Monday, May 24, 2010

Monday, May 24, 2010
Waxing Moon
Pluto Retrograde
Rainy, foggy, cooler

I feel like I’ve done nothing but sleep this weekend. Well, I’ve read and cooked,too,but that’s about it.

Saturday morning, I went to Reading Terminal Market, which far exceeded my expectations. The food stalls are wonderful, fresh, and reasonably priced. I found both Herbiary and Spice Market and stocked up on herbs and spices I used to get at Aphrodesia, but can’t because they went out of business. I think I’ve got enough to get me through until my next trip down in July. I’ll keep a running list and re-stock then. I got a few things I don’t really need, but want to play with in recipes, too. I got some lovely baked goods at one of the organic baking stalls and an iced coffee for the walk home at Old City Coffee — which was really, really good. Philadelphia has lots of small, independent coffee brands, and most of them are very good.

I finished THE QUEEN IN WINTER — Sharon Monette’s novella “A Gift of Wings” was lovely and I definitely want to read more of her work.

I wandered over to Barnes & Noble on Rittenhouse Square in the afternoon, picking up Ann Aguirre’s HELL FIRE and the anthology WINTER MOON, which has novellas by Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee, and CE Murphy. The Ann Aguirre book was supposed to be my treat for finishing the next assignment for Confidential Job #1, but really, who am I kidding? I read most of it on Saturday afternoon and evening, and finished it Sunday morning. It’s the second Corinne Solomon book, and they’re both just fantastic. I’m really looking forward to the third next year.

Pizza for dinner, more reading and some yoga in the evening. To bed fairly early, and slept in on Sunday.

I don’t understand how Comcast can get away with sucking as badly as they do. I couldn’t get online at all on Sunday morning. I finally managed a bit in the afternoon.

Wandered to Borders to use my “bucks” that were only good this weekend — and that I didn’t find out about until AFTER I got back from B&N! Had a hard time finding something I wanted, but finally settled on DANCE OF DEATH by Douglas Preston and Lawrence Child. Started it — instead of the assignment for Confidential Job #1. The multiple (and I mean MULTIPLE) POVs get tiring sometimes, especially when it’s a character in whose POV we only are for a single chapter. There’s a LOT of plot — supposedly, it’s a stand alone, but I get the feeling it would make more sense if I read the earlier books.

It got me thinking, though, that I’ve been submitting/pitching TRACKING MEDUSA in the wrong genre — in spite of the many trappings, ultimately, it’s a mystery, not a weird hybrid I’ve been trying to slot.

Okay, LOST. (SPOILER ALERT). My big response was, “Really?”

The ending was what I expected, although how they got there wasn’t. As usual, I enjoyed individual scenes and the actors, and whole didn’t add up for me. If I’d remained emotionally invested for the whole six years, I would have been angry. Fine, so the whole thing is Jack’s death fantasy/search for redemption in his final moment of life after the crash so he goes “into the light” instead of elsewhere. Okay, fine, it’s not like we hadn’t figured that was the probability years ago. But the way they got there basically negated the season. They spent so much time with Jacob & his brother, going on and on about good and evil butting against each other, and,the whole series, they played with the idea that both are slightly ambiguous, and we need both in order to survive. Too much evil OR too much good and the balance is lost (no pun intended) and it’s all over. And then they just dropped it. Jack anoints Hurley — without the incantation? Really? The whole Dharma Initiative subplot is simply dropped. And, while I’m glad the characters “found” each other and “remembered” in the sideways line, it got a little treacly for me. I spent a lot of time eye-rolling. The whole ending in the church filling with light, frankly, I found offensive. They spent so much time debating the power of Nature and end it in an effing church. They pretended to be philosophical and open-thinking and alternative and then descended back into the same old claptrap. Negated so much of what was unique and wonderful about the show. Looked like the church scene out of HAIR.

Several years ago, the creators promised it wouldn’t be like the really bad season of DALLAS, that turned out to be a dream. This may not have been, technically, a dream, but it was close enough to prove they lied and jerked us around yet again.

I’m glad the dog was there with Jack for the last moment, though. A lot of people have criticized that, but I liked it.

I think, for the actors, it was satisfying, and I’m glad, because they poured a lot into this. And it was the creators’ vision, not mine,so, oh, well. They broke my trust in the 3rd season and never won my trust back. I watched, piecemeal, since, and watched this season, and fine, it’s over, let’s move on, and I hope the actors and creators find many fulfilling projects down the line. This will always be special to all of them, and they’ll be earning residuals for the rest of their lives.

