buttons make the coat look really nice—somehow they give it a lift).
Ben got a call from his Bible study group saying they were having a social which included dinner and, oops, we forgot to tell you. He decided to go out for that. I ate dinner and watched In Her Shoes which I had borrowed off George (and actually really enjoyed—very good writing). I also watched the special features. And then I read in bed for a while (A Knot in the Grain by Robin McKinley) and didn't get to sleep until 1.
Wednesday 21/5/08
No day off today; I was going to be working at home in order to meet Briefing deadlines. I woke late, had breakfast, walked to the drycleaners to put my mouldy coats in to be cleaned (as well as my scarlet velvet robe thing from Tree of Life which I was worried I had ruined by handwashing it in the sink), and then I got stuck into work but it took ages to get there. I don't think I really started working until 12, and then a lot of the work was fighting foo again. Ben got me leftovers for lunch and I ate at my desk. I edited half a Bible brief (which was very hard-going) and then half of another Bible brief (double issue = two Bible briefs = twice the pain). We stopped working for dinner (more leftovers) and watched two episodes of NCIS. Then it was back to the grind where I edited the other half of the first Bible brief and dealt with Faithful Writer stuff. Then went to bed, finished off A Knot in the Grain and slept.
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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