Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Waning Moon
Neptune Retrograde
Jupiter DIRECT
Uranus Retrograde
Rainy and cold

Jupiter goes direct today, thank goodness. That should ease up on some of the hearth-and-home and tangible stuff. Neptune’s still retrograde — which, as my ruling planet is no fun, and Uranus retrogrades are just a pain in the ass, pun intended.

Yesterday was busy — although not all 81 students are regularly posting exercises, enough are so that I’m spending 8-10 hours a day reading and commenting. It’s a little more of a challenge this year, because I wasn’t able to clear the desk off as far as deadlines, so I’m juggling projects.

I have to say that I’m delighted with the students. They’re dedicated and have some great ideas. There are a few who’ve taken the workshop every year, and their growth as writers is joyful to behold.

Acupuncture was great yesterday, and I feel so much better. She fixed the ear problem I’ve had since I got on the plane and got most of the knots out. A lack of sleep is bringing some of them back — between the scumbag landlords banging around all day so I can’t rest or concentrate and Metro North working on the train tracks across the street all night and me hating ANY kind of repetitive machine noise — life Chez Devon is not a barrel of laughs right now.

The work on the short story is going beautifully, although I know I’ll have to make cut to get it in under the word count. But it’s all I really want to be working on — so it’s a challenge. I love the characters, I love the potential.

I’ve got to write up the stuff for Confidential Job #1 and do another pass on the essay today, along with keeping with everything in the Muse Conference. All the while, trying to refrain from burying the scumbags with their own ditch digger.

1and1 is still not working properly, so next week’s priority needs to be redesigning the websites and pulling off what I still need from the mail accounts so I can move hosts. This is out of control. I hate to lose the design of the Cerridwen site, but I’ll just have to come up with something better. I think I can — I’ve got a few ideas percolating. I know what I want from the Devon site — I’ve even picked out a few designs. It’s the Fearless Ink one with which I’m struggling. I have a basic, overall idea, but I’m not sure how to execute it in iWeb or where to find the elements I want to layer. Redesigning the logo is the hardest part — I’m fully capable of it, but it’s settling on the elements of it that are the challenge — what I feel represents both me and the sense of “fearless” and open space that’s so important to the site, yet still tied to writing and business writing. Something that smacks of corporate isn’t going to cut it for me, but something a little too granola won’t do it, either.

The beautiful Linden tree in the back that we hope to save gave me a wonderful gift yesterday, as I returned from acupuncture. It’s a little longer than a branch for a traditional wand, but it’s lovely and will be treasured.

Devon