BITCH had an interesting essay on how the writers failed the character of Kate, which I think is very well done. i hadn’t entirely thought of it from that perspective, but it articulates a lot of my frustrations. Of course, now that we know it was all Jack’s perspective on Kate, not Kate herself, it makes more sense. And Gawker has a very funny rant.

Anyway, I’ve got laundry to do, packing to finish, and, hopefully, some writing to work on. I leave in the early afternoon and will be home tonight. I don’t know whether to laugh or sigh at the fact that it takes longer to get from Penn Station to my apartment than from Philadelphia to NY.

Devon

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Saturday, May 22, 2010
Waxing Moon
Pluto Retrograde
Cloudy and warm

Getting here as an adventure yesterday. I was up and out the door for my run, and back by the time I usually leave; got everything gathered, got the train to the city, picked up water, walked over to Penn Station from Grand Central.

That’s where it got sticky. Because of an accident in NJ, the turnpike was closed, and the busses couldn’t get in. Three of the DC busses and one Boston bus that were supposed to leave well before ours still hadn’t loaded. And they had no idea when any of it would clear up.

Switching bus services wouldn’t work — it wasn’t the bus line, but the highway that was the problem. I figured, if I waited too long, I’d pop into Penn and see if I could get a seat on an Amtrak (although that’s a full $80 more than the bus).

They got two DC & the Boston bus off and started lining them up for the next Boston. Suddenly, our Philly bus turned up, they shoved us all on it, and we took off. It was only about 35 minutes late. Our driver said, “I don’t know when the hell we’ll get there, but we gonna get there, ‘cause I am the BEST.” And he was.

The trip itself was fine. I had the iPod on, and every song in the shuffle was perfect. I’m reading an anthology of fantasy romance called THE QUEEN IN WINTER with novellas by Claire Delacroix, Lynn Kurland, Sharon Shinn, and Sharah Monette. I read all of Kurland’s “A Whisper of Spring”, which was lovely, and started Shinn’s “When Winter Comes” which I really like, too. When I picked it up, I didn’t realize Shinn was included. I’m glad, because she’s one of my favorites.

Philly was so hot and sunny I thought I would pass out. I found out later it hit 91. Considering I had to wear fleece two days ago when I went on my run, it was too rapid a change.

Went to where I’m staying/working, dumped the luggage, changed out of travel clothes into LL Bean cottons, and headed up to Trader Joe’s (which is almost all the way back to 30th St. station). Picked up what I needed, went to the liquor store, got what I needed there, went to Metropolitan Bakery to get my coffee and something for breakfast today — all they had that was breakfasty was a fruit and oat bar, which didn’t thrill me, but I got it anyway. However, when I ate it this morning, it was WONDERFUL. Lovely surprise.

The rest of the day, I lay around reading cookbooks and magazines. I was done. I had lobster ravioli in Alfredo sauce for dinner. Didn’t watch TV. Instead, I did a tough yoga routine to get out the kinks the travel-with-luggage put in, a good meditation, and some reading. I went to bed very early.

Slept well, up early, yoga, did my work here. It’s supposed to be cooler here today and then rain tonight, but it looks like it’ll rain before then. Good thing I travel with an umbrella!

The plan is to go to Reading Terminal Market today. Although I’m worried it’ll be high-end touristy, there are some things I want to see, like the second-hand bookstore, the cookbookstore, and some of the food stalls. If it’s too touristy, I’ll leave.

My arm is healing well. I don’t even think there will be much of a scar. I’m glad, because I’ve been working on this poultice for several years now, and I’ve finally hit the balance of materials that my body responds well to. It disinfects and draws out contaminants while starting the healing process. I’ve noticed that, when I use traditional/synthetic medicines, I feel worse for the first 48 hours, it looks gross, and then the surface seems to knit while underneath is still a mess, and often it has to be re-opened and the process started again. So, while it seems to heal quickly, there are frequent set backs. When I use holistic medicine, there’s relief within the first hour, and, although the overall healing is visually slower, it’s more thorough and there are fewer setbacks. Normally, in a wound like this, one treatment would be applied to disinfect and decontaminate, while then another put on to start the healing. I wanted to see if I could put both into one concoction — I’ve been working on this for about five years now — and this seems to be getting there. Patience is not one of my virtues, but it’s paying off here.

When I get back, I’ll do some more work, and maybe get some writing done. I nearly left the computer at home, but realized all my “in process” projects are on the computer, not in longhand (yes, I backed everything up on Time Machine before I left).

The internet connection here is Comcast, which. compared to my Optimum, is pathetically slow and unreliable. Now I know which company NOT to use when I move!

Off to the market!

Devon